• Organisation

This essay argues that although the complexity, non-linearity and multimediality of the hypertext, on the one hand, and the coherence and linearity of the conventional written text, on the other, appear to contradict and exclude each other, the production of a coherent and unifying written text is a requirement in understanding a hypertext. Reading a hypertext is regarded as constructing a meaningful, unified and whole text which is best represented in the form of a conventional text. The latter can exist in mental form only, but if externalized this is in the form of a written text in various genres, depending on the communicative interests and purposes of the interlocutor. Thus, the essay argues, writing coherent texts is a prerequisite of hypertext literacy