Other Connections Resources
Web Directories and Search Engines
On-Line Newspapers and other News Sources
Resources for Writing Instructors
Scholarship on Hypertext and Computer-Assisted Pedagogy
English Home Page
Allyn & Bacon Home Page
ab_webmaster@abacon.com
©1997
Allyn & Bacon
Argument and the Web To help you develop strategies for creating arguments on the Web, let's look at some analogies between hypertexts and more traditional print essays. For instance, most essays open with an introductory or topic paragraph. This opening usually accomplishes several things: It outlines the direction of the argument by stating the thesis; it demonstrates the importance of the project; and it works to spark the reader's interest. You can think of the opening page of a Web composition in the same terms: It situates the project for readers, whets their interest and maps out the major points to be explored.
When you produce an argument in a print essay, you can usually assume that readers will encounter the information in the order in which you present it. However, hypertexts make managing the sequences in which readers move through your information more important. (See, for instance, the discussion of MU* structure in Chapter Sixteen.) As an author, then, you will need to take steps to ensure that readers see the information that matters most. Figure 1 shows a possible structure for a Web-based argument.
You can see in Figure 1 that the opening page, "index.html", contains links to the subpages, "future.html" and "past.html". However, the opening page doesn't provide a link to the last subsection, "actions.html". While hypertext takes away some of an author's control by allowing readers to select which links they will follow, you can still determine which links readers have to choose from. In this case, readers must first pass through the "future" or "past" section before being able to link to the "actions" page. If it is important to your argument that readers know something about your major supporting claims before they try to understand your conclusion, then you can lead them through the claims before providing the final link.
You should remember, however, that one of the strengths of hypertextual writing is that it allows readers to choose their own paths through a collection of documents. If you create a project in which the links are too prescriptive, the end result can often be a linear hypertext with a structure that resembles a print-based essay. This sort of control may be necessary on occasion--for instance, if you are composing instructions that lead readers through a step-by-step process. In general, however, Web readers expect a more fluid form of composition, one that relies on the interconnection of themes and ideas.Figure 2 shows an argument that balances some of the need for sequential progression with some of the fluidity of hypertext. Although a reader must still pass through one of the two main subsections of the site ("future.html" or "past.html") to reach the "actions.html" node, there is now the possibility of more horizontal movement between the subsections. Additionally, readers can move back up through the document from the "actions" node. Although this is still a very basic model, it illustrates some of the potential for making a reader's movements through your information more fluid and hypertextual.
As you increase the number of nodes and the level of interconnectivity in a project, you may simply have to concede the fact that different readers will take different paths through the document and not all of your materials will be read. In fact, you'll need to pay specific attention to some of the complications raised by the number of options that readers have for moving through your project. One strategy is to consider the introduction of each major subsection as a transition. Unlike the transitions between two paragraphs of an essay, however, hypertextual transitions should account for the many possible paths that readers might have taken to get to that section.For instance, since readers of more complex hypertexts can become disoriented or miss sections, you'll probably want to provide some information about the project as a whole near the beginning of each node. In the model shown in Figure 2, for instance, an author composing the "actions" node might reiterate (and link back to) the major claims of the "past" and "future" pages for readers who may have missed one of the sections. By carefully composing a purpose or position statement for each major section of a hypertext, you can articulate the relevance of that section within the project as a whole and in terms of its relation to other nodes.
Adapted from Connections: A Guide to On-line Writing