In the months following the workshop, it is essential to make sure that the grammar collected is documented in a way that is understandable for speakers of the language. Otherwise, most of what the participants have learned will be forgotten in a few months or even a few weeks. To ensure that all the time, effort and other resources that have gone into making the RGC workshop happen were not in vain, document the grammar collected in several ways. Suggested documentation inlcudes a beginning dictionary, a consonant/vowel/tone book, a grammar book, and a phonology paper. More details on the recommended reference materials are provided in the sections below. 

The new writing system can be tested in the community with an alphabet book and a story book. Ideally, these types of materials will be produced with the help of literacy personnel before Phase 2. Additional details on constructing an alphabet and a story book are provided in the sections below. 

Writing in one's own langauge is a high-level skill that only develops over years of training, even with secondary level education in other langauges. Although the workshops and reference tools are a major step towards providing this training, the greatest challenge is learning to apply the writing rules in natural text. While this takes extensive guided practice, it can be successfully learned through a checking process. 

RGC pioneer Tim Stirtz found that the materials drafted after the workshop often contained many inconsistencies, even though they were drafted with the symbols chosen during the workshop (Stirtz 2024). Most of these inconsistencies involved specifically similar vowels, tone representation, word breaks, sound changes at morpheme boundaries, and similar consonants. This result was not surprising since it takes time and training to learn a new writing system. 

To help the language teams strengthen their writing skills, Stirtz checked each word of each book as it was first drafted, and later each revised portion. For each word or construction not written according to what was previously agreed upon, he made a written comment, often including the page in the reference tool where the writing rule or spelling could be found. 

The language developers, who had the final say in all writing issues of their language, revised these books according to about 90% of the suggestions. In a few cases, the rule or spelling was not intuitive enough or needed to be changed, and this checking process provided opportunity to discuss other options. Over time, language developers developed skills in consistency checking themselves, and eventually did not need assistance from the workshop facilitator. On average, this happened after about two months of full time checking for each team over several years. 

See Stirtz's paper (2018) Linguistic checks: The missing link in modern language development for more information on facilitator checking.  

The more materials that are written in the language, the sooner any remaining issues for writing will arise. This provides opportunity for the issues to be discussed and resolved sooner rather than later. Conversely, the more time that goes by without further language development, the more potential there is for orthography issues to go undetected and unresolved. When issues do arise, it will be more difficult for literates entrenched in the initial writing system to be willing to make needed changes. 

Another benefit of drafting new literacy books is that it gives further opportunity for writers to practice the agreed-upon spelling rules and to become fluent readers. As new reading material is drafted and checked according to the agreed-upon way of writing, language developers can learn to write well in as soon as 2 months.

Translations of Scripture passages can be among the new materials produced, though, ideally, other books for teaching reading would be produced and a significant number of people taught to read first. But assuming general acceptance of a readable writing system, translation can begin even before further linguistic analysis, provided that Phase 2 of the research begins within 1.5 years of the first.

A beginning dictionary should be compiled first before any documenting any other grammar from the RGC workshop. One of the most important uses of a dictionary is for language development teams is to regulate consistent spelling. It should be as user-friendly for language speakers as possible. 

After the workshop, only those words that have been confirmed to have correct spelling are entered into the dictionary. In this way, the dictionary is a tool that can be trusted for standardizing the writing of the language. Each new literacy and Scripture book drafted can be checked for spelling in comparison with the entries of the dictionary. Software tools such as FLEx provied an easy way to check the spelling of words in all other materials, words can be searched in either the vernacular or in English. The data in a FLEx file can also be transferred to phonology software such as Phonology Assistant for help in analyzing the phonemes. 

A guide on constructing a dictionary, including example books from several langauges, is posted below.

A consonant/vowel/tone book* is one of 3 grammar books that are specifically intended for writers and developers of the language. That data presented should be presented in a way that writers of the language can appreciate and understand. While these books may not be as useful for readers who of the language who do not contribute written discourse to the community, they are essential tools for language development teams that produce literacy and translation materials. The books can be used in teaching individuals or groups, or for motivated individuals to teach themselves. They would also be appropriate for use in schools that teach reading and writing of the language. 

The goal of the consonant/vowel/tone book is to present the meaningful sounds of the language in an instructive way. Each lesson is illustrated with organized language data, so that potentially confusing sounds are compared and contrasted. Exercises follow each lesson that test for understanding and answers for the exercises are given at the back of the book.

A vowel/consonant/tone book for a particular language may include lessons the following kinds of topics:

• [+/-ATR] pairs of vowels

• Long and short vowels

• Single and doubled consonants

• Consonants that are difficult to distinguish (such as [ŋ] vs. [ŋg])

• Tone melodies for various syllable structures in nouns & verbs 

The exact topics included and the order in which they are listed should be tailored to the language. Each language will differ on which lessons are most important for new writers.

 One of the most challenging aspects for beginning writers is to accurately and consistently write such confusing sounds. By comparing and contrasting a pair of confusing sounds through lists of words, readers become more familiar with the sounds and how they are represented in writing. The sound of the different letters is reinforced as each word is read. 

Comparing word lists helps not only with reading but also in writing. When deciding how to spell a word, the writer can compare the sound in that word with the sounds in the relevant word lists. S/he will then use the symbol from the wordlist that matches the sound. 

For writing systems that mark tone distinctions, this book should aslo demonstrate why tone needs to be distinguished and teach how tone is represented in roots. 

A guide on constructing a vowel/consonant/tone book, including example books from several langauges, is posted below.

*Sometimes called Reading and Writing (language name)

The purpose of the grammar book (technically Grammar Book 2)* is to present various grammatical information collected during the workshops, such as the following:

• The language's word categories

• The construction of phrases, clauses and sentences

• All known sound changes at morpheme boundaries & the agreed-upon way of writing them

This book is formatted in the same way as the vowel/consonant/tone book, namely a series of lessons followed by exercises to test for understanding. As before, the exact topics included in the book and the order in which they are listed should be tailored to the language. 

While the book will cover a comprehensive amount of grammar, the goal is present the grammar in a simple way. Each lesson should introduce 1 new topic that builds upon previous lessons. In order to keep the book as accessible as possible to the community, it can be beneficial to simplify terminology, such as using  “command” instead of “imperative." When using alternative descriptions, include the official linguistic term in parentheses. In general, keeep the explanations of the topic and data examples to a minimum, so as to prevent the book from becoming tiresome. Shorter lessons are also easier to translate, if translation is needed. 

It is recommended to begin each lesson with an example sentence from 1 of the revised, interlinear texts that shows the use of the word category/morpheme/construction being presented. At the end of the lesson, list paradigms or tables of data to show how the relevant constructions and sound changes are written. However, in many cases, these paradigms and charts will need to reorganized and presented differently that the way they were collected during the RGC workshop. It is helpful to translate all vernacular sentences so that non-speakers can also use the book. 

Sentences from the revised texts can  also be used for many of the exercises that follow the lessons. Be sure to include the full text at the back of the book and reference each sentence with the story and line number from which it was taken. Sentences from these texts are especially helpful as examples because they represent natural grammar in the context of a story, to which the reader can refer when needed. 

When the draft is complete, make sure to check it and revise it as needed with spearkers of the langauge. A guide on constructing a vowel/consonant/tone book, including example books from several langauges, is posted below.

*The vowel/consonant/tone book described above is the first grammar book 

The phonology statement is documentation for linguists of all meaningful sounds and how the sounds change in various environments. Because it is documentation for linguists, it requires the writer to think more deeply about the language and to ensure that there are no inconsistencies in the analysis. The additional learning that results from this process will help guide the drafting of all the reference books. 

If time is an issue, this statement can wait until after the other books are drafted, as long as they are later revised according to the insights learned from the phonology statement. However, if the statement is done before the other books, it will improve the quality and speed of their construction, as many of the tables of data in the grammar books will be the same, albeit with a transfer from IPA to the orthography. 

You may or may not want to deal with writing decisions in the phonology statement. Regardless, the phonology statement needs to be thorough enough to give the linguistic background for all writing decisions. In other words, it needs to give solid evidence for all consonant, vowel and tone phonemes in roots, as well as how these alternate in all known morphology.

A guide on writing a phonology paper, including examples, is posted below.

If an alphabet book does not yet exist in the language,* one can be drafted with the help of literacy personnel. The alphabet book may be the most tangible result for many of the speakers. Those that didn’t attend the workshop may not fully appreciate the grammar book, but they will likely enjoy seeing their alphabet displayed and illustrated simple words and picutres. 

An alphabet book is also the best tool for testing the alphabet symbols with the language community, so it should be given priority. 

*If the langauge already has an alphabet book pre-workshop, this is usually revised during the final sesssions of the Phase 1 workshop(s). 

A story book can be created from the interlinearized texts used during the workshop. After the spelling of all words has been revised by consulting the dictionary and the English translation taken out, a literacy person can help find pictures (ideally chosen by a speaker) and format the texts into a book. This book can serve a reading practince for language speakers. Ideally,  a story book will be constructed as soon as possible, so the writing system can be more fully tested with readers of the language.