THIS GUIDE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. The first draft here is nearly complete, with some additional examples to be added, and subject to minor reformatting and/or revision.
WHAT IS THIS GUIDE: This is a specialized style guide. It provides an adaptation of the APA 7th edition guidelines and examples for resources used in biblical studies and theology/church history. See below for link to the standard APA 7 guide.
WHY: It replaces the APA 6 specialized guide, with additional examples for those e-resources we now suggest you use in a remote environment of the concept study assignment for the Bible and Church History parts of it. Whether print or online/ebook resources, most of these are kinds of resources for which APA Manual of Style was not specifically designed nor especially compatible!**
WHAT ELSE: Students in GNRS 506 should consult the course LibGuide for the presentation of which resources can be used -- for which citation help is provided here -- as well as for methodology and user help for the Bible/Church History sections of the assignment. See the new Remote/Online Version page in that LibGuide. Your faculty member and/or a librarian will provide in-class/Zoom instruction on all this. Help is available by Stamps chat (see box below and other locations on the library pages) and/or email, by appointment or at the Research Desk.
WHAT EXACTLY IS HERE: As in the APA Manual, some examples provided here are for a type of resource (eg an authored book with a DOI or print version) and some have been crafted for specific resources (eg the ACCS commentary series) commonly used in the spiritual concept analysis assignment and other nursing and faith integration-type assignments, for those using APA style.
Disclaimer: In following any style guide, some things are absolute while other choices are flexible and/or a matter of subjective interpretation in application of the guidelines of that style. This is even more true when applying a style for one discipline to resources used in another. A survey of APA 7 LibGuides show variance as well as commonality in given examples. Final formatting choices and details will be determined by the writer and/or editor and/or instructor, but the guidelines and examples are provided from careful analysis for your use.
**A standard APA 7 APU LibGuide (click blue for link) is now published, created by an APA discipline subject specialist librarian at APU. Consult it for basic examples not included here, such as citing a journal article. Its author, APU Librarian Dave Harmeyer, can also provide APA guidance beyond the basics of citation. See also the authoritative APA Style blog and Purdue OWL website.
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition is the official source for APA Style. it is the style manual designed for "writers, researchers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences, nursing, communications, education, business, engineering, and other fields." (Adapted from APA website)
In addition to the general guidelines, most of which can be applicable for students, the manual also has elements specifically designed for students, useful for writing student coursework papers, annotated bibliographies, theses, dissertations and more.
While the manual can be consulted for comprehensive guidance through the writing process, including language and grammar prescriptions and guidelines such as for heading and table formats, etc., as should be the APA Style website as referred to in the manual for supplemental information, this LibGuide will focus on How to Cite References in APA 7 style, providing both in-text (primarily the in-text format rather than the narrative format) and reference list samples.
There are two basic methods for in-text citations:
Wahlen (2013, p. 363) notes that "The dominant words to refer to healing in the Gospels, therapeuō (36x) and iaomai (19x), at a mini-mum, affirm the perceived reality of physical healing and its central role in the ministry of Jesus."
2. Including the author’s name in a parenthetical citation ("parenthetical" citation):
"The dominant words to refer to healing in the Gospels, therapeuō (36x) and iaomai (19x), at a minimum, affirm the perceived reality of physical healing and its central role in the ministry of Jesus" (Wahlen, 2013, p. 363).
*The inclusion of page or paragraph number or such is not required in an in-text citation when paraphrasing, but can be provided to aid the reader to locate the material, especially in a longer work.
This guide will feature the parenthetical method.
Please adjust indentation run-over lines in your own citations that could not be adjusted in this software.
The librarians at the Stamps Theological Library aim to monitor this Stamps chat service a minimum of 30 hours per week (Monday - Friday; see our research help hours for details). If we are not available via chat, you will see a link to submit your question to us so that we can follow up with you via email.