Term Paper Guidelines
USE OF INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE IN SCHOLARLY REPORTING
Members of the St. Stephen’s community are composed of a cosmopolitan, ecumenical mix of genders, sexual orientation, races, religions, and ages. St. Stephen’s College policy requires staff and students to use in their speech and writing language which is non-discriminatory and inclusive, as part of the our attempt to do justice for all people regardless of gender and sexual orientation. The College requires inclusive language in course work, at worship, in publications of the College, and in our community life. The intent is to stretch us all beyond sexism, racism, and other exclusive habits and assumptions. All people deserve recognition and respect in our communications.
The following are some helpful guidelines for recasting sentences in inclusive language.
a) Use synonyms for man when the sense is generic, e.g., human beings, persons, people, individuals, humanity, human kind, men and women, women and men, figures, personalities.
b) In theological literature one frequently meets expressions referring to attributes ‘of man’ or ‘of God’. A useful alternative is the use of adjectives such as human nature, human wisdom and divine love, or divine mercy. This technique will help avoid the use of the masculine possessive pronouns ‘his’ or ‘His’.
c) Pronouns referring to a singular antecedent noun create special problems. One solution, perhaps inelegant, but one often used, is the use of ‘he/she’ or alternating ‘he’ and ‘she’ when the gender is not specified. A more tasteful approach is to shift to the plural. Thus, ‘the pastor must speak more clearly if he is to be heard’ becomes ‘pastors must speak more clearly if they are to be heard’, or ‘Everyone is responsible for their own speech’.
REFERRING TO APPROPRIATE STYLE GUIDE
We strongly recommend you purchase your own writing style guide. This will become essential if you are writing a thesis or dissertation.
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We recommend students purchase one of the following writing guides, depending on which degree you are registered in:
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Kathleen Scherfs The Brief Canadian Handbook for Writers for format and style, and particularly, bibliographic entries. (General writing guidelines; includes documentation styles for APA, MLA, and Chicago. Recommended for all students.)
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Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations 7th edition, Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing). (Except for a few minor differences, the overall style promulgated by Turabian is the same as The Chicago Manual of Style. While The Chicago Manual of Style is focused on giving style guidelines for publishing in general, Turabian is focused on student papers, dissertations and theses. (style used by MTh, MTS/BTh, and DMin Programs)
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Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition; Washington, DC (style used by MAPPC Program)
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Title pages for your assignments should include your name, date submitted, your degree program, title and date of course.
FORMULATING DOCUMENTATION
The purpose of documentation is to acknowledge and to provide the locations of your sources. To ignore this requirement is to commit plagiarism, or the practice of claiming someone else’s work as your own. The penalties for plagiarism range from failing the course for which you have written the essay to being required to withdraw from the college. Documentation is especially vital in a research essay, which usually requires a substantial number of sources.
You must document your sources in two ways. First, throughout your text, you must cite the source of a direct quotation or paraphrase, or the use of someone else’s idea. Such citations appear immediately following the reference. Common knowledge, such as the fact that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, does not need to be documented. Second, you must prepare a list of works cited, and place it at the end of your research essay, in which full bibliographical information appears for each of the works you mention in your essay. There are three major styles of formatting your documentation information: MLA, APA, and Turabian/Chicago Style. The system you use will depend on your discipline:
DEGREE PROGRAM |
STYLE |
Doctor of Ministry |
Turabian/Chicago |
MA in Pastoral Psychology and Counselling |
APA |
For quick reference, you may wish to refer to a website related to the particular documentation and writing style you are following. However, websites cannot be relied on to be 100% accurate, and you must ensure you have the most recent published copy of the style guide you are following. Here is a sampling of websites (the first website in each category is the University of Alberta site, probably quite reliable – but they also recommend buying the manual):
