On the Use of Hypertext to Enhance Awareness of the Importance of Rhetorical Organization

Abstract

This article demonstrates the advantage of having students create their own Web pages (hypertexts) to enhance their awareness of the importance of rhetorical organization. Hypertexts utilize a method of linking pages to each other. This “linking function” of hypertexts causes writers of hypertexts an increased need for more attractive pages and effective presentation of information. Compared with writers of regular writing, hypertext writers also have much more choices in showing information. By letting students exploit these choices and possibilities, instructors of writing can force students to analyze the relationships both within and between pieces of information. Thus, instructors can increase students' awareness of the importance of rhetorical organization, which is mainly responsible for indicating structures and relationships of information in regular writing.