Intermediate Encoding
In this section, we will handle the special situations mentioned at the end of Basic Encoding. We will also carry out the semantic markup of the text.
Please note that you can copy and paste blocks of markup from this page into your file. You do not need to type from scratch.
Step 1. Handle some special situations
1.1 Deal with the specific requirements of letters
Many of the documents we are editing are letters, for which some special considerations are in order. If you're editing a letter, the following are some things you may need to do. Some of this material may also apply to postcards.
1.1.1 Mark up openers and closers
We encode these using <opener> and <closer>, respectively.
These elements do not go inside <p> or <head> elements. These do not need to appear in a <div>, but placing each in its own <div> may simplify matters when trying to manipulate them in terms of layout. Also, <opener> is assumed to be the first element in a <div>. Therefore, if the first page of your document is an image of an envelope, you should put that envelope within its own <div></div> on page 1, and then start a new <div> on page 2, which will begin with the opener (you may need to adjust this scheme, depending on the actual facts of your document, of course).
Openers gather together elements including <dateline> (which can contain <date>and <address>, <name>, etc.) and <salute> (which will often include <name>).
Closers generally include <salute> and <signed> (which will often include <name>).
Here is an example of how to mark up the opening and closing of a letter:
<opener>
<dateline>
<name type="place" subtype="city">
Jacksonville
</name>
<date when="1900-01-01">
Jan. 1, 1900
</date>
</dateline>
<salute>
My dear friend,
</salute>
</opener>
<p>Body of letter here.</p>
<closer>
<salute>
Your sister in Christ,
</salute>
<signed>
<name type="person">
Sarah Best
</name>.
</signed>
</closer>
For an example, see "Letter from Cornelius to Eartha M.M. White, March 6, 1930, Palatka, Florida" (Omeka item, XML file).
1.1.2 Encode the envelope
Often the images of the corresponding envelopes are included with those of a letter itself. We will use the following format:
<div type="envelope">
<div type="postage_stamp">
<p>
<stamp >
<figure>
<desc>
Stamp representing the Statue of Liberty.
</desc>
</figure>
</stamp>
</p>
<p>Liberty</p>
<p>2 cents</p>
</div>
<div type="postmark">
<p>
<name type="place" subtype="city">
Patterson, N.J
</name>
<date when="1934-08-01">Aug. 1, 1934</date>
</p>
</div>
<div type="sender_address">
<p>
<name type="place" subtype="address">114 Main St.<lb/>
<name type="place" subtype="city">Jacksonville, FL</name></name><lb/>
</p>
</div>
<div type="recipient_address">
<p>
<name type="place" subtype="address">233 Eagle St.<lb/>
<name type="place" subtype="city">Jacksonville, FL</name></name><lb/>
</p>
</div>
</div>
For an example, see "Letter from Cornelius to Eartha M.M. White, March 6, 1930, Palatka, Florida" (Omeka item, XML file).
1.1.3 Account for letterhead or pre-printed text
If a letter is handwritten or typed onto letterhead or other stationary or paper with pre-printed text on it, we will transcribe that material, but will mark it using <div> to isolate it from the text of the document itself.
For letterhead, use a <div> with a value of "letterhead" for @type:
<div type="letterhead">
For other preprinted materials, use a value of "preprinted":
<div type="preprinted">
Please note that this would not apply if an entire document were printed (such as a pamphlet or event program).
For an example with letterhead, see "Letter from O. Benedict to Mr. Skinner, October 6, 1906, Jacksonville, Florida" (Omeka item, XML file).
For an example with both letterhead and other pre-printed material, see "Letter from Ruth to Eartha M.M. White, c.1908, Jacksonville, Florida" (Omeka item, XML file).
Before you begin transcribing and encoding the letterhead of a document, you may want to search the collection to see if someone else has already handled that same letterhead. Make sure you are logged into the Omeka site (so that you can see items that are not yet published), and search the items with keywords drawn from the letterhead in question. If you find that someone else has already done this work, you may download their XML file, copy the portion that corresponds to the letterhead, paste it into your file, and add that person as a contributor in the TEI Header of your file. You can do this as follows:
<respStmt>
<resp>Transcription and markup of letterhead</resp>
<name>Firstname Lastname</name>
</respStmt>
Be sure to review the material you have copied and pasted to make sure it's accurate and completely reflects the letterhead as it appears in your own document.
1.2 Deal with the specific requirements of event programs
Some of the documents we are editing are programs from ceremonies and other events. Often they will have headings and include lists of roles/categories and individuals, like the following:
Selection . . . . . . . . . . . Welcome Cornet Band
Invocation . . . . . . . . . . Rev. J. Gregg
Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glee Club, Boylan's Industrial Home
For this example in context, see "Program: Corner Stone Laying of Old Folks Home."
1.2.1 Encode the headings
Like some other types of documents, event programs may have headings, which are addressed in 1.3 below.
1.2.2 Standardize sequences of periods
When these documents contain sequences of periods separating items, we will standarize them in the transcription view to five, with a leading space and a trailing space, and we will replace them with a colon in the reading view (using <choice> in this fashion is discussed in more detail in Advanced Encoding, but I'm including this specific case here to help you deal with this aspect of these documents now).
<choice><orig> . . . . . </orig><reg>: </reg></choice>
1.2.3 Use <list>
We will encode lists of roles/categories and people using <list type="simple">, with each line (or combination of items) being an <item>.
<list type="simple">
<item>
Selection<choice><orig> . . . . . </orig><reg>: </reg></choice> Welcome Cornet Band<lb/>
</item>
<item>
Invocation<choice><orig> . . . . . </orig><reg>: </reg></choice> Rev. J. Gregg</name><lb/>
</item>
<item>
Music<choice><orig> . . . . . </orig><reg>: </reg></choice> Glee Club, Boylan's Industrial Home<lb/>
</item>
</list>
1.3 Indicate headings
If your document has headings, you can indicate them with <head></head>.
We consider a header to be the initial title of a document, or the heading of a sub-section. These are most often present in newspaper articles, monographic works, pamphlets or other such formal or structured writing. Letters generally will not contain headings.
Note that a <head> element has be contained inside a <div>, as in this example:
<body>
<div>
<head>Section 1</head>
<p>This is the text of section 1.</p>
</div>
</body>
If you have multiple levels of headings, you will need nested <div> elements, as in this example:
<body>
<div>
<head>Section 1</head>
<div>
<head>Subsection 1.1</head>
<p>This is the text of subsection 1.1.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>Subsection 1.2</head>
<p>This is the text of subsection 1.2.</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
Because dealing with <div> elements can be difficult, using <head> is optional. If you prefer, you can continue to mark up each heading up with <p></p>.
1.4 Handle non-contiguous blocks of text
When the text in a document jumps around on a page, or between different pages of a document, transcribe the text as a continuous flow, in the order you believe it should follow, and document what you've done with either of the following solutions.
1.4.1 Add XML comments
You can add XML comments at the start and end of the non-continguous section:
<p>
We were going downtown<lb/>
<!-- Start of non-contiguous section. The following text is written sideways on the top margin of page 4. -->
to the movies <lb/>
when it started to rain cats and
<!-- End of non-contiguous section -->
dogs and there were no<lb/>
taxis anywhere.<lb/>
</p>
1.4.2 Add a note
Enclose the non-continguous section in <seg> and <term> elements, with your explanation provided in a <note> element:
<seg type="note" subtype="transcription">
<term>the non contiguous text to which the note refers</term>
<note>Text of your explanatory note</note>
</seg>
Here's an example of what that might look like:
<p>
We were going downtown<lb/>
<seg type="note" subtype="transcription">
<term>
to the movies <lb/>
when it started to rain cats and
</term>
<note>
This text is written sideways on the top margin of page 4.
</note>
</seg>
dogs and there were no<lb/>
taxis anywhere.<lb/>
</p>
If you choose this option, the non-contiguous text will appear underlined in the transcription view, and the user will see the note when hovering over it with the cursor.
For an example of this option, see page four "Letter from Ruth to Eartha M.M. White, c.1908, Jacksonville, Florida" (Omeka item, XML file).
1.5 Deal with specific needs of postcards
When preparing the XML template for postcards, I have pasted various blocks of elements you may need to mark up the file. Much of this is described above under 1.1 Deal with the specific requirements of letters, but the formatting of postcards is different, of course. As appropriate, I have also included in an XML comment the transcription that was done by T. Britton previously. You will need to cut and paste that transcription into the appropriate blocks, and arrange everything so that it matches your document. Please be sure to transcribe any text that is pre-printed on the postcard (which is not included in the existing transcription) and the postmark.
1.6 Handle tabular data
When a document contains data in a tabular format (information organized into rows and columns), we will use the following structure:
<table>
<head>...</head>
<row>
<cell>...</cell>
<cell>...</cell>
<cell>...</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell>...</cell>
<cell>...</cell>
<cell>...</cell>
</row>
<cell>
Here is an example from "Who is Who in Jacksonville Business and Professions, Eartha M. M. White":
<table>
<head><hi rend="underline"><hi rend="allcaps">Architects</hi></hi></head>
<row>
<cell><name type="person">Faulk, Howard E.</name></cell>
<cell><name type="place" subtype="address">1256 W. 29th Street</name></cell>
<cell>EL 5-4102</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell><name type="person">Hutchins, J. E.</name></cell>
<cell><name type="place" subtype="address">1490 W. State Street</name></cell>
<cell>EL 4-1873</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell><name type="person">Patterson, George E.</name></cell>
<cell><name type="place" subtype="address">1584 W. 12th Street</name></cell>
<cell>EL 5-1181</cell>
</row>
</table>
1.7 Mark up poetry
We mark up poetry using <lg> (line group) and <l> (line), as in this example (see "Poem (1944) by Robert Hughes Bennett in Celebration of Simuel Decatur McGill's Victory in the 1942 "Little Scottsbury [Scottsboro] Case"):
<head rend="center"><hi rend="allcaps">The Little Scotsbury Case</hi></head>
<lg>
<l>Three men were found guilty and sentenced to die<choice><orig>;</orig><reg>,</reg></choice></l>
<l>Their trail was believed not to be fair<choice><orig>;</orig><reg>,</reg></choice></l>
<l>A great defense lawyer constantly <choice><orig>stood-by</orig><reg>stood by</reg></choice></l>
<l><choice><abbr>Thru</abbr><expan>Through</expan></choice> the following nine years of gloom and despair.</l>
</lg>
<lg>
<l>For nine long years, doomed men earnestly prayed<choice><orig>;</orig><reg>,</reg></choice></l>
<l>For nine long years, expecting their lives to be taken<choice><orig>;</orig><reg>,</reg></choice></l>
<l>For nine long years, execution of death was stayed<choice><orig>;</orig><reg>,</reg></choice></l>
<l>It took nine long years for justice to awaken<choice><orig><choice><orig>;</orig><reg>,</reg></choice></orig><reg>.</reg></choice></l>
</lg>
Step 2. Carry out semantic markup
For all the categories below, we mark up every instance, even if the same item appears multiple times in the same document.
We use the term semantic to describe markup that deals with meaning rather than appearance or structure.
2.1 Encode dates
Use <date when="YYYY-MM-DD"> to enclose a date, in whatever way it is articulated. You might see a standard situation like the following:
She was born on <date when="1970-04-01">April 1, 1970</date>.
If you had only a year, this would be the format:
<date when="1970">1970</date>
Only month and year would be:
<date when="1980-02">February 1980</date>
Only month and day won't validate, so if that is the only information available, use "9999" as a placeholder year.
Sometimes references to dates aren’t explicit, but we can still tag them, as in:
Earlier <date when="1970">that same year</date>, her parents had moved to Florida.
2.2 Mark up names
2.2.1. Individual people
Use <name type="person"> to encode the proper name of a person, as in:
<name type="person">James Johnson</name>
This can also be used to mark common nouns or phrases that refer to a specific, identifiable person, as in:
Later that year, <name type="person">her cousin</name> died in the war.
2.2.2 Places
Mark up the proper names of a place of any type with <name type="place"></name>, using @subtype to provide a more specific category, according to the following list:
<name type="place" subtype="city">Jacksonville</name>
<name type="place" subtype="county">Duval</name>
<name type="place" subtype="state">Florida</name>
<name type="place" subtype="country">United States</name>
<name type="place" subtype="neighborhood">Lavilla</name>
<name type="place" subtype="street">Ashley Street</name>
<name type="place" subtype="river">St. John's River</name>
<name type="place" subtype="creek">Hogans Creek</name>
<name type="place" subtype="address">123 Main Street</name>
<name type="place" subtype="building">City Hall</name>
<name type="place" subtype="ocean">Atlantic Ocean</name>
<name type="place"> can be used to mark common nouns or phrases that refer to specific, identifiable places, as in:
the level of toxicity in the <name type="place" subtype="river">river</name> has increased...
where river refers, for instance, to the St. Johns.
2.2.3. Institutions
For all organizations, companies or other groupings of people, we use <name type="institution"> with a value for subtype from the following list: company, non-profit, governmental, educational, religious, family, social.
<name type="institution" subtype="company">Afro-American Life Insurance Company</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="non-profit">City Federation of Women's Clubs</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="governmental">Jacksonville City Council</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="educational">Stanton School</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="relgious">Bethel Baptist</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="family">Smith family</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="social">Knights of Colombus</name>
<name type="institution" subtype="cultural">Imperial Jazz Orchestra</name>
When you are unsure what subtype to use, or when more than one is possible choose the option that seems most appropriate.
When a term may refer to a building and an institution simultaneously, you can designate it as both, as in these examples:
<name type="place" subtype="building"><name type="institution" subtype="educational">LaVilla Park School</name></name>
<name type="place" subtype="building"><name type="institution" subtype="religious">Christian Methodist Episcopal Church</name></name>
2.2.4 Events
You can mark up the name of an event with <name type="event">, as in:
<name type="event">The World's Fair</name>
2.3 Titles
Encode the titles of any books, movies, works of art with <title>, using the fixed values of "a" or "m" for @type.
For books, movies, and paintings, use <title level="m">.
For newspaper articles, songs, poems, use <title level="a">.
Note that we use <title> to encode the titles of works mentioned within a document. The title at the top of a document itself (as in the case of an event program, etc.) is probably best handled with <head> (see above).
Step 3. Make sure your file is well formed and valid
Once you have carried out the markup on this page, check to make sure your file is well formed using the instructions you followed previously in step 4 of Basic Encoding.
Your choice
I recommend that you do steps 4 and 5 below now, to address any issues related to the tasks on this page. However, as long as your file is well formed and valid at this point, you may also continue directly to Advanced Encoding, if you prefer.
Step 4. Place your file in the OneDrive folder
Once your file is free of problems, put a copy into the OneDrive folder of files to transfer.
Step 5. View your modified file and fix any problems
Once your file has been transferred, you will be able to see it on the server. If you already have the page open, you will need to reload it to see your changes. If you don't have it open, remember that you can get to it with the corresponding URL on our document spreadsheet.
Remember that you can toggle back and forth between the transcription and reading versions of the file. You can also use the semantic view to see everything you marked up in step 2 of this page. If you used option 1.3.2 to mark any non-contiguous text, you should see the text in question underlined and your note should be visible when you hover the cursor over it.
If you find any problems, fix them using the documentation on this page, and then repeat steps 3, 4, and 5.