We begin our fourth week with a biblical principle related to the importance of following expectations. The New Testament is full of Jesus’ references to obedience, but why? Just to follow some pet rules He made? Certainly not! If rules and guidelines are set properly, then there is a good reason for each one. We may not see why immediately, or ever, in fact; however, we recognize there is a bigger system than we can fully understand and follow those guidelines with respect to the bigger picture.
We can certainly trust Jesus to have set the guidelines for us as Christians for all the right reasons and we don’t have to understand everything to confidently follow his ways. So how does this apply to APA? APA is a system of rules designed to format the writing up of research. Of course, unlike the perfection of Jesus, it is possible that the APA did make some mistakes, but the value in this biblical analogy is that there is a much bigger system in play than just whether we italicize a word or add a page number. Following those rules make us stronger researchers with better discipline and ability to read other research.
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