You can use read
instead of cat
as follows:
IFS= read -d '' interrogationInformation << "EOF"
<class>
setup
</class>
<description>
This is a natural language description of this function.
</description>
<prerequisiteFunctions>
myFunction1
myFunction2
</prerequisiteFunctions>
<prerequisitePrograms>
myProgram1
myProgram2
</prerequisitePrograms>
EOF
Note that quoting EOF
prevents any parameter expansion in the text.