Every day students are becoming increasingly dependent on the computer for writing papers, communicating with their professors and classmates, doing research, and a variety of other applications. Today it is virtually impossible to graduate from college without ever touching a computer. The computer functions well in our fast-paced world; writers are especially grateful for the services it provides. Word processing has cut down the time spent editing and typing a paper, and the grammar and spell-check capabilities provide basic grammar corrections for students. However, computer technology broadens every day, and computers can now do things that people ten years ago would never have dreamt. With so much change occurring in the machines able to produce writing, it is inevitable that this change will be carried over into the writing itself. In many classes, teachers are challenging students to use computers in order to go beyond the traditional linear essay and to find new ways to express their ideas in writing.

One of the newest forms of expression is the writing done in hypertext. This is a highly interactive computer environment where students can use multiple web pages for their projects, use graphics, and even create links to other sites on the web or to other students' papers. In comparison to linear essays, papers done in hypertext are often groups of interconnected topics. There is much controversy over the implications of hypertext; educators worry that the divided nature of hypertext will destroy a student's development of a clear line of thought so essential to understanding. They also worry that the interactive nature of the emerging hypertextual world will undermine the knowledge gained by individuals. Alfred Bork recognizes this in his article, Highly Interactive Multimedia Technology and Future Learning, when he says, "Two factors, the ability to make learning interactive for all students, and the ability to individualize the learning process, are critical in improving the quality of learning for students" (13). Others feel that a positive side of hypertext is that it discourages the concept of a "completed paper." Once a project is on the web it can be altered many times as the writer finds new ways of looking at the topic. As Bill Hart-Davidson mentions in his article, What's Dis'course About? Arguing CMC into the Curriculum, that "writing is a technology," it is not the static discipline that we once thought (4).

In the University of Richmond's English 376 class taught by Dr. Joe Essid, students experienced and discussed how hypertext is changing our writing styles. For many students in the class, it was the first time that they had ever been asked to put their writing on the Internet. The class soon learned that placing their writing on the web meant more than merely learning how to convert their papers into PageMill. Using hypertext means writing for a much larger audience, keeping in mind all of the potential visitors to the site. It also required the students to look past all of the graphics and visuals normally found in hypertext. Just as in linear essays written content should remain the focus of a student's web page. As we were doing research, Dr. Essid warned us numerous times about those sites that are less intelligent than they appear. Style does not necessarily equal content.

Alfred Bork remains weary of the current multimedia hype. He mentions in one of his articles, "Much enthusiasm tends to confuse learning with access to information" (14). The real trick seems to be organizing the information found on the Internet in ways that support what we are learning. There are many educators who feel that web projects with many links decrease the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized fashion. However, this depends on the professor's definition of organized. Just because an essay is not linear does not mean that it cannot still be organized in a flowing pattern. In fact, this is the difficulty that students encounter in designing a web site. They must make sure that the reader can follow their thought process even while choosing to pursue any number of links. The hypertext design may even cause writers to spend more time thinking about how they will organize their site.

The growing use of hypertext projects in colleges and universities brings us to an important question. How are these new mediums of writing to be evaluated? It seems impossible to try to evaluate hypertext in the same way that linear essays have been judged. Hart-Davidson strongly states in his article, "My answer is that to try to reduce the writing technologies we use to teach writing to a set of basic discursive competencies is a move to conceal the ideological, political, and theoretical contexts in which they are situated" (4). He believes that people write in order to speak out and present innovative ideas. Presenting these new ideas in a style that ignores the emerging writing conventions of our time contradicts the writer's desire for change.

All of these issues were important to the English 376 class because all of the students were aspiring peer tutors. (For more information on the usefulness of peer tutors see my last project). One of the goals of the University of Richmond's Writing Center is to increase the comfort and openness with which hesitant writers can discuss their ideas. Tutors also need to be able to help peers with new writing forms, but few have had the necessary training. It is very likely that each of us will come in contact with another student's hypertext project in the upcoming years. Guidelines are being created to summarize what academic hypertext should contain, and these could be a great benefit to the tutor. Another aspect to consider is how the tutorial will change when multimedia assignments are being discussed. Will the peer-tutor relationship become more or less personal? Additionally, how will a peer tutor deal with advising the organization of a student's paper? This web site provides a view on how the peer tutorial will be effected by hypertext and is itself an example of such a project.

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