From Gutenberg's Galaxy to Cyberspace: A New Model for a New Writing Space

This paper synopsizes the central findings of a 2-year empirical study into how the new rhetorical situations presented by hypertext affect the writing process and thus impact upon literacy and education. It theorizes a conceptual model based on these findings. New technologies are transforming literacy in general and writing in particular. Hypertext is perhaps the most radical transformation to date. In hypertext, writers struggle to master a new process that includes electronic links, visual images, sound, animation, and other forms of data within a single digitized writing space. This transformation challenges educators to reframe their roles and points of reference as they increasingly use hypertext in the form of websites to enhance curriculum. Hypertext offers new opportunities for optimizing learning. New process models help to rethink conceptions of writing in order to adapt this new form of writing to best pedagogical practices. This research was guided by the overarching question: How are writers' perceptions of the new rhetorical situations presented by hypertext affecting their attitudes towards writing and the consequent decisions they make in response to these perceptions? (Author/AEF)