If you have questions after reading this guide, please contact Dan Tracy (dtracy@illinois.edu), head of Scholarly Communication and Publishing.
For assistance with XML or other digital humanities tools and resources, don't hesitate to contact the Scholarly Commons staff by email (sc@library.illinois.edu) or call 217-244-1331. For more information, visit the Scholarly Commons.
Here is XML applied to a short letter.
<letter>
<date>March 15, 2013</date>
<salutation>Dear <name>Joe</name></salutation>
<paragraph>How's it going? Some weather we're having! Say hi to <name>Mary</name>!</paragraph>
<signature>From, <name>Bob</name></signature>
</letter>
This XML is well-formed because it has one element <letter>, which includes all the other elements. Each section of text is properly delimited and none of the elements overlap. Remember, it cannot be valid because we have not specified a schema against which to validate it, but it follows the basic rules of XML and is thus well-formed.
Below is an example of XML applied to a poem.
<poem>
<head>XXI.</head>
<title>A Book.</title>
<stanza>
<l>He ate and drank the precious words,</l>
<l>His Spirit grew robust;</l>
<l>He knew no more that he was poor,</l>
<l>Nor that his frame was dust.<l>
<l>He danced along the dingy days,</l>
<l>And this bequest of wings</l>
<l>Was but a book. What liberty</l>
<l>A loosened Spirit brings!</l>
</stanza>
</poem>
Here again, the XML is well-formed because it has one element <poem>, which includes all the other elements. Each section of text is properly delimited and none of the elements overlap. Remember, it cannot be valid because we have not specified a schema against which to validate it, but it follows the basic rules of XML and is thus well-formed.
