Wycliffe Ethiopia highly values the Bible Translation consultant service. Therefore any translation team who is partnering with Wycliffe Ethiopia must arrange for a consultant well ahead of time and needs to discuss with the consultant which services are needed. Back translations have to be prepared for the consultant in advance.

 The following points are some of the responsibilities of a translation consultant:

-       Guide and train the translation team members in translation principles.

-       Give training for reviewers and church leaders.

-       Encourage and support the translation team.

-       Help the teams to plan and organize their project to do good quality work.

-       Advise the team to plan strategically so that the translation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will have an impact on the language community right from the beginning of the translation project.

-       Be available to discuss problem areas of the translation project with the team.

-       Assist with the ground working with the community and Government before starting the actual translation.

-       Help the translation teams in public relation in the language area.

-       Help the translation teams to follow the translation procedures and strategies from first draft to the publication.

-       Consult with the team concerning matters such as footnotes, glossaries, choices of illustration, and other supplementary materials.

-       Follow up the projects progress until the translation work is completed. 

-       Carry out full consultant checking of the scripture and other scripture related materials before publication.

-       Advise the translation team on the preparation of the manuscript for publication and check for consistency, format, and other areas before being submitted for final   processing and printing.

-       Formally recommend the translated manuscript for publication when he/she is fully satisfied that it is ready for publication.

The consultant will encourage the teams to do the following final checking procedures before they submit for publishing:

-       Parallel passage check – e.g. with the aid of Paratext Software.

-       Key terms check.

-       Paragraph divisions.

-       Spelling consistency.

-       Punctuation consistency.

-       Format markers need to be checked.

-       Glossary – If the team decided to include one, the entries will need to be consultant checked.

-       If you want pictures, they need to be carefully chosen and placed. They will also need captions.

-       Book introductions

-       General introduction to the New Testament – including the policy of how source text variants are treated in the translation

-       Maps and Place names consistency.

-       Content page accuracy

-       A final read through of the whole New Testament or full Bible’s translated manuscript immediately prior to sending it for typesetting.