2 Of George Landow's work with the Intermedia hypertext system, Joyce says, "Landow's reorganization of his course might be said to have mirrored his associative (or pluralistic) thought processes in creating a constructive hypertext, i.e., the design for the exploratory hypertext, English 32" (Siren Shapes, 45). The suggestion is that when Landow created his Intermedia courseware for his English 32 course at Brown, Landow was involved in a "constructive" process, but that once the courseware was created, it became a more exploratory hypertext. Joyce qualifies the complaint about Landow's English 32 hypertext, however, by suggesting that the Intermedia environment itself provides constructive tools for readers:
3 It would be stirring the hunger for automaticity to suppose that, simply by the instrument of creating constructive hypertexts students could match the prowess of a practiced scholar in associative thinking. Yet it would be equally unwise, and something overpromising, to suggest that students could gain that prowess by simply exploring a scholar's representation of it. Landow's Intermedia project, to be sure, does not make either mistake; while largely a vehicle for exploratory hypertexts, it provides powerful constructive tools for learners to use in transforming bodies of knowledge. (Siren Shapes, 45)
4 Joyce seems to be calling for constructive/exploratory balance when it comes to implementing hypertext courseware projects. The kind of expertly-developed hypertexts that Landow has created should be complemented by constructive tools such as functions which allow readers to add materials to the project or to make comments about the work.
5 At other times, however, Joyce definitely privileges the ideal of the fully constructive hypertext and implies that while the constructive process of creating literary hypertexts sometimes deserves recognition for its brilliance, its packaging in an exploratory hypertext form leaves something to be desired: "Constructive hypertexts address these concerns [of critical thinking] in a more conscious way than exploratory hypertexts. They enable audiences of expert and novice readers alike to act as scriptors and to focus upon the discovery of coherent structures and linkages and, most important, to use a full range of cognitive skills, especially visual ones, to discover new structures and linkages" (Siren Shapes, 46-47). To mediate between a more modulated stance toward exploratory hypertexts and Joyce's frequent privileging of constructive hypertexts, we might posit a continuum representing levels of modifiability and constructiveness for such projects.
6 The WORP project presents an interesting case study in terms of such a continuum. One of the primary goals of WORP is to "enable audiences of expert and novice readers alike" to engage with the texts and literary issues covered by the project. At the same time, the ability to "create new structures and linkages" is quite limited (23).
7 In contrast to the kind of "structure editors" (favored by Joyce) that allow readers to add new materials and rearrange the sections of a hypertext, WORP allows readers to incorporate discussion clearly into the hypertext and to annotate texts, but stops their participation there.