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Contents
Authoring and Design for the WWW
PRINCIPLES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
Hypertext and the style of documents
Electronic technology might be regarded as neutral, having
no implications for the overall style of the documents which it delivers, but this
position is difficult to defend. For example, there is evident difference in style
between letters sent by post and letters sent by e-mail. A relatively unfamiliar
technology has encouraged a rethinking of modes of address and styles of
information.
Harnessing new technology allows us to rethink an HEI's
information strategy. We can create a richer, more flexible and multivocal
information resource for students and staff, under the influence of electronic
media.
The electronic medium promotes alterations to our
documents in two important respects:
- It obliges us to write in different language styles suited to the medium
- It encourages us to think in a more adventurous way about the structure of an HEI document
These represent 'micro' and 'macro' views of the same
issue.
Language style is principally concerned with style within
a single document, say one describing the Teaching and Learning Methods used
in a given set of courses. The language style needs to be one well suited to the
electronic medium in order to make documents as usable and enjoyable to read
as possible. The structural style is concerned with the broader issue of deciding
what component documents should constitute, for example, a description of a
course, in the light of the intertextuality which electronic media both permit and
promote.
Of course the decisions made about the two issues
influence each other: if we decide to use hypertext linking to incorporate the
work of several authors in an HEI document, that has implications for the styles
of each of them.
Language style
What is the right language style for documents on the
Web? We can usefully distinguish two differing styles, the expository and the
declarative, only one of which we believe is well suited to Web publishing.
Expository texts
Expository texts are well suited to the continuous reading
and writing practices of traditional paper documents. Premises lead into
arguments which in turn lead to conclusions. The Introduction to a paper-based
course document might develop an argument over two sides of closely spaced
text, equivalent to approximately eight screens if displayed electronically. The
structure of the argument is made clear through the use of connecting words like
'therefore', 'though' and 'however'. The whole document is designed for more
or less continuous reading, aims to have a unified voice, and often encourages
passivity in the reader.
Declarative texts
Declarative texts are characterised by short, named
sections which can be read in a number of orders. The semantic structure
emerges from the 'physical' structure of paragraphs and document parts and the
connections between them. Concepts of association and consequentiality which
would normally be signalled through words are instead signalled by hypertext
links. The way these links are used indicates whether the text to which the end-user
jumps is parenthetic, glossarial, or has some other relation to the text which
triggered it. This is a modular approach to writing which to a certain extent is
foreign to academic traditions.
It might seem that - since for technical reasons only short
chunks of text can appear on screen at once - there would be a greater need for
the connecting words which tie conventional texts together. However,
experience seems to suggest that the positioning' of the chunks in hypertext
structures does the work of articulating the relationship between the parts,
without the addition of the standard grammatical constructions.
For on-screen, hypertext documents, the declarative
approach is preferable. Not only does it seem to be easier to read and understand
in the context of hypertext screens, but it has other benefits. Carefully planned,
such modularity in documentation can facilitate maintenance, and encourage
authoring based on team-work. It may also promote a more active form of
reading in the end-user. The relevance of this to academic material is pursued
under The Web as an educational medium (p46)
The pluralism of electronic media
Current HEI documents do little to represent the
supposedly pluralistic, changing nature of modern academic practice, in which
students are allegedly encouraged to be inquisitive, to formulate their own
opinions and to make for themselves the best use of the resources that the HEI
provides.
HEIs offer a diversity of information, using many separate
documents but they are generally official views of the most dull kind. They do
not in themselves begin to represent student-centred approaches. Why cannot
students themselves contribute to HEI documentation? It is odd, and regrettable,
that the hard-won experience of each cohort of students is 'wasted' by not being
passed on to their successors.
In some respects, the hypertext linking of multiple
contributory documents can be seen as resembling conversational exchange,
where closure and fixity are diminished by comparison with a paper document
of the traditional kind. It is important to capitalise on these strengths.
Avoiding the deadening effect of technology
Computer technology can have a beneficial influence in
provoking new thought. On the other hand, the use of computer systems can
easily have a deleterious effect. Perhaps the most notorious example of the
influence of computing has been in Computer Aided Learning, where there are
instances of discredited approaches to teaching and learning being encapsulated
in electronic form simply because they were technically easy to do. In using
interactive electronic techniques to present HEI information, there is a danger of
embodying - perhaps accidentally - the least acceptable hierarchical aspects of the
organisation, again because it is technically easy to do (HTML documents tend
to acquire a hierarchical structure by default). It is essential to prioritise a
student-centred view, yet the majority of Web-based HEI information systems
use the hierarchies of Web documents to mirror the hierarchies of the institution.
Inseparable form and content
The form in which information is published cannot be
divorced from its content. This has implications for the writing style, the
document structure and the visual and interaction design. The authoring and
design of hypertexts needs to take into account this sympathy between content
and form. Documents need to be structured in a way which articulates their
meaning and function.
Contents
Graphics Multimedia
Virtual Environments Visualisation
Contents
