jaar-writing-style

Writing Style (jaar-writing-style)

A JAAR article should read as rigorous humanities scholarship that a religion scholar outside your area can follow with pleasure. The prose must carry an argument (not just inform), define its terms, and meet JAAR's house conventions (gender-neutral language, serial comma, italicized foreign terms).

When to trigger

• Drafting the introduction/conclusion or doing a final prose pass
• The argument is strong but the writing is dense, jargon-heavy, or flat
• Aligning to JAAR's language conventions before submission
• Handling foreign-language terms, transliteration, and technical vocabulary

Prose principles for JAAR

1. Argument-forward. Lead paragraphs with claims; use evidence to support them. The reader should always know what you are arguing and why this paragraph matters.
2. Accessible across the field. Define specialist terms and transliterations on first use; gloss tradition-specific concepts; spell out what a non-specialist needs — without condescending.
3. Analytic, not confessional or hagiographic. Describe believers' claims precisely; keep your analytic voice distinct (ties to jaar-theory-and-method).
4. House conventions. Gender-neutral language; serial (Oxford) comma; italicize foreign words; consistent transliteration system; American spelling unless a reason otherwise.
5. Economy. Cut throat-clearing and redundant context; every quotation earns its space; mind the word budget (footnotes and references count — see jaar-structure-and-exposition).

Quotations and terms

• Quote to show evidence, then analyze the quotation — never let a block quote stand unexplained.
• Provide originals where the argument depends on wording; keep transliteration consistent.
• Translate non-English terms on first use; italicize and define.

Anti-patterns

• Dense theory-jargon that excludes non-specialists
• Confessional, devotional, or advocacy tone
• Undefined transliterated terms or inconsistent transliteration
• Gendered generics; missing serial commas; inconsistent spelling
• Quotations dropped in without analysis

Output format

【Argument-forward?】claims lead, evidence supports? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】terms/transliterations defined for non-specialists? [Y/N]
【Analytic, non-confessional?】[Y/N]
【House conventions】gender-neutral + serial comma + italicized foreign terms? [Y/N]
【Economy】tightened to the word budget? [Y/N]
【Next】jaar-citation-and-style

Register table: write for two readers without losing either

Prose for the AAR/Oxford University Press flagship must satisfy the area specialist and the non-specialist scholar of religion at once. Each row names a habit, the reader it loses, and the JAAR move that keeps both.

Habit	Loses	JAAR move
Untranslated technical vocabulary	The generalist	Gloss and italicize the term on first use
Over-explaining the tradition	The specialist	Compress to what the argument needs
Devotional or hagiographic warmth	Both (reads as advocacy)	Describe the claim; keep the analytic voice distinct
Long unanalyzed block quotation	Both	Quote, then read the quotation for the argument
"Man and his faith" generics	The contemporary reader and copyeditor	Gender-neutral phrasing

Worked vignette: tightening a confessional paragraph

A draft on Eucharistic devotion reads: "When the faithful gaze upon the Host, they encounter the true presence of their Lord, a mystery that words cannot capture." A JAAR pass:

• Redraw the analytic line. "Practitioners describe gazing on the Host as an encounter with real presence" — the truth-claim becomes reported data, not the author's premise (a move jaar-theory-and-method governs).
• Cut the throat-clearing. "A mystery that words cannot capture" is devotional filler; it goes.
• Define for the field. Real presence and ostension are glossed on first use so a scholar of Islam or Buddhism can follow without a Catholic-studies background.
• Argument-forward. The paragraph now opens with the analytic claim it supports, not with the devotional scene.

Prose pushback → the fix

Reader's report	Diagnosis	Fix
"Dense; I'm not in this subfield and couldn't follow"	Jargon excludes generalists	Gloss terms; spell out what a non-specialist needs
"Reads as devotional"	Confessional register	Restore analytic distance; report, don't endorse
"Quotations sit unexplained"	Evidence not read	Analyze each quotation for the argument
"Gendered generics throughout"	House-convention miss	Gender-neutral language; serial comma
"Inconsistent transliteration"	Style drift	Declare one system; apply it throughout

Hedged calibration: gender-neutral language, the serial (Oxford) comma, and italicized foreign terms are stable JAAR house conventions, but spelling (American vs. British) and any current style-sheet specifics should be confirmed against the journal's submission guidelines, since house style can be updated under the publisher.

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — JAAR language conventions (gender-neutral, serial comma, foreign-term italics)