Hypertext

A hyper text is a link within the text that allows you to travel the web to areas that you are interested in.

When it comes to computers, almost everything is different. It feels different when reading something off of the computer monitor, than compared to of a sheet of paper. In a newspaper, it will tell you, “Story continues on C4”. But with hyper text, if you see one within the passage that you are reading on the computer, (because they are only on the computer) you can click on it, and it will direct you towards a page with more information about the word you clicked on.

Hypertexts change a lot of things for the reader. It may help the reader better understand what the writer is talking about. But if you do click on the hyper text, it can totally distract you from what you were totally reading in the first place. That could interfere with what you were trying to accomplish. For example, if I was working on a homework assignment for science about whales, but than I see a hyper text in one of the passages that is about sharks, and I click on it, and I stay on track with the shark thing, or than that leads me to squids, and I stay with that, I wont accomplish what I was trying to do. But getting the distraction may be good things at times too. If I was looking up something about football at home, but I see a hypertext about lacrosse, and I click on it, I may have just discovered a new sport I may be interested in trying.

To overcome the challenge of being distracted by other subjects, just try and remain focus on what you need to do. Just try and keep you mind set, on what you need to accomplish, and only click on the hypertexts that could be helpful to you with what you need to do. If you do click on one that is not useful to you, just stay on track, and x-out the window, and go back to your original reading.

Challenges to overcome as the writer are plenty. You need to make sure you fully understand how to create the hypertext, and then test it out. If you create one incorrectly, and it doesn’t work right, than your readers will be frustrated that you just wasted there time on trying to see something that they can’t access. To overcome this, again, just make sure you know what you’re doing, and how to create one, and then test it out. And if it doesn’t work, try and fix it, or take it out and try again.

As a writer, you need to make sure that your hypertexts are useful. You cant just put in any random hyper text about nothing relating to the subject. It would be like me talking about swimming, and you click on a hypertext, and it leads you to a page relating to how to get a perfect looking lawn. I don’t know how or why that would happen, but you need to make sure that it doesn’t. And again, you need to make sure that you check that your hypertext works.

To read pages with hypertexts on them, you will be able to see what you need to do, and shouldn’t do. You sill see how other writers relate there hypertext pages to the original passage. That way you know how to do it. And also you can see what you don’t like with some of them.

Hypertexts, can, and do go beyond words. Plenty of them bring you to a page with a picture of what ever it is. I have read and seen plenty of hypertexts with words, pictures, definitions, and one leading to entire new sites.

Information is thanks to these four sites.