How would you like to improve your writing? Is it through carefully thought out structure? How about an intrinsic sense of order? The potentials of linear writing must be left in the paper margins.

When looking at writing on the Internet, what sorts of feelings spring to mind for you?

Colloquially, it is a sea of information, overflowing with organic spontaneity. It is also a web--woven delicately with the finest threads of techno-silk. But why, then, is it such a formidable task to create an engaging, visually appealing online interface? The difficulty with online writing is the ease with which the publisher can clutter the page with animated pictures; backgrounds that would be better suited on the floor of a casino; fonts and sizes of text that make the article unreadable; and layouts that can cause headaches rather than inspired afterthought and reflection.

It’s fitting that traditional academic writing was printed on paper--a medium that oozes high, educated class--accessible only to those who could afford it. The accessibility that the desktop computer brings into the average home, coupled with vast amounts of free software and information, adds up to an incredible opportunity for staking a claim on some virtual space.

There is a trick to online writing and it appears when the word accessible is attached to its description. For an article or text to be truly accessible, the endnotes, footnotes, outside definitions, and associated information must be readily available and easy to get to. This is the added bonus of online writing. All of the additional information and supplementary reading can just be “linked” to the article. The actual task of linking will be discussed later. The method behind gathering and cross-referencing different tidbits of information with associative links was first suggested by Vannevar Bush with his description of the Memex, which eventually spearheaded the institution of online writing.

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