>I've been trying to use XSL and XML to assemble paragraphs out of data. The desired output is all text, no HTML or XML tags. The XML parser seems to insert newlines after some calls to but not others. Does anybody know how to insist that no newlines be added that are not in the XSL template file itself?

But you do have new lines in your XSL file, right here:

<xsl:value-of select="FNAME" /> <xsl:value-of select="MNAME" /> <xsl:value-of select="LNAME" />***RIGHT HERE IS A LINE BREAK***
<xsl:value-of select="FNAME" /> received training sessions for the period ending <xsl:value-of select="PERIODENDING"

Since you aren't exporting to HTML and jsut text, no < br > or anyhting like that is needed, just a simple carriage return, and thats what you've got.