Google Form Revisions

[Debby Adler]

I work at a college and we have a Google form that needs to be filled out to apply for a sabbatical leave by our faculty. When they need to revise sections of the application form, they receive an error message indicating that their answers are too long even though the section of the form is in paragraph format (not short answer). 

Why are they receving this message even when their new revision is shorter than their first  original answer on their submission of the form?

Thank you.