Which is highly unfortunate! However, I am currently at… 1025 words! It’s supposed to be 1500-1800 words and I still have my introduction/thesis paragraph (… I have the ‘bare bones’ of it… in note form… highlighted red so I don’t forget it…), which will probably be 250 words. Then I have to conclude my first paragraph still (I’m estimating ~100 words there). And then there’s the conclusion for the paragraph that I’ve written that’s all about borrowing from the Bible (bible? Do I need to capitalize it? I just reference it as ‘scripture’ and ‘biblical passages’…), so probably another 100 words there. And then I need to conclude my damn paper, which will probably be about 300 words… Maybe. Which will bump my total word count up to ~1775 words. Which is going to be awesome as it will fit into the parameters set by my professor.

By the way… I was wondering, does anyone know how one goes about ‘citing’ the Bible? I’m about as atheist as a person can get, so I have no (real) clue as to why I’m writing my term paper on hell and how Marlowe borrows from other works in order to make his ‘hell’ more real so… How does one go about citing the Bible, or is saying the passage number (… or whatever it’s called) enough?

For example, I’m using John 1:8 and John 1:9, can I just go John 1:8 and John 1:9 and not cite it in my Works Cited? I’m assuming so? Because I’m not really sure how one goes about citing a biblical work. And the interwebs are currently failing me…

8 Responses

  1. I find that turning off the word count for the first few hours of essay writing REALLY helps me. When I can see the numbers clicking, it slows me down and makes me anxious. Maybe that would help?

    And though I was raised Mormon, I have no idea how you cite the bible. I should know… But I don’t. XD

  2. I wish I had essays only 1500 words again 🙁 I have a 10,000 a 4,000 and I’ve done my 3,000 :/

    Hmm citing the bible.. no idea.. can you ask your lecturer?

  3. Hey,

    I’m assuming that you will be citing in MLA style…. so… In your in-text citing:

    “He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” (John 1. 8-9).

    And in your Works Cited…

    New International Version Bible. New York: Oxford UP, 1972.

    (The “New International Version Bible” should be underlined). I think you know that there are many different versions of the Bible, so yeah… just replace “New Internation Version” with whatever version you’re using. I hope this helps and sorry if I’m wrong with any of the citing stuff. And I usually capitalize the “B” in Bible.

  4. Wooo, we’re in the essay dump together. You’re doing great too 🙂

    I have no idea how to reference a bible. I never thought about it! Perhaps just like a normal book. Even though author and year is not known :S. I hope you find out soon :S

  5. That’s awesome that your word count is working out perfectly for you. I hated writing my college admission’s essay, ’cause it could not be over 500 words and I wanted to keep writing. XD

    I’m not entirely sure how one goes about citing the Bible, but I’m sure if you searched on Google, there would be a site all about that sort of thing — MLA and APA citing guides abound on the internet. 🙂

  6. What Serena said. ;D I was going to go into this whole thing about how to cite the Bible properly, but she did it for me. Haha.
    Even though I’m an English major, I still haven’t completely memorized MLA. It changes too often. >_> So I always use the Purdue website. (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/06/)
    So far the only thing I haven’t been able to find on there is how to cite a YouTube page. xD

  7. I see that Serena already helped you out with the Bible quoting thing. We use the Wadsworth Handbook for stuff like this, it explains it all very well.

    I study English Lit myself, and have to write a ton of essays each semester. It is my own personal hell on earth. Apparently I must be a very succinct person, because I always end up 2 or 300 words short of the required word-count 😛

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