Jacques Derrida Hypertext, a term coined by Theodor H. Nelson in the 1960s, refers to a form of electronic text, an information technology, and a mode of publication. As popularly conceived, this is a series of text chunks connected by links which offer the reader different pathways. The departments are founded on texts, and are already well-established members of the university community. Yet text is often perceived as a concrete whole, the book an edifice of words.
Many students experience literature as a kind of moldy archaic book-worship.
This may be an attitude fostered by stodgy high school classrooms or disinterested faculty. Students feel alienated from what, arguably, are important keys to learning and living. Although not Gutenberg-era, hypertext itself has a history. In electronic writing classrooms, however, students can bridge academia and the on-line world. Regarding these goals, considerable amounts of theory and thought have emerged.