I was going to suggest nearly the same thing :-). The only thing I would change is that adding in the XML tags for the root node is not necessary.

I would think that the easiest way to see up to 2 MB of text that also happens to work just as well in a query as it does for printing a single variable is:

SELECT CONVERT(XML, @Variable)

OR

SELECT Field1, Field2, CONVERT(XML, Field3) AS [Field3]

FROM Schema.Table

This is a little more flexible, and straight-forward, than using FOR XML as that might not be desirable when debugging a query.

Take care,

Solomon...

Edit:

Correction on the 2 MB limit. I thought it was the max but I just checked again and it isn't. If you go to:

Tools -> Options... -> Query Results -> SQL Server -> Results to Grid

you will see at the bottom of the right side, in the "Maximum Characters Retrieved" section, a drop-down for "XML data:" that has the following options:

1 MB

2 MB (default)

5 MB

Unlimited