Pioneer Bible Translators (PBT) Base Plan

The first translation task is to study the text carefully, using Bible versions and commentaries. This is called “doing the exegesis”. There should be at least one person on each translation team who is a skilled exegete.

The first draft of the text, whether written out by hand or directly typed into the computer, is entered into Paratext.

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It is best to draft these when you decide that a footnote is needed. You can add another footnote anytime you feel it needs to be added.

A mother-tongue speaker of the receptor language reads the draft aloud to the team, and possibly other mother tongue speakers of the language to check for naturalness and clarity. Then adjust the text based on comments from the group.

Revisions to the text based off of reading the text out loud should be entered into Paratext during the reading or as soon as possible after the readthrough is completed.

A back-translation is a translation into the major national or trade language of the area. It should be done by a speaker of the language other than the translator. It helps to show whether the translation is communicating effectively and accurately. Consultants usually require a back translation or an interlinear. If an interlinear is required instead of a back translation, complete the glossing of the interlinearization of the text to help guide the consultant on a word-by-word basis of looking at the text.

Be careful to use the same key terms in the introduction as in the text.

After drafting a book of the Bible, run basic checks and resolve any issues found with chapter and verse numbers, markers, etc.

Notes Assigned to Me

This check is done by the translation advisor/exegetical specialist with the rest of the translation team.

Open Parallel Passage tool and confirm all parallel passages. Review the wording of the text in these parallel passages and decide if wording in one text would be better if harmonized with the wording in another text. (This check is not simply that parallel passages have check marks, it is meant to read the verses and see if the appropriate words are green or yellow in each passage.)

This check is done by the translation team with the translation advisor/exegetical specialist.

You can do a spell check in a variety of ways. If you want to use the Paratext tool, under the Checking Menu is “Spell Check Current Book”, Click on this and accept or correct the spelling of all of the words present. For those that need more discussion open the wordlist tool and add a spelling discussion note.

Verify that proper nouns and names have been transliterated according to agreed upon rules, and are consistent. Verify that capitalization has been done correctly and consistently. For languages with word level and grammatical honorifics, verify that they are used correctly. Note: The Biblical terms tool can help with the verification of names if the list is filtered for the “Names” category. The Biblical terms tool will not find instances of a name in book introductions, section headings, footnotes, illustration captions and glossary entries. You will have to find the proper names in these locations manually.

Identify the Biblical key terms in the passage. (Not every term in the “All Biblical terms list” but the terms deemed significant for consistency sake.) Keyboard the renderings into the Biblical terms Tool. Check the consistency of the Biblical key terms used in the passage with the terms documented in the Biblical terms tool.

After making changes to the text during exegetical checking, run basic checks and resolve any issues found with chapter and verse numbers, markers, etc.

Open the “Assignments and Progress” window and correct all errors/issues shown there. Once all errors are corrected and open notes are resolved, you can print a copy of the books or chapters to be reviewed by community group. The two simplest ways to print text from Paratext are found under the “File” menu. They are “Print Draft” and “Save as RTF”. There are other methods available for more advanced formatting, such as “Export to Pathway”. Use the method specified by your project administrator or translation consultant.

Translators read aloud to a group of people who are fresh to the text, Ask comprehension questions. Check for clarity and naturalness. Make note of any places where revisions need to be made which will later be entered into Paratext.

Type revisions.While supplementary helps are specifically mentioned in the drafting section, it is assumed that all other checks will also be completed on supplementary materials and that these are a part of the final text.

After making changes to the text during exegetical checking and comprehension checking, update the back translation or interlinear to reflect those changes. This is a critical step to complete before making the text available to the consultant.

Open Biblical terms tool and filter for chapter(s) being prepared for consultant check. Verify that your list of Biblical terms have approved renderings. Update any that are missing, or need to be changed because of a better understanding of what the Greek or Hebrew means. It is likely some are out-of-date, because of the revisions made after comprehension testing.

After making changes to the text during comprehension checking, run basic checks and resolve any issues found with chapter and verse numbers, markers, etc.

The team needs to make the translated text available to the consultant who will evaluate the text for accuracy, clarity, naturalness, and acceptability of the translation including all supplementary materials and illustrations used. This can be done by adding the consultant as a user to the project if they are not already listed as a user. Be sure to let the consultant know that the text (and interlinear or back translation) is ready for checking.

Once the consultant has evaluated the text and placed notes with observations in the text (or back translation) the translation team may use these notes to review the text themselves and respond to the notes. Translation teams should not resolve the notes of a consultant. The consultant should resolve the notes once the consultant is satisfied that the team has answered whatever question was raised. If there is not time to review and respond to the Consultant Notes before the consultant checking session begins, then these notes should be dealt with in the checking session.

Consultant interacts with the translation team concerning his observations about the text and supplementary materials, and gives assistance and advice as requested. The project administrator should give one team member (that could be himself) editing permission in the Assignments and Progress window for the “Consultant Checking session” task. It is best to enter revisions to the text into Paratext during the checking session. If the translation team needs to hold more discussion about a possible revision to the text after the checking session is completed, the consultant should put a Note at that verse. The team will respond to that Note later and if the consultant is satisfied with the answer he will resolve the Note.

Consultant interacts with the translation team concerning his observations about the text and supplementary materials, and gives assistance and advice as requested. The project administrator should give one team member (that could be himself) editing permission in the Assignments and Progress window for the “Consultant Checking session” task. It is best to enter revisions to the text into Paratext during the checking session. If the translation team needs to hold more discussion about a possible revision to the text after the checking session is completed, the consultant should put a Note at that verse. The team will respond to that Note later and if the consultant is satisfied with the answer he will resolve the Note.

Consultant interacts with the translation team concerning his observations about the text and supplementary materials, and gives assistance and advice as requested. The project administrator should give one team member (that could be himself) editing permission in the Assignments and Progress window for the “Consultant Checking session” task. It is best to enter revisions to the text into Paratext during the checking session. If the translation team needs to hold more discussion about a possible revision to the text after the checking session is completed, the consultant should put a Note at that verse. The team will respond to that Note later and if the consultant is satisfied with the answer he will resolve the Note.

The translation team will respond to all Consultant Notes that remain in the text after the Consultant Checking session has been completed or any other input provided by the Consultant. If the consultant is satisfied with the answer he will resolve the Notes in Paratext.

Consultant gives approval of the text at the end of checking session if all questions are answered to his satisfaction, or once any follow-up tasks which the consultant has clearly defined have been taken care of.

Consultant report shared with the translation team and the team’s leadership (e.g. DLA or programs director).

Community reviews, to make sure that all significant changes done in consultant check are natural and clear.

After making changes to the text during consultant checking, run basic checks and resolve any issues found with chapter and verse numbers, markers, etc.

These pages are mandatory and need to be approved by Branch or Field Directors as they contain copyright statements.

This can include the preface, the glossary, an introduction to the Bible/NT, and spine text.

Open Biblical terms tool and review all renderings for consistency, and make any last changes needed.

The team goes through the entire wordlist together, to make sure there are no words spelled multiple ways, and to make sure they are all in final agreement on all spelling decisions. Make sure to look at “Find Similar Words” and “Find Incorrectly Joined or Split Words” under the “Checking” tab.

In the Biblical terms tool, create a new filter for the “Names” category. Check for proper capitalization, and confirm that any transliteration of a name conforms to the natural rules and conventions of the local/receptor language.

Select the list “Numbers” as the Biblical terms list in the Biblical terms tool to find all the numbers. Make sure there is consistency in the formatting of all the numbers. Verify that words such as money, coin, silver, gold, denarii, and shekel are adequately differentiated and rendered consistently.

Verify that words such as talent, mina, shekel, pim, beka, gerah etc., are adequately differentiated and rendered consistently. Verify that words such as cubit, span, handbreadth, orgyia, stadion, milion, cor, lethech, ephah, seah, omer, cab, bath, hin, log, etc., are adequately differentiated and rendered consistently.

If another translation is used as a base then this check can be done using Tools > Checklists > Compare Section Headings

If another translation is used as a base then this check can be done using Tools > Checklists > Compare Markers and look for the new paragraph markers such as \p, and \m.

See list of special formatting issues such as genealogies, words on the cross, letters, etc. Verify that text is marked using the correct standard format markers (USFM). See https://paratext.org/about/usfm for latest guide to using USFMs.

Verify other layout issues such as poetry. Particular attention should be given to poetry indentations. If another translation is used as a base then this check can be done using Tools > Checklists > Compare Markers and look for the new paragraph markers such as \q, \q1 and \q2.

Make final decisions on illustrations.

Make final decisions on maps.

Determine if the glossary for your project will be solely in the local language or a diglot or a triglot. Some teams choose to include a trade language (language of wider communication – LWC) in addition to an official world language. Arrange the glossary entries in alphabetical order in the local language.

Communicate with the person designated as the typesetter for your project and ask that person to help you choose colors for your cover, how many colors, what kind of material to make the cover out of, and many more aspects that you might not be aware of.

If cross references have not been added to the receptor language project yet, now is the time to add them. If there are verse spans in the text, there is a possibility that the Scripture references will be shown double in the cross reference section as the bottom of hte page. For example, Matt 6:14-15 may show up twice down in the cross reference section. If this is the cae, then all the verses which are referred to from Matt 6:14-15 will need to be listed under only one reference, i.e. joined, and the second cross reference should be deleted. To find all occurances of span verses, use the following RegEx in the “Find” box: regex:\\v \d+-

Read all footnotes and cross references looking for inconsistencies in how they are formatted. The goal is to have a consistent look and feel across all footnotes, and not merely the absence of marker errors in the footnotes. It may be helpful to go to Tools–>Checklist–>Footnotes. This checklist will compare the footnotes in your text to other resources that you specify.

After all final checks have been done, the translation team should print off the NT book(s) and do a complete oral read-through together with church and community leaders who will offer any final suggestions for revisions to the text.

Make any final changes to the text based on feedback given during the oral read through and/or the listening to the audio recording of the Scriptures.

After making changes to the text during pre-publication stage, run basic checks and resolve any issues found with chapter and verse numbers, markers, etc.

After every check has been run, after every revision has been made, and when the team says they are ready to go to the final typesetting, then the team must ask for the final approval from whoever is the person in authority over your language project.

This task is not done by the translation team. It is done by a typesetter. But you need to be ready to interact with the typesetter at anytime as they run other various Paratext Checks. As the typesetter finds questions to ask the team, they may put them as Notes in the text or can send questions to the team by email.