In 1993, when author Stephen A. Berhnardt wrote this article,
the World Wide Web was in its infancy and computer use was just
starting to become common in the workplace. The author describes
it as a “speculative piece” that tried to describe the
transition from paper text to on-screen text. Bernhardt
considers what constitutes a well-formed text, how readers
interact with text, and how text differs in print and on screen.
He notes that paper documents have provided a starting point for
both rhetoric and structure of on-screen text. In this paper,
Bernhardt examines a number of features that are unique to
electronic text. Situationally Embedded Text Books and other
paper texts have different attributes than on-screen text. These
documents are portable. Their use is typically independent of
the reader’s physical environment; in fact, they allow the
reader to escape by portraying a completely different situation.
Screen-based text, on the other hand, is integrated with other
actions. It is typically task-based: