While I certainly will not try to define hypertext here, I will try to explain what I mean by
"linking styles and strategies," and explain why they are so important to me and this essay. Much of the cognitive
structure and the epistemological underpinnings of a webbed document rely on how the hypertext tool of the link
is used; how an author connects the nodes in a hypertext says much about how he or she expects a reader to accept,
engage, or appropriate the text. In other words, the author still plays an important role in defining the reader/text
relationship, since hypertext style influences how a reader can interact with a text.
I often hear people -- including our staff -- discussing the larger design of a hypertext: is it a "native hypertext"
that was composed in a decentered style, or is it a marked-up, linear essay that essentially uses
a few "next page" links? What I don't hear discussed as often are the deeper issues that lie behind how an author linked
nodes together. Allow me to throw out a few of these possible questions and ideas:
Are links to other nodes buried within the text or placed at the end? Both?
If links are buried in the text, does the author typically link from individual words or entire phrases?
How descriptive are those linked words? Can readers tell where the next node is going conceptually?
Does the author use links most often for examples? Definitions? New ideas? Asides? Is there a
pattern to how different types of links are handled?
How much space has the author devoted to "navigation tips" or comments on her style?
How -- if at all -- are elements like link/vlink colors changed, and what could such changes signify?
Questions like these have a lot more to do with the very essence of hypertext theory and style than
we often admit; they deal with how the author has set up a hypertext for the reader... how the author has
(or has not) empowered the reader to take control of her own reading act.
