The most basic form of hypertext research essay involves writing an essay suitable for print, importing the electronic version of that essay into an HTML document (hypertext markup language, the basic language in which web pages are written), and publishing it on the web.
This form of the the hypertext research essay is very common on the web, very easy to construct once the difficult work of research and writing is complete, and apparently fits into most people's current conception of the research essay as hypertext. This version of the essay as hypertext is as linear as any print text. It does little to incorporate navigation, new media, or either internal or external hyperlinks into the text.
Culture Machine, an online journal of theory and culture, is a reasonable example of linear academic writing packaged in HTML and published. Culture Machine, then, is a good place to experience the HTML essay. While there are exceptions to the strictly linear essay in Culture Machine, the hypertextual elements at Culture Machine mostly occur at the level of the journal itself. The user navigates the table of contents, links into particular essays, or explores the main areas of the journal (reviews, events, submissions, and editorial staff).
Geronimo's research
essay, a word document published on a personal website, is a representative
example of an HTML essay produced by an undergraduate. The student wrote
a research paper on Dominican identity and culture for an advanced composition
class in 2001, and web published the essay in basically the same format
as the print version. Perhaps not surprisingly, Geronimo modified the
paper slightly for the web by adding both external links and screen shots
of web sites that supplied him with important evidence for his argument
about the impact of the internet on Dominican identity. These two modifications
alter the HTML essay in ways that move it in the direction of both the
extralinear essay and the new
media essay.
Michael J. Cripps
Copyright © Enculturation 2002
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