Hypertext: A New Medium for Reading and Writing.

Writing teachers have a potential role in the development of a better hypertext. Hypertext can be defined as writing designed to be read--and perhaps added to--along many different paths, at the reader's choice. What the computer does for hypertext is increase greatly the speed and potential number of the links between chapters or ideas. What writing specialists can do to help in the creation of hypertexts is (1) become familiar with the medium, since hypertext is a future of written communication; (2) insist on even greater sophistication and ease of use for hypertext; and (3) bring the knowledge of writing instruction to the solution of the problems inherent in hypertext. Discussions that are going on now about hypertext include research exploring readability variables, the"node size" (the quantity of information that makes up the basic unit of a hypertext document), and the debate about the links that lead from one hypertext to another. Discussions are also in progress among hypertext developers about the extent and nature of reader participation in the hypertext writing process. The founders of the hypertext concept have insisted that hypertext should remove the distinction between writer and reader, and so they have designed hypertext systems that permit the reader to annotate or even alter the hypertext document, while still preserving the integrity of the earlier writer's work. Writing specialists can help find the answers to what kind of reader activity should be provided for. (MS)