1: Hypertext: An Interactive Literacy

Hypertext is a multiliteracy that has changed the way we read. Ted Nelson (1987) defines it as “non-sequential writing—text that allows choice to the reader, best read as an interactive screen” (p. 0/2). The literary scholar and art historian George Landow (1989) explains that in the case of hypertext, “The defining characteristics of this new information medium derive from its combination of blocks of text joined by electronic links, for this combination emphasizes multiple connections rather than linear reading or organization” (p. 39). Jeff Conklin (1987) describes hypertext as a system which makes possible “direct machine-supported references from one textual chunk to another; new interfaces provide the user with the ability to interact directly with these chunks and to establish new relationships between them” (p. 17).