Hypertext Theory and Practice

Hypertext Sites and Essays

This page maintained by Dr. Tom Goldpaugh

This site contains an annotated list of web sites for those with an interest in hypertext theory and practice. Now is Dr. Goldpaugh an authour and if he is does he get credit for creating the web site or just the annotations. Just a warning, you could be lost for days exploring the links from this site.

http://www.marist.edu/humanities/english/hsite.html

For the most part, this page lists people who are doing work in hypertext theory. Set up alphabetically, by and large, it looks at homepages. If you have time, you might wish to read the rationale of this page. Likewise, if you are looking for metapages, there is an essential site: Michael Schumate's Page. As always, the Voice of the Shuttle: Literary Theory and Voice of the Shuttle: Technology of Writing subdirectories provide extensive links. A final General Resource that is extremely useful is the Hypertext and Hypermedia: A Select Bibliography compiled by Scott Stebelman at George Washington University.

Hybrid://Literature/Cognition/Design

Daniel Anderson, University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill
http://sites.unc.edu/~daniel/hybrid/index.html

This is a true hypertext document. Many of the capabilities of hypertext are incorporated either in the article or the site described in the article. Also, many of the questions raised in using hypertext documents are discussed. In particular, reader interaction with the text, instability of the documents, and design. The article raises some additional issues for me. Just as there are questions about when a hypertext document is complete, the interactive nature of the document raises questions about when you have finished reading it. Another interesting characteristic is that because the related sites can be modified by the reader or the authour the article can change from visit to visit.

Abstract

It's not true that putting a finish on something is all about meticulous attention to detail. That detail work is misleading because it relies on so much cutting and clutter that goes unseen. To polish a car or varnish a dresser, for example, you start by making a mess; you slather compounds over paint, scrape and rub and spray chemicals until, slowly, the object becomes recognizable and ready to shine.

This electronic text takes as its subject those underlying activities, the sanding and scraping that go into the creation of a large scale Web project. Specifically, it looks at the development of a literary hypertext devoted to women writers, the Women of the Romantic Period hypertext (WORP). But, while the text treats the literary issues encountered and enacted in the design of the WORP project, its real focus is Web creation. Creating the WORP project involved brainstorming, false starts, prototypes and revisions. Along the way realizations about the subject and insights into issues relating to hypertext were as common as improved versions of the project. The subject of this electronic text, then, is just a lens for exploring literature, cognition and design as they relate to Web building in general. The larger point to be made is embarrasingly obvious: the finished texts that we find online display only part of the real work that is Web composition. Finally, this Kairos text enacts that same message and represents an extension of the drafting that has gone into and is the WORP project; hopefully it speaks to not only the polished surfaces, but also the work that lies beneath and comes before.

Not a Cosmic Convergence: Rhetoric, Poetics, Performance, and the Web

Myka Vielstimmig

http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/3.2/features/myka/cosmic1.htm

This is web document attempts to transfer a dramatic production to the Web. While it is interesting and exploits some features of HTML it doesn't exploit hypertext. The reader can change the order in which the document is read, but it is essentially linear.

Abstract

Originally a performance combining elements of reader's theatre with theoretical critique, this work both advocates and enacts a revisioning of written academic genres. Arguing that postmodern argument can involve linear exposition alongside verbal collage and that it can benefit from visual modes of thinking, the piece embeds works of art from the cubist period and later. In performance, these visuals were projected on a large screen behind the readers, as well as on computer screens around the room. Now rendered for webtext format, the work varies fonts, colors and margins to approximate the interplay of voices and visuals in the original live work. Links are provided to explanatory notes and other helpful apparatus.

Monitoring Order: Visual Desire, the Organization of Web Pages, and Teaching the Rules of Design

Anne Frances Wysocki, Michigan
Technological University

The authour notes that many of the rules of good design of text and visual art are culturally dependent. Therefore, she questions the advisability of using a rules based approach to teaching Web design.

http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~awysocki/mOrder/mOrder.html

Abstract

Monitoring Order looks at two potential sources -- writings about book design and writings about visual arrangement in painting -- for helping teachers of writing think about teaching visual composition for Web pages; both sources are problematic but suggest directions for further study.

Writing for the Web

Charlie Morris

This article reports the results of research on the preferences of readers and users of the information found on web sites. Not surprisingly, they prefer clear, concise writing.

http://www.stars.com/Internet/Writing/

Abstract

The Web has spawned a tidal wave of writing, and many who never thought of themselves as writers before are sharpening up the old cyberpencils for fun and profit. Writing for the Web is not
the same as writing for print, however, and there are a few concepts that it's good to keep in mind in order to get the most out of the medium. Here are some guidelines for writing articles, tutorials,
white or green papers and other ruminations for online magazines, corporate and educational Web sites, and other online content.

Kairos

The most of the articles used in this page were found in Kairos. As indicated by the above articles, the articles are of high quality and pertinent. The archive is hard to find on the site, so you may want to bookmark it.

Home Page: http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/
Archive: http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/archives/bridge.html

Kairos is an electronic journal designed to serve as a peer-reviewed resource for teachers, researchers, and tutors of writing at the college and university level, including Technical Writing, Business Writing, Professional Communication, Creative Writing, Composition, and Literature.

Our goal at Kairos is to offer a progressive and innovative online forum for the exploration of writing, learning, and teaching in hypertextual environments like the World-Wide Web. At the same time, we hope that our balance between the cutting edge of the Web and the traditional academic need for juried publications will help electronic scholarship earn a stronger and more valued place in our field.

For more information about Kairos, please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. The staff created this FAQ as a multi-vocal effort to explain how we conceptualize our work here.

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This site is maintained by Larry Phillips. Suggestions for additional online resources
and lesson plans that could be added to this site are welcome. (July 27, 1999)