pases the current node to a string function, so the function argument is
the string value of the node, which is all the character data of the
descendants.

You want something like

<xsl:template match="*">
      <xsl:if test="contains(text(),'@')">@ found in <xsl:value-of
select="name(.)"/></xsl:if>

or

<xsl:template match="text()">
      <xsl:if test="contains(.,'@')">@ found in <xsl:value-of
select="name(..)"/></xsl:if>

<p>Here's my @ text</p>
<p>Here's my <i>extra special @</i> text</p>

Cheers,
Wendell

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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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  Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
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