Toward literacy in a new medium: Hypertext writing and composition pedagog

Featuring two models of literacy, one rooted in print and one rooted in the production of electronic text, this dissertation extends the conversation of literacy workers by locating critiques of print in a rhetoric of emptiness and by locating critiques of hypertext in a rhetoric of replenishment. Specifically, in the opening chapters, this dissertation defines and articulates two systems of rhetoric---one built by the exhaustion of print conventions and one built by the replenishing medium of hypertext. Demonstrating these two systems of rhetoric at work, the remaining chapters explicate these systems of rhetoric as they are showcased in student hypertexts, hypertexts that either replicate current models of text production most commonly associated with print or hypertexts that demonstrate a rebirth of writing in an electronic medium that offers a rich, new space for the rediscovery of rhetorical invention, arrangement, style and delivery. Concluding this dissertation are comments on the future of composition pedagogy in light of electronic text production and the rebirth of writing as a technology. These concluding comments include discussions of online argumentation and online research as well as an explication of evaluation practices as they must be reconceptualized to account for a new model of reading and writing in the late age of print.