Volume 1, Number 1

pitfalls of image and text

The Need for Words in Hypertexts

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<1> Images in presentations are powerful resources which can easily illustrate or even make an argument. However, there is distinct possibility that displaying an image will lead to a false sense of presentation on the part of an author. This sample illustrates what can go wrong when an author assumes that an image will carry an argument.

<2> The description which accompanies the picture merely states that the picture is an example; it doesn't expand with any detail which might suggest HOW it is an example. There is a certain pathos in the pile of dead fish, and the reader understands that the author is trying to show environmental destruction, but the accompanying description misses a great oppportunity for further clarification and presentation. Where is this lake? Can he reiterate the cause of this destruction with specifics? How many other lakes are threatened? What should we do? Et cetera.

<3> This is not, however, an issue inherent only to hypertextual composition. Beginning writers often need to be more specific in their explanations. The pedagogical challenge lies in turning the writer's tendency toward false presentation into an opportunity for further clarification.

Select one of the other student samples, move on to the conclusion, return to not maimed but malted, or return to discussion of Bolter.
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