Section III: Conventions for Writers/Readers of Hypertext

Writing and reading used to be easy. If you were taking a test in school, you needed two sharp Number 2 pencils and three pieces of scrap paper. Essays were written on blue-lined looseleaf paper, two pages; no more, no less. Reading was even more straightforward. You went to the bookstore, or the library, or the magazine was delivered to you. You opened the book or magazine at the beginning or the table of contents or index, then opened the volume and started to read.

The contributors of the chapters in this section, not coincidentally all professors of literature, consider hypertext an essentially literary medium. But, as they point out, the conventions for writing and reading in this new medium have yet to be worked out.