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Electronic Term Paper
Multi-Modality & the Electronic
Writing Space
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Presenting the New Reader
“Changing the ease with which one
can orient oneself and pursue individual references within such a context
radically changes both the experience of reading and ultimately the nature
of what which is read,”8
according to Bolter. With the creation of hypertext fiction, the reader is
invited to participate in the shaping of the text.
There is no doubt that the author is still in control,
but the reader is put in the scenario where he seem to make random choices
while reading texts that seem borderless. It is this freedom that the
reader has been waiting for, and now it is readily available with the
shift towards multi-modality in the electronic writing space. As Bolter
further points out that
“The electronic reader
takes an active role in the making of the text: that indeed the text
becomes a contested ground between author and reader. In fact there is a
third player in this game, the electronic space itself. The computer is
always doubling the author for the reader, just as it doubles the reader
for the author, interpreting and misinterpreting each to the other.”9
It is with the understanding of the elements of visual literary that a
viewer can come to understand visual syntax. Visual literacy allows the
reader to make sense the meaning and components of the image, with basic
visual elements like shape, texture and dimension. Just as the author has
made a significant choice in his selection of visual elements to accompany
his text so as to help the reader to visualise the text better, the onus
is on the reader to identify these elements and to interpret the
underlying meaning which the visual elements are portraying for the
author.
Given also that the new author has the added task of selecting the right
combinations of multi-modality elements to better ‘tell his tale’ to the
reader, it would be wise for the reader to judge the author dependent on
the content rather than the modalities used. The modalities only add to
the experience of reading. Hence, at the end of the day, it should be the
case the reader enjoys reading the content and not purely enjoying the
aesthetics which hypertext offers.
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