Text Preparation

Before the first workshop, facilitators will need to type, revise and mark all 8-10 interlinearized texts received from the community.

After texts have been prepared and marked, use the guides under Prepare Charts & Frames to chart langauge data and select example sentences. 

Revise Texts

Text revisions before the workshop focus mainly on punctuation and the free translation. While community members know their language well, they may not be used to translating their language into a language of wider communication or handling punctuation. These are ways that outsiders can appropriately assist the community.

Revising texts ahead of time also helps facilitators better understand the texts and better analyze the language's grammar effectively. Much of the needed revisions to punctuation and the free translation can be guessed correctly by outsiders beforehand and then checked by speakers during the workshop. This frees up time in the workshop for the participants to check other language data that outsiders cannot guess so easily. Reasonable guesses at this stage are helpful for saving time later in the workshop. 

Overview: Text Revision

Time Estimate:

 3 hours 

Materials Needed

• 8-10 interlinearized texts from the community 

• Computer + word processing software (e.g. Microsoft Word)

• Printer

Instructions

1. If the texts are handwritten, type and format each text using a word processor, such as Microsoft Word or Open Office. 

• If there are a few words here and there that are unreadable, these can be corrected or added later. However, if more than 5% of the text is unreadable, ask the community to rewrite the illegible portions (and/or send a clearer photo of the text). 

• It is NOT recommended to first type stories into FLEx, then copy and paste them into Word. The transfer from FLEx results in boxes for each word and its gloss, making it difficult to search for words and morphemes inside the text. Being able to search for words is important when studying syntax and distribution and when creating grammar books.* 

2. Check through each text and make revisions to the punctuation and free translation as needed, using the steps posted in "Revising Texts." An example of a text received from a community and its revised version are also included below.

3. Create cards for any new words encountered (see "Prepare Cards") and enter the words into the draft FLEx Lexicon. (If you choose to first type the texts into FLEx, FLEx can help you more easily compare the words in the texts with the words already entered into the dictionary). 

4. Print 1 set of revised texts for every participant and staff member.

*An alternative method is to first type the text (WITHOUT the glosses) into FLEx, then copy and paste the text into Word. However, you will still need to type the glosses twice— once in FLEx and once in Word. 

Text Revision Example 

Mark Texts

Marking a text before the workshop will help you...

1) Refine your grammatical understanding of the langauge 

Marking the constituents in each clause will give you a clearer understanding of the language's word categories and constructions, as well as how specific words and morphemes are commonly used. Marked texts also make is easy to see the most common word order in just a quick reading of the texts. Stars can be put next to words and clauses that do not fit the common pattern, along with a brief explanation of the nature of the exception in the margin. 

2) Test hypotheses

Marking different elements of a text forces you to test out your hypotheses of how particular words, morphemes and constructions are used. Although you will need to make some guesses at first, you will quickly discover whether your guesses are probably correct or probably wrong. This allows you the opportunity to make new and better guesses, as needed.

3) Prepare for sessions

As you prepare for sessions, it will be easier to find examples of a particular word, construction or morpheme if the text has been marked. While searches can also be done on the computer, this will only be as successful as the spelling consistency of each word and morpheme. It is easier for a human to correctly guess spelling mistakes in context than a software program using a search command.  

4) Lead a text-marking activity

RGC workshops use text-marking to help participants identify the function of particular words and morphemes during the workshop. Marking texts ahead of time gives you the opportunity to create a marking system (of particular shapes and colors) that can be used during the workshop and prepares you to lead more effectively.

Overview: Text-Marking

Time Estimate:

4 hours 

Materials Needed

• A printed copy of all revised texts

• Colored pencils, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown & black 

Instructions

1. Choose a text and read through the free translation twice.

2. Following the steps in "Marking Texts," use colored pencils to mark different constituents, morphemes and constructions found in the text.

3. Repeat steps 1-2 for each text. 

Text-Marking Example 

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