Hypertext Introduction II
Planning
Like a conventional essay, a hypertext presentation requires planning. A collection of pages randomly linked together provides neither pleasure nor enlightenment for the reader. Nor will it allow you, as thinker and writer, to transmit all your ideas fully to the reader.
In planning a conventional essay we build a linear trail for the reader: our points should follow each other in a straight and logical line. And you can present material this way in a webbed environment. But a genuine hypertext presentation involves planning spatially, thinking about which pages (or parts of pages) should be linked to each other, or to external sources. Before you begin writing, you should draft out on paper an outline of how your presentation might develop.
Writing the Media: intro page contents and menu to direct students to:-
Syllabus Classwork Our Writing Mediawatch Other Sites of Interest a) Syllabus Page
Directly into syllabus: links in the text to
Papers Writing resources Internet resources Sources of graphics b) Classwork Page
Menu to direct students to:-
Paper #1 Paper #2 Research Paper Writing Resources Internet Sources The Library etc.
Or you might plan out your site graphically (see handout).
Begin with a front page. You should include all essential authorship information (so your readers are not faced with those authorship problems we encountered in the internet evaluations) and an update line to indicate the currency of your information. Your site will probably grow. Therefore set up a front page that introduces you, and allows you to list and add to the projects you have completed and to which you wish to refer readers. You might consider including a resume, or details of your work experience. Then you might want to refer prospective employers to your web site.
Hypertext in a webbed environment is a mixed medium. Use it, especially on your front page. Think of varying type sizes and colors, for example. Look at newspaper front pages on the web for a good use of the multiple resources available in this environment: color, size, font, photographs, layout. All the items are not set in a straight line: materials are offset to create visual interest and unpredictability on the first page.
No reader has any incentive to stay with a boring site. If you want to keep your reader, your prose should be dynamic and direct. All the criteria for good text writing apply, only more so. Avoid passives, and avoid weak verbs such as 'is' and the ever-present 'get.' You also need to write succinctly so that you convey all necessary information before you activate your reader's boredom threshold. Concision and creative vocabulary choices keep your reader alert and interested.
As a hypertext writer, you have to think about more than words. Thus writing for hypertext is more like writing a script than writing a paper. As you draft each section of your site you might want to think of breaking up the page to allow you to think about, and note down, all the elements of composition at once.
Text
Graphics
Links
As some of you noted, reading a computer screen can be distracting. The colors may be too bright, the background too distracting, the type may be too small, or it may be in such a continuous block that your eye loses its place on the screen. You need to think of your primary writing unit as the screen, not the page. Choose restful, clear colors for your text and background. Break your writing up into blocks or units, as the newspaper does. Or give the reader's eye a rest by separating your main points with a line and a space. Or use relevant graphics to break up the text blocks on the screen. Use the possibilities of a flexible visual medium to animate your writing.
Finally, hypertext allows you to concentrate on your ideas, your research and your writing. You can use links to refer readers to background information, and to the sources you cite. And you are able to expand the remit of your assignment by linking to other information that creates a context for your whole project. For example, in your ad. paper, you might want to give your readers access to information about the legal limitations on advertising, or about the history of advertising, which does not fit directly into your argument but which might help a reader understand your subject.
The hypertext link is the equivalent of the TV's remote control. Bore your audience for a moment and Zap! the readers are somewhere else. You can combat this by including links only to your own page (which is the tactic favored by many commercial organizations) but that ignores the potential of the webbed environment to link multiple sources of information. Think about the points within your presentation where it would be most useful to the reader to link to another part of your site, or to an external site.
Perhaps you want to keep your links to external sites close to the end of your text blocks. Perhaps you should ensure that internal links always allow the reader to return easily to every section of the site. Or you might think of creating links that return the reader to the point from which they linked. See the links to and from the highlighted words on the Wilfred Owen site. You might even build pop-ups, rather than links, for small sections of additional information.
Place too many links too close to the beginning of your site, and readers will often start opening links without even reading the text (remember the first warm-up exercise!). A popular design feature now is the inclusion on every page of links down the left, and often along the bottom of the page as well. This offers the reader ease of navigation. But for the writer it creates multiple difficulties.
First, the moment the reader is bored, s/he will link somewhere else. Second, the linking blocks take up a lot of space on the page, thus cramping any text you have. This, in turn, makes the reading experience less pleasant for the audience, and forces you, as a writer, to compose in blocks suitable for a very small screen. Look at the BFI site. Another popular technique is splitting the page. Here, again, the visual and the reading experiences can be fragmented. Look at the pages of university faculty members to examine the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
Think, too, about the function of your site. If you are trying to present your hard-won research to an audience, you want to create an environment in which readers will consume all your ideas and conclusions. There you need to construct all your linkage with care and, often, deviousness, to persuade readers to stay within your site and hear you out.
If you are trying to introduce your audience to sources of information on a particular topic, then the links, and the way you describe them, are the reason for your site's existence. The more relevant links you include, the more rewarding the reader's experience. But, again, you might break the links into sections, perhaps each with a separate introduction. Or you might include a capsule review of the site, allowing readers to decide whether they need to open that particular site. A long list of links is like a long text block - very hard on the eyes.
Begin this week to write the script that will transform your advertising paper into a web site. First, draw up a linear or graphic plan for the site. Second, write the three-part script for each section of your presentation. Indicate links by underlining the linking word in the text and numbering to correspond to your links column. Pay attention to the writing: an active vocabulary, a mixture of long and short sentences to add pace and rhythm, and short, cohesive paragraphs are all essential. Think of the writing you undertook when you created your ad. and adapt that punchy, fast-moving style to your script.
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