Encoding a text or set of text allows us to engage at a level that is unusual when we’re reading – and in some ways is more akin to writing or “using” (Rasmussen). In this assignment you will do a comparative, complementary, and collaborative encoding exercise, tying the letters of James Merrill Linn to his family during the period Feb-April 1862. This will give you the opportunity to do three things:
- Find meaning in the letters Linn sent home during the time he was away at war
- Compare the information and tone in those letters with the journal he kept at the same time (http://www.projects.bucknell.edu/HUMN271/LinnJournal/HTML/index.html)
- Publish the letters you have marked up in conjunction with the journal.
This assignment requires you to do light transcription, diplomatic, structural and semantic markup of your letter; transformation of your letter into a publishable form using XSLT and CSS, and incorporate annotations that have to do with the degree of certainty you feel regarding transcribed words and encoding choices, glosses of unfamiliar letters, and commentary about the relationship between a letter and the specific section of the journal to which it can be attached.
To satisfy this assignment you will submit the .xml file of your letter(s) plus any .css files you have adapted to publish the letter to your satisfaction.
See the Rubrics page for evaluation and marking parameters.
