The Shape of Text to Come

In his article “The Shape of Text to Come,” Stephen Bernhardt speculates some of the dimensions of change in how text is structured on a page and on the screen. He discusses how good theoretical understanding and a highly developed practical art of the rhetoric and text structure of paper documents exerts a strong shaping influence over texts produced via electronic media (410). He uses a text analytical approach to identify nine dimensions of variation that help map the differences between paper and on-screen text. These nine dimensions include: Situationally Embedded, Interactive, Functionally Mapped, Navigable, Hierarchically Embedded, Spacious, Graphically Rich, and Customizable and Publishable.

Situationally Embedded Text
Bernhardt begins this section by discussing some of the situational differences between paper and screen-based text. Reading from a screen tends to cause fatigue so extended reading will continue to rely on print, while other functional types of reading will rely on screen-based text (411). He notes that paper texts can be read anywhere, but screen-based texts are more deeply embedded in the context of the situation. Screen-based reading is often associated with task-oriented reading because it integrated with some sort of action. “Readers of screen-based texts are not so much readers as doers or seekers: they read to find out how to do something or to retrieve some bit of information (411). Bernhardt notes that the shape of screen-based text is heavily influenced by the development of help systems. He also notes that having text situationally integrated also applies to other forms of screen-based reading. Students use computers to help with writing and these computers help structure interaction. The text is embedded within systems—its texture is shaped by both the machine and the instrumental purposes and social interaction to which the text is put (412). Bernhardt concludes this section by noting that books are self-contained, while screen-based texts are dependent on a larger technological and social environment, to be used under delimited circumstances (412).

Interactive Text
Bernhardt writes that the reader’s role in a text as being active. Readers construct a text in their own image, and this is typically seen as a private matter. He notes that reading of electronic text should be viewed in similar terms. “Readers of on-screen text interact physically with the text. Through the mouse, the cursor, the touch screen, or voice activation, the text becomes a dynamic object, capable of being physically manipulated and transformed” (412). Bernhardt uses an example from the Perseus Project, which helps students visualize a staged production of a Greek play. In the Perseus model, students are able to interact and manipulate the entire set of the stage and play. The designers take active, constructive reading into the arena of physical manipulation and sensory visualization (412). Screen readers are actively engaged with the screen as they enter text and this interaction is forced, unlike a print-text. Bernhardt notes that he is not suggesting screen reading is better, but he does write that the developing genre of the electronic novel should not be underestimated.

Functionally Mapped Text
“Text, whether on page or on screen, performs a function of some sort: informing, directing, questioning, or posing situations contrary to fact” (414). This functional variation is often expressed through grammatical systems of mood, and readers can often make some rhetorical determination as to what a chunk of text is doing. In many printed texts, the functional variation is mapped semantically. Shifts are noted by phrases such as “for example,” or “to consider my next point” (414). Screen-based and print text also use visual cues of layout and typography to signal functional shifts. Bernhardt notes that when language is on screen, readers must be able to distinguish the following different functions: cue interaction with the system, cue navigation, offer system messages, informative/ideational (414). The interaction between the text and action is important for efficient reading, and they must be highly planned and have carefully constructed formatting decisions. Bernhardt goes on to write that not all areas of the screen are equal, and functional mapping tends to be the richest on the borders. “On screens, the language is the richest, there is the most going on, there is the greatest range or things to do around the edges, on the perimeters. It is on the edge that we recognize where we are, what we can do, where we can go, or how we can get out” (415). The functional mapping of options is becoming more consistent in programs. Simple, yet efficient cues are being used to help guide the reader. The traditional cues of paper texts are often shadowed by the ever-expanding visual cues used in electronic texts.

Modular Text
Most texts reflect some modularity of structure: a text is composed of other texts, such as a book with chapters (416). The movement of text from paper to screen encourages further modularization of text structure. With screen texts, each module of information must stand on its own because of problems with local cohesion. A writer must assume that a user can arrive at any given screen from practically anywhere. Bernhardt mentions that even though it is possible to scroll within a window, this action is time-consuming and wasteful. Also, when text is not composed of screen-size bites, readers tend to lose their places and become disoriented (416). However, modular text does have some advantages. One text base can serve multiple audiences and multiple purposes for reading (417). Novice and expert tracks can be structured out of the same set of information, and texts of various sorts can be compiled instead of written. This is especially useful for screen-based text such as online help because a single text can be written once but used many times.

Hierarchical, Layered, Embedded Text
Print text is a flat medium intended for linear reading. It can achieve a special sort of modularization through semantic cues but it doesn’t compare to computers, which are suited to nonlinear text. Hypertext programs allow texts of various sorts to be combined into large text bases, allowing readers to move freely across various sorts of information in nonlinear ways (419). Even though screens are two-dimensional, they offer the illusion of depth. Information can be present without being visible, and the desktop can be stacked with open files—multiple applications running simultaneously—each with its own text in its own screen. (419). While paper text must embed signals of hierarchy within the linear text, screen-based text can actually be hierarchically structured. “With the combination of both hierarchical subordination and lateral links from any point to any point, hypertext offers greatly expanded possibilities for new structures characterized by layering and flexibility” (419).

Navigable Text
Readers of all texts must navigate to find information. With paper-text, readers often use signposts, such as table of contents, indexes, headings and pagination. Most readers have a set of strategies used to find information in print texts. They are often frustrated when they try finding information using electronic text because these print text search strategies don’t work. Because the screen lacks the total physical presence of printed text, screen readers often have difficulty sizing up the whole (420). The challenge of designing text on screens rests in large part on overcoming the machine’s tendency toward a homogeneous surface. Many initial attempts were borrowed from paper text, but some navigation aids work best only within electronic media. Graphical browsers can offer readers a visualization of the structure of information, so that one can see at a glance the scope and nature of large collections of information (420). Also, ties, or links, or buttons work much better in screen-based text than in paper texts. Standard navigation devices are quickly emerging so that screen readers can bring learned strategies to new interfaces and new texts.

Spacious Text
Print text is constrained by physical space. The same physicality that makes books easy to use makes them impossible to use as systems grow larger (421). There is no similar physical constraint associated with electronic text. There is both spaciousness in the amount of information that can be recorded and the design of information display. Writers of paper text are always contained by length, but since space is virtually unlimited in screen texts, there is no need to run unrelated information together to save space. “The effect on prose is liberating, freeing it from the economic constraints of inscription” (422).

Graphically Rich Text
“Electronic text extends visual composition by offering a surface with more graphic potential and greatly augmented options for text/graphic display and integration” (422). Some display options are shared by paper and electronic texts, including: white space, space breaks, margins, bullets, font sizes and varieties, headings, color, and boldface and italics. However, go beyond print’s visual effects. Readers can zoom in and out, text can flash, sequences can be animated, and video, voice or musical sequences can be part of text. It is known that people learn about complicated systems best when they have organized metaphors, and electronic information allows for the exploitation of these metaphors (422). Bernhardt notes that the phosphor glow of screen text often causes fatigue and eye strain, but that that same phosphor also offers a fluid, dynamic medium, with many more options than print has for displaying information and exploiting visual intelligence (423).

Customizable, Publishable Text
The final dimension Bernhardt discusses is customizable and publishable text. Readers can’t do much to personal print text, but electronic text benefits from being more fluid, expansive and adaptable to individual users (423). Lines and notes can be added to electronic text and the user can choose to reject or accept them and print or suppress them. The display of the text itself can be customized. Readers can suppress the display of rulers, spaces, returns, etc (425). The “same” text can display itself based on the individual user’s preferences using user histories. The control over the shape of text leads inevitably toward not just customizable but publishable text. Desktop publishing technology puts the printing press into user’s hands. Historically, much of the cost of printing has been in the production stage, but with desktop publishing technology the cost is shifted the author and the audience. Print is no longer permanent because the cost and effort of updating editions is negligible (426).

The Shape of Text to Come
Bernhardt concludes by noting that as text changes, we will develop new strategies for reading and writing. He writes that we are at a point of transition, and that “the presence of screens will become increasingly common, a part of our daily lives, close at hand in a variety of situations” (426).