How do hypertext documents differ from print documents?
Screen Reading Problems
Differences in Organization
Hypertext Reconfigures Text, Reader, and Writer
Hypertext differs from print documents in the following ways:
Hypertext is displayed on a computer screen while print documents
are provided in a hardcopy format.
Research suggests that screen displays can create reading problems, which can greatly affect rhetorical issues surrounding the design of online documents.
Hypertext supports nonlinear reading while print documents are
designed to be read linearly.
Readers can still jump around print documents, and even skip sections or chapters. Nonetheless, there is still one unique, predetermined sequence of pages to be read.
With hypertext, readers choose which sequence of topics to follow. In essence, they create their own version of the text. Some argue that due to its nonlinear structure, hypertext reconfigures the roles of text, reader, and writer.
Information in each medium is conveyed differently to its readers.
As Henrietta N. Shirk (1991) states, "Paper-based information is communicated through a single, continuous, and logical development of well-supported thought sequences. In hypertextual communication, information is arranged like a superbly cross-indexed encyclopedia" (p. 191). Such divergent styles of presentation demand different organizational strategies.
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Last Updated: May 2, 2001
(c)2000 by Alysson Troffer. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce or redistribute any material from this document, in whole or in part, without written permission.