You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page ns="0" title="API" missing="" />
      <page pageid="1" ns="0" title="Main Page">
        <revisions>
          <rev user="Jritter" timestamp="2013-09-22T19:00:45Z" comment="Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/Obarboza|Obarboza]] ([[User talk:Obarboza|Talk]]); changed back to last version by [[User:Jritter|Jritter]]" contentformat="text/x-wiki" contentmodel="wikitext" xml:space="preserve">&lt;big&gt;'''Welcome to the St. John's School Wiki!'''&lt;/big&gt;

To get started, search for the topic you are looking for.  If it is not found, create a new page and add information to the growing body of information on the SJS Wiki!

== External Wiki Resources ==

* [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents User's Guide]
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing_tips_and_tricks Wikitext Examples]</rev>
        </revisions>
      </page>
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>