The obligatory chart:
| Characteristics unique to written or printed text (and in a paper context) |
Characteristics common to both | Characteristics unique to electronic texts (and in an electronic context) |
| Permanent: it stays the same unless consciously and deliberately altered | Basically linear; one dimensional (one thing after another, left to right) | It flows; can be tracelessly edited or moved |
| The technology for producing and distributing it is complex and expensive | How you understand depends on what you bring to the text | You can't take it to bed with you, or read it in the bathroom |
| Reading tends to be a leisurely exper- ience, to take substantial chunks of time | It's easy to distribute to others, to communicate at a distance | Reading tends to happen in small chunks, a screenful at a time |
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