abstract

background

theory

praxis

models

course

multilinearity
visual rhetoric
theory in practice

references

While Bolter's (1998) concrete suggestions might seem inconsistent with important elements of academic writing, there is something very important in his reading of the possibilities for academic hypertext. An important virtue of hypertext theory is its attention to the relationship between author and reader. "Both writing and reading on the Web are defined by the expectation of interaction. To design a website, the writer must conceive of the pages as a structure that might be explored in a variety of orders by different readers with different needs" (Bolter, 1998, p. 4). Audience has long been a fundamental concern in rhetoric. Students often lose sight of the importance of audience when writing academic essays, or they define their audience as the instructor for the class. Composing academic hypertexts may help students keep their focus on a broader, and possibly more diverse, audience.

An academic hypertext attuned to a diverse audience would afford readers the option of choosing their paths through the text. Different readings could yield different points of emphasis. An extended discussion of a theoretical issue might prove interesting to some readers, while others might bypass that discussion. Readers who require more evidence for a claim might opt to pursue links to additional evidence or support. A more sophisticated hypertext of this sort might even deploy different rhetorical strategies depending on the links the reader follows.

Organization and presentation become central concerns for the author of an academic hypertext. Freeing the reader from a single linear path through the essay imposes significant responsibilities on the writer. For each node in the hypertext, the author must anticipate which nodes readers might want to visit next. Enabling the reader to go anywhere from each node in the hypertext might be a virtue in an informational website. In a persuasive hypertext, this technique produces a disorganized essay. Academic hypertexts can be multilinear and persuasive at the same time. But accomplishing this dual task does require the author to carefully construct the reader's options through the hypertext.

This approach to academic hypertext would not be linear since the author offers multiple paths, and different readers engage different elements of the hypertext. And it would not require the author to construct an essay that yields completely different conclusions depending on the paths readers follow. The author need not compose from positions distant from his or her own in producing such a hypertext, play a game, or effectively write multiple essays in choosing to compose an academic hypertext that deploys fundamental elements of hypertext.

theory in practice | multiple perspectives? | moments of critique
productive messiness

abstract | background | theory | praxis | models | course