WG1: Encoding Proposals

Proposed Encoding Guidelines for the ELTeC

A discussion document setting out the full proposal is available here

We summarize the proposals as follows:

• Use TEI XML : a well-established, customizable, scholarly standard
• Capture a guaranteed minimum of features for each text:
  • significant structural features (chapters, headings, paragraphs...)
  • descriptive metadata (bibliographic and non bibliographic)
• The proposal raises a number of open questions as to which features should be captured
• The proposal defines an XML schema and a set of rules which can be used to validate converted texts (more or less) automatically

Why XML-TEI?

Why not just use plain text?

• By using an XML based format, we ensure that
  • ELTeC texts can be validated
  • ELTeC texts can be converted to other formats using simple widely-available technologies
  • ELTeC texts can be enriched with additional more sophisticated annotations
• By using TEI, we can take advantage of tools and techniques, widely used across the research community likely to be interested in the ELTeC
• NB Using the TEI does not mean our encoding will represent every possible textual feature or metadatum ... on the contrary!

Taming the TEI

• The TEI offers a choice of over 450 different elements ... we will use (and our schema will only permit) about a dozen.

• The TEI is very flexible in the structures and perspectives it supports. We will apply Occam's razor extensively.