Theological Seminary Research Standards and Writing Manual

This AIIAS Theological Seminary manual is a significant departure from previous AIIAS research and writing manuals. For the first time in the development of AIIAS manuals, this is a reference work from and for the AIIAS Theological Seminary alone. Previous editions were a joint venture between the AIIAS Theological Seminary and the AIIAS Graduate School.

The majority of the principles and procedures are still the same but at this point, differences in governance structure, naming practices, and styles would make a joint venture cumbersome to update and to read. It is the hope of both schools that this path forward will allow each school to more quickly update this document and that the students find it easier to make use of the manual.

Because of its importance in developing thinking skills, scholarly writing is a requirement for most graduate courses. It is also typically a part of the culminating phase of graduate work.

Properly done, the writing in graduate school requires thinking, organizing, and evaluating information, synthesizing ideas, and original thought from the writer. It also requires a knowledge of referencing and formatting techniques that make the work more understandable to other scholars.

Since every institution has its own traditions and practices, each school has its own guidelines that detail how writing should be designed, conducted, approved, formatted, and edited.

This manual documents the scholarly writing procedures and format rules for the AIIAS Seminary. It is intended as a guide for any written work connected with degree requirements, including term papers, research projects, theses, or dissertations. Students should work closely with their professors, academic program advisor, and/or project/thesis/dissertation research committee chair concerning any additional requirements that may apply.