Converting printed text to script for audio
Vital truths of Christianity
A clear telling of the Christian worldview
Willis Ott, Oral Translation Consultant, Storying and Orality, SIL
(The author carries the full responsibility for the views expressed.)
There are many printed translations now. People are now recognizing that most of every population on earth will not read printed Scripture. With the intuitive technology available to that vast crowd of people, we can affect many more people with audio recordings of God’s message than we could ever have affected through printed Scripture.
We should consider ourselves very privileged to live in such a time as this. God has given our generation gifts that no other generation has known in the combination that we have:
A widening expertise for exegeting the Scriptures.
A widening recognition that majority of every language group in the world will never respond to the Scriptures through reading.
A widening access and use of hand-held audio devices all over the world.
A widening access to the internet.
An availability of economically feasible equipment for recording and editing audio files.
A widening permission for translators to communicate the Scriptures meaningfully.
A widening knowledge of how humans communicate and of how individuals convince others of new ideas.
Many instruments of literacy have been developed:
In the distant past, God’s message was written on scrolls of parchment, then scrolls of papyrus.
A fantastic invention was the ‘codex’ which allowed a user much easier access to any individual text.
After centuries, moveable type, with improved papers, allowed faster, more economical production.
Typewriters facilitated the work.
In our time, the first computers came into being, rapidly growing in utility and ease of use.
Next came the internet
and then digital display on mobile devices.
All these inventions built themselves on earlier inventions. Of course, the use of each of those inventions developed its own traditions. The problem for us communicators is that traditions tend to obscure the message instead of enliven it.
Now in our times, there are many developments in the reproduction of sounds and thus the possibility of humans communicating with other humans by means of speech has flourished. I am suggesting that it is now time to begin A RADICAL NEW EPOCH in Bible translation—the epoch of ORAL COMMUNICATION of God’s message. I do not use the word “radical” lightly. We all should recognize that our helping oral learners to respond to God’s invitation will require a radical approach and new thinking for us literates.
We recommend strongly that a person who converts print to audio does not communicate any section headings, chapter or verse numbers. Such references are not relevant to oral communication. Such indexes are useful and needful only in the printed media.
We present some consultant notes to suggest ways in which a team might convert their printed version to audio script. It is important that the team help the listeners to understand easily so that they can incrementally believe.
Continue to the notes for converting
"Vital truths"
In the files in which we present the suggested scripts, we offer also suggested introductions and closures for each of the communication units. The team should create their own scripts for those, communicating directly to their audiences.
