Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This skills-based module will introduce students to the principles of textual editing for print and digital platforms. It will draw on archival resources and take a practical approach to teaching students with the knowledge and skills they need to work effectively with and to edit these sources. Students will also be trained more broadly in the skills, technologies, theories and methods of scholarly editing. Students will critically assess existing editions, learn how to describe, transcribe and annotate a text and then use the open international encoding standard TEI P5 XML to encode that text.

Outline Of Syllabus

The core of the module is the transcription and annotation of a manuscript of culinary, medical and cosmetic recipes created in Northumberland in the late seventeenth century. The transcriptions are then encoded and added to the digital edition of this manuscript which has been co-created by successive cohorts of students. The MS is of considerable value for social and medical history, the history of women’s domestic labour and for studies of early modern English in the North-East.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of the module students should be able to:
1. Understand the principles of book history, manuscript studies and textual editing
2. Critically analyse a range of approaches to editing texts
3. Assess the significance of a text’s material form for its interpretation
4. Critically analyse a range of existing electronic and print editions of literary texts
5. Show an awareness of the conceptual and practical issues around the planning, creation and development of editions
6. Knowledge of how to undertake palaeographical transcriptions.
7. Knowledge of TEI XML.

Intended Skill Outcomes

At the end of the module students should be able to:
1. Locate archives and primary-text databases appropriate to their research and use them effectively
2. Read, describe and transcribe a range of manuscript and print material
3. Transcribe accurately seventeenth-century handwriting.
4. Use digital software to display or edit texts.
5. Specific familiarity with coding using TEI P5 XML and the Oxygen XML editor.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

This is a module with a strong element of skills acquisition so our methods of teaching and learning are orientated to practical application. Small-group teaching focuses on transmitting the skills of transcription, annotation and text-encoding. That teaching is scaffolded by set reading and preparatory tasks for each session. The TEI pathway is supported by workshops and by academic skills practice. Drop-ins are used to address specific issues individual students encounter in their personal tasks and assignments. The amount of time allotted to self-directed practice takes into account that students are acquiring new skills in palaeography and coding.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The project is designed to underpin the module’s skills-based agenda. The assessment asks students to create a scholarly edition of a text. The module takes students through the various stages of this work, providing seminars and workshops that raise issues key to scholarly editing, assigning tasks for students at each session, and allowing time in the workshop for students to reflect/ask questions about the process.


The oral presentation is to enable them: (1) to present on their work-in-progress; (2) think critically about their edition; (3) receive feedback on it from their peers and tutors preparatory to completing their project; (4) practise presentation skills important at postgraduate level; (5) practise the group-working skills and collaboration crucial to all editorial projects. This assessment can be delivered in person, 'live' via Teams, or via a recording.

General Notes

N/A