Checking Manual

Introduction to Checking

Introduction to Translation Checking

As part of the translation process, it is necessary that several people check the translation to make sure that it is clearly communicating the message that it should communicate. A beginning translator who was told that he needed to have his translation checked, once said, "But I speak my native language perfectly. The translation is for that language. What more is needed?" There are two specific thigs to keep in mind in answer to that question.

One thing is that he may not have understood the source text correctly; someone else who knows the source language better may know what it should say and can help to correct the translation. Or it could be that he did not understand something about what the Bible meant to communicate at a certain place. In this case, someone who knows the Bible well, such as a Bible teacher or a Bible translation checker, can clarify th emeaning of the passage and help the translator determine a more correct translation.

The other thing is that, although the translator may know very well what the text should say, the way he translated it might mean something else to a different person. That is, another person might think that the translation is talking about something other than what the translator intended, or the person hearing or reading the translation might not understand what the translator was trying to say. That is why it is always necessary to check what someone else understands from the translation to improve both clarity and accuracy where needed.

The checking process begins as soon as a draft has been completed. The MAST method includes four steps of checking, each providing opportunity for additional individuals to participate. When the eight steps of MAST have been completed properly, the translation is considered to be level 1 checked.

Two additional levels of checking allow for more exposure to a broader group within the language community. These are not to be viewed as hierarchial but rather spherical--the levels expand the number of eyes that have assessed the translation.

Credits: Quotation used by permission, © 2013, SIL International, Sharing Our Native Culture, p. 69.

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Introduction to Authentic Assessment in checking Scripture

Authentic Assessment process

Translation teams should work together (This is often done during the second day of a translation workshop.) to develop an authentic assessment rubric of at least 10 qualities that must be present for a scripture translation to be considered good. These ten qualities are then defined and a measurement for testing them is created, usually in the form of a question. The translation team is guided through this process and the rubric is written down as a guide which will help translators to assess their quality as they go. Thus, the draft is being tested by the same objectivce criteria from the very start of the project. For steps to complete this process, see Authentic Assessment. View additional sample rubrics at v-raft.com.

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Introduction to the Checking Levels

How Checking Levels Work

Here are some important tips to remember when working with Checking Levels:

• Only translations that have reached Checking Level One or higher will be made available on the unfoldingWord website and the unfoldingWord mobile app.
• Only scripture translations that have reached Checking Level Three will be approved as source texts for other translations.
• The levels are designed to expand the sphere of people who have the opportunity to check the quality of the translation.

The Checking Levels

The three checking levels are as follows:

• Checking level one: approved by the translation team.
• Checking level two: approved by the leaders of a local church and the christian community.
• Checking level three: approved by the leaders of multiple local churches, a network of churches, or multiple evangelical denominations.

During a MAST workshop the translators engage in the checking steps (step 5-8) as a team. This platform assures that the individual's work is edited by other members. Additionally, these steps give team members the responsibility of working together to agree on and affirm the final prodect. Once this is done, level one has been achieved.

Once level one has been achieived, the team is encourageed to print or otherwise publish their translation so that it can be immediately useful. At this time they are also invited to upload their translation to the Wycliffe Associates content server. This provides for the next two checking levels. When the translation has been tested by church leaders and other Christian members of the community it is considered to have reached level two. Finally, some translation teams may wish to have their work tested and approved by a network of denominational leaders and scholars. If this is achieived the translation is considered to have reached a level three.

Once the translation has reached level one, the translation team and church leaders will determine what further checking and subsequent levels should be reached. The levels as explained in this manuel are a guide for affirming quality and expanding the exposure of a new translation.

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Types of Checks

Self Edit

How to do a Self-edit

• If you have followed the first for steps of the MAST process, then you made your first draft of a passage by consuming the source text, verbalizing what you consumed, breaking it down into workable chunks, and then you wrote it down while you were not looking at the source text. After you have translated a passage in this way, do a self-edit by looking again at the source text and comparing it to your translation. Make sure that your draft includes all the parts of the message of the source text and does not leave out anything. If some part of the message is missing, put it in your translation at the point where it fits best in your language. Also make sure you haven't included any extra information.
• If possible, compare your translation with other translations of the same Bible passage. If one of those makes you think of a better way to say something, then revise your translation in that way. If one of those helps you to understand something better than you did before, then change your translation so that it communicates the meaning better.
• If possible use the translation notes and questions as well as other tools available in translationstudio and Bibleineverlanguage.org to check your work.
• After these steps, read your translation out loud to yourself. Fix anything that does not sound like it is the way that someone from your community would say it. When you have completed these steps, you are ready to have a peer edit your work.

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Peer Edit

How to do a Peer Edit

• Once you have completed a draft and checked the draft yourself (using the source text for comparison and any other helpful tools to ensure accurate meanin) give the drafted portion to another member of the translation team to review. This person should read through it, comparing it to the source text and making notes of any missing or added material. The peer editor should not make changes to the translation, only make comments and suggestions for change. The peer editor should use any available tools for checking meaning, flow, and accuracy.
• Once the peer editor has compeleted a check of the passage, go over the suggested edits together. It is up to the translator to make changes.
• Read the revised translation out loud to this person and fix anything that does not sound like it is the way that someone from your community would say it.
• If you are in disagreement about a suggested change the translator is responsible for the decision at this level, but these areas should be reviewed as a team so others can provide feedback on the best possible solution to any disagreements.

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Key Word Check

How to do a key word Check

• Key words are the words that impact the theme and message of the passage--they are abstract, spiritual, geographical and historical terms. Make a list of the key words in the story or Bible passage that you translate, along with the term that you choose for it in the target language. Here are some things to consider in choosing an appropriate term in your mother-tongue.
  • You may choose to borrow the term from the gateway language and adjust spelling to fit your script and pronunciation.
  • You may chose to create a phrase or combine a couple words into one.
  • You may choose a word with an added discriptor.
  • You may choose the common use word from the local Christian community.
  • You may choose a simple equivalent from every-day language use.
• Use the list of words and definitions in the translationWords tool available on bibleineverylanguage.org or translationStudio to help you to make a list of these words and to understand what they mean. Your own list may include additional words, but be careful not to include too many words. If the list is too detailed checking becomes tedious. Additionally checking every (or almost every word) can push the translated material away from natural flow in the target language. Remember, key words are ones of significance, packed with essential meaning and are often difficult to directly translate.
• It is best if you can create a chart so that you can list the source word or phrase in one column and the target word or phrase in another column. Further columns could list equivalent terms in other languages and the references where these terms occur in the Bible. It is ideal if everyone translating Bible books that use these terms has access to the chart so that you can all use the same words or phrases in your translation.
• Each time the translationWord occurs in the source text, make sure that the term you have chosen for the translation still makes sense in that context. If it does not, discuss the problem with others on the translation team and try to find a solution together. You may need to use a different term, or you may need to use more than one term for the different contexts, or you may need to find another way to communicate the translationWord that includes all of the meanings, such as using a longer phrase.
• When you have decided that you need to use different target language words or phrases to translate one source language translationWord in different contexts, then make a new line on the chart for each different way that you are translating the source translationWord. Repeat the source term in the source column, and put the new translation in the next column, under the first translation. If possible, share this chart with everyone on the translation team so that they can choose the right translation for the source translationWord in the context that they are translating.

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Other Methods

Other Checking Methods

As well as asking questions, there are other checking methods that you may also use to ensure that the translation is easy to read and sounds natural to the listeners. Here are some other methods that you may like to try:

• Retell Method: You, the translator or tester, can read a few verses and ask someone else to retell what was said. This helps to check the clarity and naturalness of the translation and offers alternate ways of saying the same thing.

• Reading Method: Someone other than you, the translator or tester, should read a portion of the translation while you take notes where the pauses and mistakes occur. This will show how easy or how difficult it is to read and understand the translation. Look at the places in the translation where the reader paused or made mistakes and consider what part of the translation was difficult. You may need to revise the translation at those points so that it is easier to read and understand.

• Offer Alternate translations: In areas where you are not sure of the best way to express a word or phrase, ask other people for an alternative translation or offer a choice between two translations and see which alternative translation people think is the most clear.

• Reviewer Input: Let others whom you respect read your translation. Ask them to take notes and tell you where it might be improved. Look for better word choices, natural expressions, and even spelling adjustments.

• Discussion Groups: Ask people to read the translation aloud in a group of people and allow them and others to ask questions for clarification. Pay attention to the words they use, since alternate words and expressions come up when someone is trying to make sense of a difficult point, and these alternate words and expressions might be better than the ones in the translation. Pay attention to the places where people do not understand the translation, and work to make those places clearer.

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Defining Church Authority

Checking Authority and Process

Explanation

The Church in each people group has the authority to decide for themselves what is and what is not a good quality translation of the Bible in their language. Authority to check and approve a Bible translation (which is constant) is separate from capacity, or the ability to carry out the process of checking a Bible translation (which can be increased). The authority for determining quality belongs to the Church, independent of their current ability, experience, or access to resources that facilitate the checking of Bible translations. So while the church in a language group has the authority to check and approve their own Bible translation, tools and resources available on bibleineverlanguage.org are designed to ensure that the church also has the capacity to check the quality of their Bible translation using an excellent process.

This model proposes a layered approach to affirming the quality of a translation, designed to reflect three general levels of Church authority within a people group:

Every check on the translation will be guided by the authentic assessment rubric which is created by the translation team to express the essential qualities of a good translation.

• Authority Level 1: Determined by the Church-based translation team
• Authority Level 2: Determined by the agreement of pastors/elders who are members of different Church networks in the language group, and tested with the language community
• Authority Level 3: Determined by the leadership of Church networks with a presence in the people group that speaks the language.

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Authority Level 1

Authority Level 1: Affirmation by Translation Team

The intent of this level is to affirm the agreement of the translation team with standard Christian doctrine, as well as with the guidelines for ensuring the accuracy of the translation itself. Content published at this level promotes the broadest reach of the content as an active project, with an open invitation (implied or direct) to members of the language community to suggest improvements to the translation.

To achieve this level, the translation team asserts that the Statement of Faith is an accurate reflection of their own beliefs and that the translated content is also in harmony with it.

The translation team asserts that the translation has been done in accordance with the MAST process and that they have made use of available exegetical and translation checking resources in the translation process, including the translationNotes and translationWords.

An explanation of the steps followed during level one checking are available at Level 1.

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Authority Level 2

Authority Level 2: Affirmation by Community

The intent of this level is two-fold:

1. to affirm the effectiveness of the form of the language used in the translation, as determined by representatives of the language community
2. to affirm the accuracy of the translation, as determined by pastors or leaders from the local churches that will use it

At this level, the model implements the concept of a "testimony of two or three witnesses" in the checking process.

To achieve this level, the translation team will submit the translation to members of the language community that will use the translation. The language community will review the translation for clarity and naturalness. The team will also work with church leaders from the language community to review the translation for accuracy by checking it against the source texts, the exegetical resources, the Statement of Faith, and the Translation Guidelines.

The translation team will edit the translation based on these reviews so that the language community affirms that it is natural and clear, the church leaders affirm that it is accurate.

The rubric created during the authentic assessment process will be used as a guide during this check. Specific steps to be taken for this level of checking can be found at Level 2.

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Authority Level 3

Authority Level 3: Affirmation by Church Leadership

The intent of this level is to affirm that the translation agrees with the intent of the original texts and with the sound doctrine of the Church historic and universal.

To achieve this level, the translation team will work with the highest leadership of the Church that speaks the language to review the Scripture. It is best if these leaders represent as many of the major groups of churches (networks and denominations) that exist in the language community as possible. Level 3 is thus achieved by the mutual agreement of the leadership of multiple church networks.

The translation team will edit the translation so that the leadership of these church networks affirm that it is an accurate translation and will be accepted by their church fellowships.

The authentic assessment rubric will be used to guide this process. Specific steps for level 3 checking are available at Level 3.

Level 3 is completed when the translation has been thoroughly checked and approved by the leadership (or their delegates) of at least two church networks.

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Checking Process

Checking Level One - Affirmation by Translation Team

Checking Level One – Translation Team Check

Level One checking will be done primarily by the translation team; it can also include help from others in the language community. The translator or translation team should check their translation often (usually as soon as a whole chapter is drafted) so that they can correct mistakes as early as possible in the translation process. Sometimes a step will have to be repeated before moving on to the next step.

Translations of Bible texts and biblical content are able to be published after they reach Checking Level One. This enables the broadest reach of the content as an active project, with an open invitation to others in the language community (implied or direct) to help improve the translation.

Steps for level one checking:

These are the steps that the translation team must follow in order to achieve Checking Level One:

1. Once a portion has been drafted, the translator of that section will perform a self-edit, using the source text, and other available tools to check the draft.
2. When the translator has completed the self-edit, another translator on the team will perform a peer edit, carefuly comparing the translated text to the source text and using any other available tools to confirm the accuracy and meaningfulness of the translation. He may also provide feedback and comments on spelling, naturalness and flow. The person conducting the peer edit does not have authority to make changes; his role is to provide feedback and suggestions to the translator of the draft who then makes changes as he deems necessary. for more information on how to conduct a peer edit, refer to the page titled Peer Edit.
3. The keywords of the passage or systematically checked against the list of key words in the available tool designed specifically to support this checking step. Alternatively, the translation team can create their own list of key words--abstract spiritual terms, historical and geographical terms and names--and carefully compare their drafted text to that list. This step is typically done by the translator and at least one other member of the translation team. Refer to the key word check page for more instructions on this check.
4. Each verse is carefully checked comparing the drafted text to the original source text, looking for any missing portions or added material. This check is typically done with the translator of the passage and at least one other member of the translation team--preferably a different member than assisted in the keyword check.

When these steps have been completed, edits have been incorporated into the translated portion, and the translation team is collectively satisifed with the product, it is considered level one checked. At this point, if the translation team desires to do so, they are invited to upload the translation to the Wycliffe Associates content server. It can then be published to bibleineverylanguage.org to reach a broader community.

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Checking Level Two - Affirmation by Community

Checking Level Two - External Check

The purpose of Level Two checking is to engage representative groups from the local language community to assess the quality of the translating and contribute to its improvement where needed.

Level two Checking

The level two check focuses on pastors and the Christian community within the target language. Once the translation team has reached level one with its translation, the translation is ready to be shared outside the team for further review. Ideally, a leader on the translation team will work with local pastors and Christians to check the scripture's clarity and naturalness.

The translator or leader will read (if it is a written translation) a portion of the translation to the gathered listeners. Before reading, he should tell the people listening to stop him if they hear something that does not sound natural. Alternatively, if the people are literate, each one in the group can be asked to read a passage of the newly translated material. It is best, even if everyone in the group is literate, to have the portions read out loud to the whole group. Portions should not be too long (this is subjective to the abilities of the group, and type of passage). It's also very important for listeners to understand that they are now a part of the team helping to improve and affirm the quality of the scripture. They, themselves are not being tested. Rather the questions are designed to help them provide feedback on the meaningfulness of the new translation.

These tools have been created to assist teams in checking and are recommending for use during this level--translation questions, translation notes, and the reviewer's guide. They are available on bibleineverylanguage.org. Additionally, the translation questions and translation notes are embedded in tStudio. During the MAST workshop, the translation team was asked to develop a rubric for testing and affirming the quality of their work. More information on this strategy is available at v-raft.org. This rubric will help the team determine which tools and methods to apply to the level two check within their community.

Key elements of this level of checking are: pastors AND Christians in the community have read (or listened to) the translated scriptures and contributed to their improvement, the above listed tools have been employed for ensuring accuracy and completeness, the translation team has been responsible to respond to feedback and implement changes in the translation where needed. When this has been done, the translation is considered to be at level two.

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Checking Level Three - Affirmation by Church Leadership

Checking Level Three

Level Three checking will be done by groups or organizations that are recognized by the churches in a language community. The leaders from these groups will verify that they approve the translation. This approval is not required for distribution of the translation, but rather serves to validate it.

Participants in this level of checking need to be different from the ones who participated in level two. Each level is an expansion of exposure, and this is most significant in affirming the quality as well as noting any needed improvements.

The intent of this level is to affirm the alignment of the translation with the intent of the original texts and the sound doctrine of the Church historic and universal, through the review and affirmation by the leadership of the Church that speaks the language. Level 3 is thus achieved by the mutual agreement of the leadership of multiple church networks. The Church networks should be representative of the churches in the language community. Those checking the translation should be first-language speakers of the language, and those signing off on the check are those in leadership roles in the Church networks. A leader of a Church network who is also a first-language speaker of the language of the translation could both check the translation and sign off on its quality.

Level 3 is completed when the translation has been thoroughly checked and approved by the leadership (or their delegates) of at least two church networks. At this level, those who are participating in the check should (when possible) be trained/ordained through the church network and should therefore use every aspect of their own knowledge and training tools to check the scriptures. Addtionally, translation notes, translation words, translation questions, and the Reviewer's Guide--tools that are freely accessible on Bibleineverylanguage.org--are ideal for using at this level of checking. A translator, as designated by the translation team, should work with these checkers. If any areas of correction are recommended, the translator will take these concerns and recommended changes to the translation team to decide how to best improve the translation and what edits need to be made.

Here are some specific steps that can be followed for this check. However, the most important aspect of this check is to consider the authentic assessment rubric created by the translation team as the guide.

1. Does the translation conform to the Statement of Faith and Translation Guidelines?
2. Did the translation team show a good understanding of the source language as well as the target language and culture?
3. Does the language community affirm that the translation speaks in a clear and natural way in their language?
4. Is the style that the translators followed appropriate for the community?
5. Is the dialect that the translators used the best one to communicate to the wider language community? For example, have the translators used expressions, phrase connectors, and spellings that will be recognized by most people in the language community?
6. As you read the translation, think about cultural issues in the local community that might make some passages in the book difficult to translate. Has the translation team translated these passages in a way that makes the message of the source text clear, and avoids any misunderstanding that people might have because of the cultural issue?
7. In these difficult passages, do you feel that the translator has used language that communicates the same message that is in the source text?
8. In your judgment, does the translation communicate the same message as the source text?

If the answer is no to any of the above questions, please note the area in the text that is a concern and communicate with the translation team and explanation of your concerns.

If you answer "yes" to any of the questions in this second group, please explain in more detail so that the translation team can know what the specific problem is, what part of the text needs correction, and how you would like them to correct it.

1. Are there any doctrinal errors in the translation?
2. Did you find any areas of the translation that seem to contradict the national language translation or the important matters of faith found in your Christian community?
3. Did the translation team add extra information or ideas that were not part of the message in the source text? (Remember that some implied information may have been expressed explicity for the meaning to be clear. This is a desirable part of meaningful translation.)
4. Did the translation team leave out information or ideas that were part of the message in the source text?

If there were problems with the translation, make plans to meet with the translation team and resolve these problems. After you meet with them, the translation team may need to check their revised translation with the community leaders to make sure that it still communicates well, and then meet with you again.

Once the translation team has addressed suggestions to the satisfaction of the checking team, the scripture is considered to be checked to level three. You may at this time, wish to fill out the approval of level 3 check together and sign it.

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How to Do a Formatting Check

There are checks that you can do before, during, and after translation of a book of the Bible that will make the translation go much easier, look good, and be as easy to read as possible. The modules in this section give more information about the following topics.

Before Translating

The translation team should make decisions about the following issues before you start to translate.

1. Written or oral: Should the translation be primarily offered in a written format or an oral format? In determining the answer to this question consider the literacy level of the mother-tongue speakers. Also consider the normal, expected medium the language community uses to educate and train, and what the church community is most likely to want and use. If choosing a written format then consider the following: a. Alphabet: decide what alphabet is most approprate for your language community. This may already be determined for you if much material is already avilalbe in a written format. If the scripture will be one of the first things written in the lanaguage you will need to think about the sounds in your language and what script will provide the best symbolism for those sounds. b. Spelling: when possible determine the spelling of names and geographical terms as a group. You may even want to consult the key words list avaiable at Bibleineverylanguage.org for each book and create a list of the names and historical terms in the agreed-upon spelling for all translators to use as a reference. If the langauge has borrowed words from teh gateway language, and they ahve become common use terms, it may be good to agree on the appropriate spelling of those terms for the minority lnanguage (if indeed pronunciation is different from gateway language pronunciation.) c. Punctuation: Especially if this is one of the first things put into writing in the language, it is important to determine basic punctiation rules. These can follow one of the gateway languages (especially if the alphabet is the same.) At this time you may also consider if you need accent marks or other symbols to indicate slight changes in the sounds letters make.

While Translating

After you have translated several chapters, the translation team may need to revise some of these decisions to take care of problems that they discovered while translating. You can also do consistency checks in ParaTExt at this time to see if there are more decisions that you need to make about spelling and punctuation.

After Finishing a Book

After finishing a book, you can check to make sure that all the verses are there, and you can decide on section headings. It is also helpful to write down ideas for section headings as you translate.

1. Versification (see Complete Versification)
2. Section Headings (see Section Headings)

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Appropriate Alphabet

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Consistent Spelling

In order for the reader to be able to read and understand the translation easily, it is important that you spell words consistently. This can be difficult if there is not a tradition of writing or spelling in the target language. Several people working on different parts of a translation also makes this difficult. For that reason, it is important for the translation team to meet together before they start translating to talk about how they plan to spell words.

Discuss the words that are difficult to spell as a team. If the words have sounds in them that are difficult to represent, then you may need to make a change in the writing system that you are using (see Alphabet/Orthography). If the sounds in the words can be represented in different ways, then the team will need to agree on how to spell them. Make a list of the agreed upon spellings of these words in alphabetical order. Make sure that each member of the team has a copy of the list, to consult when translating. Add to the list as you come across more difficult words, but make sure everyone has the current list. It may be helpful to use a spreadsheet to maintain your spelling list.

The names of people and places in the Bible can be difficult to spell because many of them are unknown in target languages. Be sure to include these in your spelling list.

Computers can be a great help for checking spelling. If you are working on a Gateway Language, a word processor may have a dictionary already available. If you are translating into an Other Language, you can use the find and replace feature to fix misspelled words. ParaTExt also has a spell check feature which will find all variant spellings of words. It will present these to you and then you can choose which spellings you have decided to use.

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Consistent Punctuation

"Punctuation" refers to the marks that indicate how a sentence is to be read or understood. Examples include the indicators of pauses, such as the comma or period, and the quotation marks that surround the exact words of a speaker. In order for the reader to be able to read and understand the translation correctly, it is important that you use punctuation consistently.

It is helpful if the translation team decides on the methods of punctuation that you will use in the translation, before you begin. It may be easiest to adopt the method of punctuation that the national language uses, or that a national language Bible or related-language Bible uses. Once the team decides on a method, make sure that everyone follows it. It may be helpful to distribute a guide sheet to each of the team members with examples on it of the correct way to use the different punctuation marks.

Even with the guide sheet, it is common for translators to make mistakes in punctuation. As you go through the different levels of checking, keep your eye open for inconsistancies in punctuation. Additionally, you can ask some with appropriate education from your language group to read through and edit the translation for punctuation, make notes of questionable areas for the translation team to review and edit.

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Complete Versification

It is important that your target language translation include all of the verses that are there in the source language Bible. We do not want some verses to be missing by mistake. But remember that there can be good reasons why some Bibles have certain verses that other Bibles do not have.

Reasons for Missing Verses

1. Textual Variants - There are some verses that many Bible scholars do not believe were original to the Bible, but were added later. Therefore the translators of some Bibles chose to not include those verses, or included them only as footnotes. (For more information about this, see Textual Variants.) Your translation team will need to decide whether you will include these verses or not.
2. Different Numbering - Some Bibles use a different system of verse numbering than other Bibles. (For more information about this, see Chapter and Verse Numbers.) Your translation team will need to decide which system to use.
3. Verse Bridges - In some translations of the Bible, the contents of two or more verses are rearranged so that the order of information is more logical or easier to understand. When that happens, the verse numbers are combined, such as 4-5 or 4-6. The UDB does this sometimes, and on rare occasions, also the ULB. Because not all of the verse numbers appear or they do not appear where you expect them to be, it might look like some verses are missing. But the contents of those verses are there. (For more information about this, see Verse Bridges.) Your translation team will need to decide whether to use verse bridges or not.

Checking for Missing Verses

In order to check your translation for missing verses, after a book has been translated, import the translation into ParaTExt. Then run the check for "chapter/verse numbers." ParaTExt will give you a list of everywhere in that book that it finds verses missing. You can then look at each of those places and decide if the verse is missing on purpose because of one of the three reasons above, or if it is missing by mistake and you need to go back and translate that verse.

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Section Headings

Decisions about Section Headings

One of the decisions that the translation team will have to make is whether or not to use section headings. Section headings are like titles to each section of the Bible that begins a new topic. The section heading lets people know what that section is about. Some Bible translations use them, and others do not. You may want to follow the practice of the Bible in the national language that most people use. You will also want to find out what the language community prefers.

Using section headings requires more work, because you will have to either write or translate each one, in addition to the text of the Bible. It will also make your translation of the Bible longer. But section headings can be very helpful to your readers. Section headings make it much easier to find where the Bible talks about different things. If a person is looking for something in particular, he can just read the section headings until he finds one that introduces the topic that he wants to read about. Then he can read that section.

If you have decided to use section headings, then you will need to decide which kind to use. Again, you will want to find out which kind of section heading the language community prefers, and you may also choose to follow the style of the national language. Be sure to use a kind of section heading that the people will understand is not part of the text that it introduces. The section heading is not a part of scripture; it is just a guide to the different parts of scripture. You might be able to make this clear by putting a space before and after the section heading and using a different font (style of letters), or a different size of letters. See how the Bible in the national language does this, and test different methods with the language community.

Kinds of Section Headings

There are many different kinds of section headings. Here are some different kinds, with examples of how each one would look for Mark 2:1-12:

• Summary statement: "By healing a paralyzed man, Jesus demonstrated his authority to forgive sins as well as to heal." This tries to summarize the main point of the section, and so it gives the most information in a full sentence.
• Explanatory comment: "Jesus heals a paralyzed man." This is also a full sentence, but gives just enough information to remind the reader which section follows.
• Topical reference: "Cure of a paralytic." This tries to be very short, only giving a label of a few words. This might save space, but it is probably only useful for people who already know the Bible well.
• Question: "Does Jesus have authority to heal and forgive sins?" This one creates a question that the information in the section answers. People who have a lot of questions about the Bible may find this especially helpful.
• "About" comment: "About Jesus healing a paralyzed man." This one makes it explicit that it is trying to tell you what the section is about. This may be the one that makes it easiest to see that the heading is not a part of the words of scripture.

As you can see, it is possible to make many different kinds of section headings, but they all have the same purpose. They all give the reader information about the main topic of the section of the Bible that follows. Some are shorter, and some are longer. Some give just a little information, and some give more. You may want to experiment with the different kinds, and ask people which kind they think is most helpful for them.

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