TEI by Example Module 7: Critical Editing Ron Van den Branden Edward Vanhoutte Melissa Terras Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) Centre for Data, Culture and Society, University of Edinburgh, UK Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH), University College London, UK Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH), King’s College London, UK Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) , Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, Belgium
Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium
ctb@kantl.be Edward Vanhoutte Melissa Terras Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) , Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, Belgium Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) , Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, Belgium Gent
Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium

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9 July 2010 TEI by Example. Edward Vanhoutte editor Ron Van den Branden editor Melissa Terras editor

Digitally born

TEI by Example offers a series of freely available online tutorials walking individuals through the different stages in marking up a document in TEI (Text Encoding Initiative). Besides a general introduction to text encoding, step-by-step tutorial modules provide example-based introductions to eight different aspects of electronic text markup for the humanities. Each tutorial module is accompanied with a dedicated examples section, illustrating actual TEI encoding practise with real-life examples. The theory of the tutorial modules can be tested in interactive tests and exercises.

 en-GB release creation Module 7: Critical Editing

Below is a brief critical edition of Nocturne, a short poem by Thomas McGreevy. In a parallel-segmented apparatus, the edition encodes the variants of 4 versions: Nocturne, Saint Eloi, 1918 (TCD 7878/1/2) Nocturne of St. Eloi, 1918 (TCD MS 7989/1/3) Nocturne, Saint Eloi (TCD MS 79891/1) This poem was published in Poems as Nocturn

Let’s assume this has been encoded as follows:

<app> <rdg wit="#a1">Nocturne, St. Eloi, 1918.</rdg> <rdg wit="#a2">NOCTURNE OF ST. ELOI, 1918 <del>Weeds of virtue</del> <del>The</del> Widowed Virtue</rdg> <rdg wit="#a3">NOCTURNE, SAINT ELOI</rdg> <rdg wit="#pub">NOCTURNE</rdg> </app>

To the memory of [?] Geoffrey England Taylor, 2nd Lieutenant, R.F.A., died of wounds received in action, in France, September, 26, 1918.

To Geoffrey England Taylor, 2nd Lieutenant, R.F.A., "Died of wounds".

I labour in a barren place, Afraid, aware, little blundering, lonely thing: Alone, self-conscious, frightened, blundering; Far away, stars wheeling on through space. Above me, Far away stars wheeling in space, Far above, stars wheeling in space, Far away, stars wheeling in space, About my feet, earth voices whispering. About my feet, earth voices whispering. . . .
This encoded fragment was based on a TEI P4 XML encoded critical edition of Nocturne (McGreevy), made available for the Versioning Machine. Please note, that for the purpose of this example, the encoding has been simplified and some errors have been deliberately inserted.

Spot the obvious mistake, and correct it. Although this encoding is perfectly valid, it takes the entire verse line as the unit of variation. In terms of variant representation, this could be made more informative, by encoding the variants under the line level. Try this. This variant encoding at word level allows you to group readings and qualify them (punctuation, spelling, substantial variation, ...). Enrich your variant encoding with such categories. Complete this critical edition by documenting the list of witnesses the wit attributes then can properly refer to.
McGreevy, Thomas. Nocturne. Encoded and made available by the University of Maryland University Libraries, as sample for the Versioning Machine. Available online at .