Reading and writing in the Web

Abstract

This article investigates the characteristics of Web texts, which shape specific reading and writing styles. At first, a discussion is made of the articulation between communication and knowledge, spanning from oral cultures to the cyberculture. After that, the informal writing of communication mediated by computers is introduced. Finally, under the perspective of the hypertextual language of the digital medium, writing styles and reading modes of those texts on Web pages are approached. Based on such assumptions, one infers the need for reinforcing the importance of reading and writing, which have been neglected by the audiovisual culture, and demystifying the death of the book.