An intensive introduction to the Guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative

Dates: May 12th to May 15th, 2025

Instructor: James Cummings and Diane Jakacki

Location: TBA

Description: 

This workshop is an intensive introduction taught in a way that both those who are absolute beginners to digital markup and the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) or also those with a little bit of experience (but needing a refresher) will be able to complete it. No previous experience with XML or TEI markup is assumed, and introductions to both of these will be provided as part of the workshop. The TEI Guidelines are the de facto standard for recording our interpretation of historical texts for research through digital markup. Although the very general TEI Guidelines are used for many purposes, this workshop will be customised to the interests of the participants attending through a pre-workshop questionnaire, but starts with the assumption that you are likely interested in creating digital editions of historical texts. This workshop will explain the XML (Extensible Markup Language) format and the vocabulary of the TEI through both lectures and practical hands-on exercises completed by participants. The workshop will provide a basic level of introduction to those modules of the TEI which are most popular and useful to participants. It will also train participants to be able to customise the TEI framework for their own projects. Participants do not need to provide their own materials as the exercises will use pre-prepared texts, however you will be encouraged to consider how you might apply what you have learned to your own materials. Participants will be sent instructions to install the Oxygen XML Editor (with a free trial licence) on their own laptops, though other software options (such as LEAF-Writer) will be briefly demonstrated as part of the workshop. 

Intended Audience:

Beginners, but those with some very limited TEI experience who want a refresher could also benefit.