A Practical Introduction to the Text Encoding Initiative

Facilitated by:Susan Schreibman (Digital Humanities Observatory) and Justin Tonra (Moore Institute, NUI Galway) 

This course will provide an introduction to the theory and practice of encoding and transforming electronic texts for the humanities. This workshop is designed for individuals embarking on a text encoding project and who would like a better understanding of the philosophy, theory, and practicalities of encoding in XML (Extensible Markup Language) using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) guidelines. Focus will be given to methods for creating TEI, including translating existing formats (specifically MS Word and Excel documents) into TEI and encoding by hand, as well as displaying, visualizing, and using encoded texts. Existing knowledge of XML and the TEI is helpful but not necessary. Students will also receive instruction on specifying their own document encoding rules using schemas.

Agenda
Preparation
Bibliography

Agenda

Monday
Morning
Class Introduction
Lecture: Introduction to XML
Lecture; Introduction to the Text Encoding Initiative
Afternoon
Exercise: Document Analysis
Exercise: Introduction to TEI Encoding: A Yeats Poem

Tuesday
Morning
Lecture: Encoding Document Features
Exercise: Encoding The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (don’t worry – not the whole thing!)
Afternoon
Exercise: Ben Franklin encoding (continued)
Introduction to the TEI Header

Thursday
Morning
Lecture: Why Encode?
Lecture: Why Not Encode?
Exercise: How to decide on level/type of encoding
Lecture: Critical Apparatus
Afternoon
Lecture: Critical Apparatus exercise using the Versioning Machine

Friday
Morning
Open Encoding: Your own documents, catching up on exercises, etc
Exercise: Creating a tag library (time permitting)

Preparation

Required: download oXygen XML Editor from www.oxygenxml.com. Course participants will be provided with a license for use during the Summer School. 

Bibliography

A fairly up to date bibliography maintained by the TEI Consortium is at: http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/SIG/Education/tei_bibliography.xml

Any of the readings that catch your imagination would be well worth reading.

Some introductory web-based articles are here:

• "A Gentle Introduction to XML", part of P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange" (http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/SG.html)
• Muller, Martin. "A Very Gentle Introduction to the TEI Markup Language" (http://www.tei-c.org/Support/Learn/mueller-index.htm)