What if those old papers could provide us with help and direction for subsequent assignments? Learning from submitted papers is a good way to improve our skills as students. Whether at the undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral level, consider these five ways that you can learn from your own past papers.

A few weeks ago, students heard from a few of our professors on how they cultivate writing in their lives and academic careers. A panel of four SBTS and Boyce College professors shared their unique habits and how they fit writing into their life, each method which may be emulated.

We’ve all been there. The paper is due tomorrow. It’s midnight. You thought about starting it last week, but after five minutes of staring intently at the blinking curser, you allowed yourself to reach for your phone. Someone came into your room, and then the paper was forgotten altogether. Now the deadline is approaching quickly, how do you break the ice and get started writing? Here are seven tips to help get started.

When the end of the semester hits, managing your scarce time to tackle papers, finals, and assignments becomes a herculean feat. Explore this post here to learn of seven helpful ways to write your academic papers more efficiently.

Is doing research a “source” of frustration for you, not knowing where to begin? In the Writing Center (WC), we sometimes encounter students who desire assistance with locating sources for their research. If you are writing a research paper or book review and want help with locating relevant sources, here’s a survey of sources and resources available to you.

Want to be a more pithy and profound writer? J.C. Ryle used what he calls a crucified-style in his sermons and in his writing. Write like the punchy J.C. Ryle.

Not too long ago, the 9th edition of our best friend, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, otherwise known as Turabian, came out. And with the new edition comes a few changes that you should be aware of as you write your properly formatted papers. 

“Ibid.” is Now Discouraged

Turabian 8th ed. encouraged academic writers to use “Ibid.” for subsequent references to the same source. Your footnote would have looked like this:

Have you ever had a Writing Expert, professor, or grader comment on your improper format of Bible citations? Has your writing been critiqued for not indicating which Bible translation you are quoting from?

Knowing how to incorporate the Bible into your papers can be tricky! When do you say “1 Cor 13” or “1 Corinthians 13” or “First Corinthians 13”? Where, how, and how often do you need to indicate what English translation you are using? What do you do when you want the reader to compare the passage you are quoting to other related passages?

Are you looking for a powerful way to improve your writing, a single easy adjustment that can add clarity to your argument and an overall sense of organization to your paper? 

Writing has a lot of different elements, but one that controls a vast amount of others is the topic sentence. The very process of constructing good topic sentences forces us to think, with a razor-sharp focus, about exactly what unifies the points we want to make in a paragraph and how that squares with the rest of the paper. 

Want to be a better writer? J.I. Packer used short and long sentence to make his writing stronger. Write like the prolific J.I. Packer.

Have you ever received a paper with the comment “frag” or “sentence frag” in the margins? Often, sentence fragments just need a complete predicate in order become a complete sentence. In some cases, you simply need to add a main verb to relieve your fragmentary woes. Check out some examples laid out by Michael Woodall.

As the semester has begun, many SBTS and Boyce students are writing Book Reviews. Here's an example of Book Review, scripted by Marcus Leman, Ph.D. The title, "Air, Light, Space, and Time: How Successful Academics Write" by Helen Sword, in which he reviews how academic go about the process of writing successfully. 

Air, Light, Space, and Time: How Successful Academics Write

A few weeks ago, the Logos Academic Blog featured and interview with Dr. Craig Keener of Asbury Theological Seminary about his writing process. Well, this past week, the Zondervan Academic Blog released a video interview with him that was a bit wider in its scope. You can watch the video here. In order to watch it, you will be required to give them your email address.

I won't spoil the video for you, but a couple of things stuck out to me (Joseph Habib) that I would critique and would love to hear others' thoughts on.