Storyspace as a hypertext system for writers and readers of varying ability
Michael Joyce
Center for Narrative and T echnology
Jackson Community College
Jackson, MI 49203
Michael_Joyce@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU AppleLink: D1924
Jackson Community College
Jackson, MI 49203
Michael_Joyce@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU AppleLink: D1924
Canonical source PDF: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/122974.125110
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Storyspace [Storyspace 91], a powerful general purpose hypertext system, is designed to function as a writing environment for developmental, experienced and professional writers alike. Obviously the task domains of each of these populations vary considerably. Even so, contemporary compositional, rhetorical and literary theory as well as pedagogical practice provide some consistency regarding design requirements and constraints across domains within the writing process.
For instance there is a broad consensus among compositional theorists that implicit or explicit interpretive communities intervene within the writing process ([Becker 86] [LeFevre 87]). This intervention can range from the scientific writer’s recognition of the formal requirements of technical prose [Bazerman 81], to the creative writer’s awareness of culture [Olson 74], to the beginning writer’s awareness that her immediate audience extends beyond the teacher to the classmates with whom she collaborates and who function as her readers. [Joyce 88] In order to accommodate and represent these varied interventions, system design requires an interplay between hierarchical and other organizational structures as well as an annotational capability which crosses these organizational structures at relatively low cost in terms of cognitive overhead or computation.
Another instance of broad consensus among compositional theorists is that some form of tokenizing, information-hiding, or progressive disclosure performs a valuable function for developmental, experienced and professional writers. For developmental writers an awareness that ideas can be tokenized is a critical first step toward development of hierarchical thinking skills, abstraction, and consideration of audience. [Shaughnessy 77] Concrete representations of fuzzy ideational structures are especially important to developmental writers because they know how such representations are used against them (cf., [Shneiderman 83]). Likewise journalists, intelligence analysts, planners and legislators constantly filter and organize texts to convey new understanding, formulating coherent stones from incoherent information or reformulating existing structures to convey new perspective. [Bernstein 91]
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The design considerations which emerge from this broad consensus suggest that writers at varying levels of expertise can benefit from hypertext tools which
facilitate the development and reconfiguration of transitional organizational structures, offering both intuitive representations of explicit hierarchy and multiple views and reading paths to massage these transitional hierarchies
enable rapid spawning of hi-directional links for notation and comment
emphasize the dual character of the writing space, i.e., that it contains structure and text (including pictures) in a single object (not separated as in NoteCards, viz. [Halasz 87]) which occupies a place in the evolving structure of elements
Storyspace [Bolter 87] was designed as a tool for the process of writing, and is thus related to WE [Smith 87] and the Andrew hypertext suite [Neuwirth 89]. Like Intermedia [Yankelovich 88], Storyspace anchors its univalent links and multivalent paths at text spans, freeing writers to revise spontaneously. Storyspace’s hierarchical backbone (cf. [Akscyn 87]) is supported by direct-manipulation tools for mapping, arranging, annotating, and changing the document’s structure. Storyspace is most at home as a tool for writing and revising, and has been widely used for writing instruction and for composing conventional books (e.g. [Bolter 91]) as well as for writing hypertext ([Joyce 90a] [Bolter 91a]) writing 91].
Storyspace provides a visual expression, or topographic writing space [Bolter 91], for invention and text generation. Each idea takes shape as a box or cell in the writing space.
After we have defined a number of cells, we may begin to organize. If we intend to produce a traditional essay or technical report, then we must move from an associative process to a hierarchy of subordinate and superordinate ideas. Such a hierarchy is traditionally visualized as an outline. In fact, Storyspace offers three different visualizations of hierarchical structure. In the above diagram, where cells represent ideas, the writer can indicate subordination by placing one cell inside another.
In this view the names of cells lower in the hierarchy can no longer be seen. However, Storyspace permits the writer to change perspectives. The writer can “enter into” any one of the top cells: that cell enlarges to occupy the whole screen and reveals the structure it contains.
Each cell is itself a writing space that can contain other spaces within it. The writer moves up and down through the hierarchy by entering into and leaving appropriate cells. The writer can also choose to view the whole structure as a tree or as a conventional (indented) outline. All three views can be resized.
Any Storyspace cell can be opened as a window for entering text and graphics. The writer can open two or more text windows at a time and can cut and paste among these open windows; specify type sizes, styles, and fonts; and search and replace words and phrases in the text. After writing and revising, each cell or the whole text can be printed out in hierarchical order—with or without the cell titles and an enumeration to indicate the position of each cell in the hierarchy.
Storyspace lets writers move back and forth among various cognitive activities. The writer can brainstorm for a few minutes, throw down a few cells, and then begin to add verbal text to those cells. Or she can start by composing a careful outline and then move “back” to the brainstorming phase to disperse and regroup ideas. She can even write a whole eight- or ten-page document in a single cell or turn a conventional document, created in a word processor, into a Storyspace structure. The “Explode” feature allows the writer to transform such a document into cells (sentences, paragraphs, or larger units) and then reorganize and rewrite.
The medium of print expects writing to be hierarchical in structure and (with some important exceptions) linear in presentation. Yet text generation and invention is characterized by a multiplicity of relationships among ideas. When we move toward formal organization, we are closing off options for ourselves as writers and for our readers. Possible relationships among ideas are narrowed into a well-defined hierarchy. By providing a diagram of the evolving structure, Storyspace makes the writer’s task of narrowing her writing to fit the space of the printed page easier.
What Storyspace does not make easier is the task of providing transitions. In Storyspace, verbal text is apportioned in discrete cells. The cells may be large or small, but in any case the writer is encouraged to think of each cell as a verbal unit with its own identity. If each paragraph of a text is stored as a separate cell in a Storyspace document, there is no obvious need for rhetorical transition between paragraphs. Storyspace emphasizes structural clarity at the expense of rhetorical smoothness. When the document is printed out, the writer must come to terms with rhetorical problems of print that did not arise in the electronic space, in which the document was created.
ELECTRONIC WRITING
While the problem of transitions can perhaps be overcome by improvements to the interface (so that the writer can see the document either in discrete units or as a single, continuous text, as it will appear in the printed version), a more radical solution would be to avoid printing out the text-or rather to cease to regard the printout as the final, canonical form. If we hand the Storyspace document over to the reader to read in Storyspace, readers would no longer be compelled to follow a single reading order.
There would no longer be any need to organize the text as a single hierarchy. The writer could maintain multiple relationships among her ideas. In fact, Storyspace permits the writer to specify multiple relationships and to offer them to the reader. To do this, the writer adds explicit links between cells, links that define possible paths through the writing space. Instead of a tree, the writing space becomes a network of verbal (and multimedia) elements.
Jay Bolter [Bolter 91] notes that although the typography of a printed book is essentially linear, the book does have some features—in particular the index and the footnote—that permit the reader to break through the linearity of the text. The index indicates alternate orders in which the book can be read, according to various topics that are listed as index entries. The footnote indicates digressions, loops that the reader can follow from the main body of text to an interesting detail and back again.
In Storyspace there is special tool for making electronic footnotes. The writer begins in a text window by highlighting the word or phrase to which a note will be attached. When the note command is invoked, a second window appears whose title is the highlighted word or phrase. The writer types the note into this window. When the window is closed, Storyspace creates a new cell, stores the typed text, and builds hi-directional links to the original passage. The original passage is now marked, and the writer or any subsequent reader can invoke a “follow-link” command that will display the note and then return the reader to the original passage.
Using the note command, the writer can build a hypertext of “digressions” that explain or comment upon a primary text. Martha Joyce’s students at Jackson Community College read the poetry of Whitman and wrote comments and reactions. The instructor then fashioned a hypertext by putting Whitman’s poems in one cell and attaching the students’ comments as notes to words and phrases in the poems. Each student then read this hypertext and added further comments, which the teacher could incorporate into a master text for distribution to other students in the class. Such a text with electronic footnotes serves as a transition from conventional writing to full-fledged electronic writing.
Eventually, the writer will want the freedom to create hypertext with a more complicated structure of links. She will want to make the electronic equivalent of an index as well as the footnote. Storyspace lets the writer draw links between any two cells, and therefore to create long paths that need not be circular. Links may be attached to words or phrases, attached to an entire cell, and attached to other documents. Under Macintosh System 7.0 these latter links between documents are “aliases,” which allow Storyspace to move seamlessly among documents whether within the current directory or across a network.
Using the Pathbuilder dialog, the writer can join a list of cells into a named path. For example, suppose the writer has composed a document with many cells on the subject of new technologies in aviation. She can compile a list of all cells whose text includes, say, the phrase “fly by wire.” This list of cells is then connected into a path (a sequence of links leading from cell to cell in the list). Within the larger document, the writer has now built a special document or tour that discusses this one technology. Taken together, this network of paths can function like a carefully prepared index in a printed book, but with greater flexibility for both writer and reader. For example, the writer can define two paths (“fly by wire” and “heads-up display”), merge them, and give the merged path a new name. Lists in the pathbuilder can also be sorted along various dimensions (e.g. alphabetically by name of cell, by date of creation of the cell) before the path is created.
BROWSING
Using the editor, the writer has complete freedom in creating and deleting cells, verbal text, multimedia elements, and links. In handing a document over to others, the writer may wish to limit the reader’s ability to examine or to change the textual structure. Storyspace provides for this more restricted reading or browsing: the system currently offers three browser/readers with somewhat different interfaces, all of which allow the reader to examine the contents of cells, but not to change either content or structure. These readers are self-contained. When the writer finishes a document, the document can be written out as a stand-alone application, which contains both the text and the browsing interface and can be copied to other disks for distribution. Storycard, a fourth reader in Hypercard, runs from a structure file created in Storyspace
A Storyspace browser presents the verbal and graphic text of the current cell in a window on the screen. It then waits for a response from the reader. The reader may select a menu item, click on a toolbar, highlight a word in the text window, or type a word or phrase at the keyboard. The browser will then activate the appropriate link from the current cell to another. To determine the appropriate link, the browser first checks for “sticky button” links from particular marked words or phrases. If the reader doubleclicks on a marked word or phrase, the browser will follow that link. If this technique fails, the browser looks through all links the lead from the current cell. It examines the “guard fields” that the writer has associated with these links. A guard field is a short script indicating when a link should be selected. In the simplest case, the guard field is a string (such as “yes” or “no”) that the reader must match. By using guard fields, the writer can control the reader’s path through the text based upon the reader’s answer to questions posed in the text or upon the reader’s previous travels in that textual space.
This linking protocol is not complicated the writer can learn to manipulate it with relative ease. The protocol is transparent for the reader, who simply types responses or points and clicks. The reader is (almost) never stranded, because any reply will activate a default branch from the current cell to another.
REFERENCES
[Akscyn 87] R. Akscyn, D. McCracken, and E. Yoder “KMS: A Distributed Hypermedia System for Managing Knowledge in Organizations”, Proc. Hypertext ‘87, ACM, Baltimore, 1987, pp. 1-20; reprinted in Communications of the ACM 30 (1988) 820-35
[Bazerman 81] Charles Bazerman. “What Written Knowledge Does: Three Examples of Academic Discourse,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 11(3), 361-387.
[Becker 86] Howard S. Becker, Writing for Social Scientists, the University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1986.
[Bernstein 91] Mark Bernstein, Jay David Bolter, Michael Joyce, and Elli Mylonas, “Architectures for Volatile Hypertext,” Proceeding of Hypertext ’91, ACM, San Antonio, 1991.
[Bolter 87] Jay David Bolter and Michael Joyce, “Hypertext and Creative Writing”, Proceeding of Hypertext ’87, ACM, Baltimore, 1987. pp.41-50.
[Bolter 91] Jay David Bolter, Writing Space The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing, Lawnmce Erlbaum and Associates, Hillsdale. 1991.
[Bolter 91a] Jay David Bolter, Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing, hypertext edition, hypertext for Macintosh computers, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Hillsdale. 1991.
[Halasz 87] Halasz, F.; Moran, T.P.; Trigg, R.H.; “NoteCards in a Nutshell”, Proceedings ACM CHI+GI 87 (Toronto, 5-9 April 1987) 45-52
[Joyce 88] Michael Joyce, “Siren Shapes: Exploratory and Constructive Hypertext”, Academic Computing 3 pp.10-14
[Joyce 90a] Michael Joyce, Afternoon, a story, hypertext document for Macintosh computers, Eastgate Systems, Cambridge MA, 1990.
[LeFevre 87] Karen Burke LeFevre, Invention as a Social Act, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL, 1987.
[Neuwirth 89] Christine M. Neuwirth and David S. Kaufer, “The Role of External Representations in the Writing Process: Implications for the Design of Hypertext-based Writing Tools, Proceedings Hypertext 89, ACM, Baltimore, 1989
[Nielsen 90] Jakob Nielsen, Hypertext and Hypermedia, Academic Press, 1990.
[Olson 74] Charles Olson, Additional Prose A Bibliography on America, Proprioception, and Other Essays. Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation.
[Shneiderman 83] Ben Shneiderman, “Direct Manipulation: a step beyond programming languages” IEEE Computer pp. 57-69.
[Shaughnessy 77] Mina P. Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977.
[Smith 871 John B. Smith, Stephen F. Weiss and Gordon J. Ferguson, “A Hypertext Writing Environment and its Cognitive Basis’’J%ceeding of Hypertext ’87, ACM, Baltimore, 1987. pp.41-50
[Storyspace 91] Storyspace, hypertext writing environment for Macintosh computers, Eastgate Systems, Inc. 1991.
[Writing 91] Writing on the Edge 2 (2), Special hypertext section, University of California at Davis, 1991.
[Yankelovich 88] Nicole Yankelovich, B. J. Haan, Norman K. Meyrowitz, and Steven M. Drucker, “Intermedia: The concept and construction of a seamless information environment”, IEEE Computer 21 (1988) 81-96
[Source: Joyce, M. 1991. Storyspace As a Hypertext System for Writers and Readers of Varying Ability. In Proceedings of the Third Annual ACM Conference on Hypertext (HYPERTEXT ‘91) (San Antonio, TX), 381-387. ACM, New York, USA. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/122974.125110.]
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