Last month I started working on a paper for the academic program I’m currently in and I’m very glad I had Logos Bible Software to help me. There are a couple reasons why Logos saved me time and energy and gave me more time to research and read helpful books and essays. I want to mention a few of them now.

First, Logos Bible Software gives you the opportunity to quote sections of resources and provides the proper citations. For anyone writing an academic paper, this is huge. Typing footnotes that include publication dates and page numbers and all of that can be very time consuming (my bibliography alone took me two hours!). For example, I wanted to reference and cite Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism. So I checked with Logos and found that it was available to purchase and instantly I was able to download the book and find it in my Logos library. As they say, “Boom goes the dynamite!” Once I opened up Logos, I was able to open up Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism and then start reading it (using my iPad) and then quoting sections that I was then able to paste into my paper. And guess what? Along with the quote came a footnote that included all of the required details for the Chicago Manual of Style citation guidelines.

Second, Logos Bible Software allows you to select from a number of citation styles! Anyone who has attended college, seminary, or grad school knows that educational institutes and professors often require different citation styles. So while you are in your undergraduate courses you might be required to use the Chicago style and then in grad school find out that you have to use the Harvard style. Argh! Why can’t there be one style and we leave it at that? Well, the reason is because you’ll write different types of papers in you education, some requiring careful and detailed footnotes and others less detailed. The different styles often correspond with the type of paper you are writing or the class you are taking (a helpful summary is found here). What’s great about Logos is that you can open up the software, click on Tools and go to Program Settings and choose from ten different citation styles! Whoa!

Third, Logos Bible Software gives you the power of hundreds of research assistants who have hours of time to spend combing through your library trying to find helpful information. Okay, I just made up the number of research assistants and the amount of time they are spending but you get my point. As I was writing my paper on the subject of the theological distinctives of Evangelicalism, I was thankful that I could do searches within Logos for terms quickly. Rather than having to open up every single reference that I could think of and then flipping through them individually in the search for information relative to my paper’s subject, I was able to search my entire library for what I was looking for.

For these three reasons, I think all college students, seminary students, and grad students should pick up a copy of Logos. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

If you’re interested in seeing what I came up with for my paper, you can read it here.

Luke Geraty

Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.

www.lukegeraty.com