The kind of software/document support for NN reading
described here points to the need for reader training in
recognizing rhetorical structures. As for supportive
document design, the approach described here provides the
trained reader with an array of structure-revealing
document versions. The reader accesses these versions
according to preference and strategy, aided by software
design.
Foltz envisions an eventual state of the art in
structure signalling technique: '...as hypertexts become
more accepted and widespread, writers of hypertext may
develop standard rhetorical styles. Readers who are then
familiar with those rhetorical styles can use that
knowledge to help in their structuring of the information
in an effective manner.' (Foltz, 1996, page 7).
Many of the recent developments in hypertext authoring
are paralled in text authoring. In his section on
considerate text in journalism, Grow (1996) says that the
recent success of the redesign of major publications
defies older psychological concepts such as
stimulus-response and can only be explained in terms of
cognitive theory. Now, Grow claims, "...practitioners of
journalism can do far more than they can explain.
Practice has outrun theory." But this is surely just
another swing of the practice-theory pendulum.