How to Incorporate Scripture in Your Writing: Use an Introductory Phrase
There’s a right way to incorporate Scripture into your writing and a wrong way to do that. Incorporating Scripture the right way makes your writing look professional. Doing it the wrong way makes your writing look amateurish.
As a writing coach and editor, I’ve seen lots of mistakes when it comes to incorporating Scripture. Here’s one of the most frequent mistakes you want to avoid:
Don’t “plop” Scripture into your writing.
Here’s a paragraph that shows what I mean by “plop.”
Incorrect:
Many of us acknowledge that we often feel anxious and fretful. But God commands us not to be anxious! “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6,7 NIV). When we’re worried about our mounting debt, failing health, or wayward teen, that command might seem impossible. Yet God gives us specific ways to follow that command.
So what’s wrong with this paragraph?
The Scripture verse has been “plopped” into the paragraph with no introductory phrase.
In the paragraph below, you’ll see an introductory phrase leads into the quotation.
Correct:
Many of us acknowledge that we often feel anxious and fretful. But God commands us not to be anxious! We read, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6,7 NIV). When we’re worried about our mounting debt, failing health, or wayward teens, that command might seem impossible. Yet God gives us specific ways to follow that command.
The introductory phrase is “We read” and is followed by a comma before the Scripture quotation.
Some other examples of introductory phrases:
We read in the Old Testament,
Jesus says,
Pauls says,
Scripture tells us,
This little phrase introduces the Scripture quotation, and you use a phrase like this each time you introduce a Scripture quotation.
It helps your reader digest the information, and your writing looks more professional.
If you have more questions about how to use Scripture in your writing, I’ve got answers in my workbook, How to Use Scripture in Your Writing: A Quick Guide to Documenting and Writing with Scripture available on my website and Amazon and on sale now!
This resource of over 50 pages answers every question I can think of when it comes to including Scripture correctly in your writing. It gives you a simple AP documentation style that you can turn to every time you write.
Don’t miss out on the holiday sale!
Thank you for being here!
~ Melanie
P. S. Can I ask a favor? If you’ve used this workbook or my other workbook on How to Write a Devotion and found it helpful, will you leave a comment on Amazon? Thank you! Click here to go to my Amazon page.