TEI by Example Module 3: Prose Edward Vanhoutte Ron Van den Branden 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

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

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 technical revision added section #references: Bibliographic and general references added distinction gi — gi scheme="..." — tag final spellcheck release changed example text corrected typos Information added and partially rewrit of 2.6 for coordination purposes with module 1 completed prose tutorial added remark about paragraph and div mixing in 2.1. Paragraphs correcting authoring
Introduction

It’s quite difficult to define prose. Prose is not poetry and not drama. Prose is the default way of communication in the Western World. It is the main genre for fictional and non-fictional writing in books, newspapers, flyers, reports, presentations, etc. Novels, business reports, manuals, cookery books, glossy magazines, and transcriptions of conversations are all written in prose.

The OED defines prose as: Language in the form in which it is typically written (or spoken), usually characterized as having no deliberate metrical structure (in contrast with verse or poetry) Oxford English Dictionary, prose, 1a and further sums up a couple of features such as the avoidance of elaboration, metaphorical language, and imaginative contents that distinguishes prose from poetry but do, however, characterize fictional prose.

As with all types of text, prose has structure and meaning. The TEI Guidelines do not devote a dedicated chapter to prose, since prose is the default TEI genre. However, the TEI does offer means to encode structural, semantic, and analytical features in prose. In this module, we bring together most of the encoding suggestions that are scattered throughout the TEI Guidelines and present a didactic approach towards encoding prose texts.