The Impact of Innovative Communication Technologies: Online Documentation, the Reader, and the Writer

Abstract

New communication technologies, based on the computer, will change the ways in which texts are written and produced. Most of these changes will re strict the writing process. While the most noticeable innovation has been the word processor, purely electronic information will soon introduce more potent challenges into the writer's task. This movement from paper-based informa tion to electronic, or online, information requires the writer to consider interaction methods, layout features, screen functions, and the like. It also re quires a reevaluation of the reader's relation to the traditional concept of “texts” and calls into question many writing strategies. © 1987, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.