use new tag to wrap
File: Data.xml <?xml version="1.0"?> <message>test</message> File: Transform.xslt <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" /> <xsl:template match="/"> <paragraph> <xsl:apply-templates /> </paragraph> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <paragraph>test</paragraph>