Hypertext is fundamentally open in several respects.

The hypertext author has few tools with which to retain the attention of the reader, particularly when he or she wants to take advantage of the informational and rhetorical strengths of hypertext. The "surfing" metaphor for the experience of hypertext engagement only partially captures the extent of openness. While the surfer theoretically "rides" a wave to its end, the web surfer rides a hypertext until he or she follows a link to another hypertext.

As a text that resides on the web, any element of a hypertext can become an external link from another hypertext. When I link to any page on another author's hypertext, and my reader chooses to follow that link, I establish a context within which my reader will initially experience the content at the end of the link. The author of the hypertext has little or no control over this linking, and so lacks even the most basic assurance that the reader will first encounter the hypertext as intended by the author.

For Landow (1997) and others, the openness of hypertext reduces the writer's autonomy as author and alters the identity of the reader as recipient of a text that is self-contained.

For the author of a hypertext research essay,the openness of hypertext is often at odds with the focus required in an effective research essay (Janangelo).

Copyright © Enculturation 2002

Navigate Enculturation:
Home | Contents 4:2 | Editors | Issues
About | Submissions | Subscribe | Copyright | Review | Links