At Cambridge University one professor asked us regularly for 100 word summaries instead of the usual long essays. This appealed to our resourceful sides while, more importantly, going half way to giving us a skill actually useful in the real world: precis.
The ability to summarise an argument in as few words as possible forces you to understand the material in the first place so that you can make it clear to your audience. Who might actually read it for once.
Gabriel Smy is a writer and Content Strategist at Fluent. SmyWord is his iron in the content strategy fire. He lives in Cambridge with his four sons and can't resist a paisley shirt, a moody film or a good gastropub. You can follow Gabriel on Twitter.