Module Description
A digital scholarly edition of a literary work can do more than simply reproduce an author’s text as pixels on a screen, as opposed to ink on paper. By using a specialized encoding language to describe the features of the text, a digital scholarly edition can make it possible to display the text in different ways for different purposes, and to mine the text for significant patterns. In this module, you’ll learn about a specialized encoding language called “TEI”—an abbreviation for both the language and the consortium of editors who created and maintain it: the Text Encoding Initiative.
Outcomes/Activities
At the completion of this module you should
- Understand the value of modeling textual data using a machine-readable markup language
- Understand how XML/TEI is used by digital scholarly editors to model textual data
Dates and Activities
Monday, February 23
Before class
- Read Walden, “Reading,” “Sounds,” “Solitude.”
- Leave a comment in the margin of a passage from Walden in The Readers’ Thoreau that’s in one of the chapters assigned for 2-23.
In class
- We’ll discuss Walden and continue exploring TEI.
Class work: In your folder for 2-23, share your journal file for the day with notes our *Walden discussion and TEI.*
Wednesday, February 25
Before class
- Read Walden, “Visitors,” “The Bean-Field,” “The Village.”
- Read the pages in the module “Text Encoding.”
- Leave a comment on a passage in Walden in another of the chapters assigned for 2-25.
In class
- Visit with Beth Witherell, Editor-in-Chief of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau.
Class work: In your folder for 2-25, share your journal file for the day with notes on our visit from Dr. Witherell. These should be detailed.
Friday, February 27
Before class
- No new reading.
In class
- We’ll explore TEI.
Class work: In your folder for 2-27, share your journal file for the day with notes on anything you did or learned this week that has a connection with anything you did or learned in another class. Explain the connection.
Reminder: First blog post assignment due February 27 at 11:59 p.m.