In the final (digression) analysis


Printed documents are supposed to have begininngs, middles, and, most definitively endings that separate them from other documents. In the world of print, texts must be clearly segmented by physical endpoints (e.g., the back cover of a book) and conceptual endpoints (e.g., the often unimaginative "summary and conclusions" sections at the end of academic articles; see Bolter, 1991, for a discussion of the interplay between what he calls the hard and soft structures of various writing technologies). I will conform to that convention here, which is a somewhat welcome concession to the conventions of print-based writing because it has been a struggle to decide what digressions and connections to include and which to omit, knowing as I wrote that an endpoint is expected and inevitable. And, perhaps my choices have been too digressionary.

[The following paragraph followed by my e-mail signature file was the ending of the published article in The Reading Teacher on which the current hypertext is based. The final text of the printed article refers to the hypertext you are reading now. If you think you know how I was going to complete the interrupted sentence, e-mail me with your idea and I'll respond.]

So, in closing, I wish to point out in this final digression what is singularly, especially from this writer's point of view, the greatest advantage of electronic reading and writing compared to printed forms. It is an advantage so strongly supported by my own research and by instructional practice that it is incontrovertible and must be taken into account by any educator who undertakes to understand the implications of technology on literacy. This critical advantage I am referring to is of course [THE EDITORS REGRET TO INFORM READERS THAT DUE TO STRICT SPACE LIMITATIONS, WE COULD NOT PUBLISH THE REMAINDER OF REINKING'S ARTICLE. THOSE READERS WHO WISH TO READ THE REMAINDER OF HIS ARTICLE MAY ACCESS IT SOON IN READING ONLINE, IRA'S NEW ELECTRONIC JOURNAL, WHERE SPACE LIMITATIONS ARE LESS CRITICAL.]

Return to main menu.