Redaction: Once again, Mormon tells us what he will do, namely, “put them with the remainder of my record.” We now have sufficient information to suggest a solution to the textual process of receiving both the small plates and the Words of Mormon.
Mormon found the small plates when he was looking for more source material among “the plates of Nephi” for his abridgment. This source material consisted of many sets of plates, titled according to the political or religious dynasty that each dealt with. The most logical interpretation is that Mormon read though the small plates of Nephi, then set them aside and continued the narration from Benjamin to 4 Nephi. When he was almost finished, the Lord reminded him of these small plates before he gave the plates to Moroni and that he should include them with his abridged record “for a wise purpose” (v. 7).
Mormon inserted the small plates in correct chronological order, then added Words of Mormon as a transitional chapter, tying the inserted plates to the following abridgment. This scenario resolves the problem of assuming that he inserted the small plates in his record as soon as he found them.
A separate issue is how Joseph Smith encountered the material when he was translating. The evidence suggests that, when the translation resumed after the loss of the 116 manuscript pages, Joseph continued with Mosiah and the small plate material was translated last. (See commentary accompanying Jacob 4:7.) If Mormon inserted the small plates into the text, where did he place them? If we assume that Joseph Smith translated by a continuous examination of the plates, it would seem unusual that he would skip these plates. However, since the translation method often did not require the examination of the plates, there is no reason to suppose that their physical location had any specific relationship to the time when they were translated.