Context, Hypertext, and Intertext (Lesson Guide)

OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, you must be able to:

define context;
determine ways on how a text is developed;
define hypertext; and
define intertext.

MOTIVATION

Do you think that an author’s personal background, as well as the environment where he/she lived in, influence his/her writing? If so, can you cite some authors and the proof of their work? An example is done for you.

AUTHOR	WORK	PROOF
Jose Rizal	Noli Me Tangere	He described Spanish-era Philippines, from the architecture to the culture, even though he used fictional characters.

LESSON PROPER

CONTEXT
There is always an inspiration behind the writing of a text, and often, it leaves clues about the situation or the reality that served as the backdrop of the text. This backdrop, this situation, this reality is known as the context of the text.

When you consider context as you write things, be guided by the following reminders:

If you are writing non-fiction—academic texts, historical narratives, argumentative essays, position papers, etc.—you need to stick to the facts. Portray reality as it is. To do so, you must conduct extensive research using scholarly references.
When using context, try to represent several perspectives—by citing different sources.
If you are writing fiction and aim to integrate your context into it, remember to not make the tale too far off from human and worldly reality. Works like Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, and Ibong Adarna, while they are fictional, have a lot of the human touch in them—making them relevant to audiences.

Text Development
There are several ways by which a text is developed. You learned in junior high school about the forms of essays: descriptive, narrative, expository, and argumentative. In this book, you will learn about the other forms that fall under expository texts.

Each form has its own way. of developing the text, but here are the essentials that you need to remember:

Purpose. Tt must have an aim or an objective. You need to know the reason why you are writing the text, and what you intend to achieve from your readers—to make them laugh, to convince them to take action, to let them understand something, and to educate them, among others.
Audience. Do not forget to know your target audience. Is it for the youth? Is it for adults? Is it for experts? Is it for novices? Remember that you cannot always resonate to every single person in the world; you need to focus on a target audience. In this manner, you will be able to adjust the content, your use of language, and your style of presentation.
Content and Meaning. Your work needs to have substance. Apart from being considerate of your target audience, what will make them read the work is its content and meaning.

HYPERTEXT

One of the recent developments in reading has been brought about by the advancement of technology. Let’s take a look at the technological advancements that you’re familiar with. Circle those that you actually have as possessions.
tablet laptop
desktop computer smartphone

Perhaps you encircled most of these. If you did and you read texts through the said gadgets, you may have noticed that some web pages have texts that have hyperlinks (normally underlined and in blue color).

What makes hypertext unique is the speed at which you can shift to different texts. When the first text mentions the concept that is also discussed in another text, all you have to do is to click the hyperlink and the other page will load.

What happens when we shift to different texts
One good thing that hypertext does is allowing readers to shift to different web pages almost instantly. When you get to navigate around the internet and view several web pages in a matter of seconds or minutes, you have a greater chance of getting a better picture of the entire scenario in a fast manner.

There are now so many news websites and applications that are accessible via the internet. Often, when you read a news article – especially one that belongs to a series – you will see hyperlinks that will bring you to other related news stories. This helps the reader get a better understanding of the whole story.

Always remember that true comprehension is being able to understand the whole picture.

INTERTEXT

Intertextuality draws origin from literature and asserts that texts can only be understood in relation to other texts. Also, present-day texts are believed to have been based on or at least inspired by previously-published literature – from the style to the content, to the context, etc.

While intertextuality has remained researched largely in the field of literature, it has applications for academic and technical reading (academic is for school; technical is for work). Let’s take a look how we can benefit from intertextuality:

We can widen our knowledge. Reading more leads to knowing more, and that can help broaden what you know about the topic.
We can view different texts and different perspectives. Referring to different texts and authors helps give you other perspectives about the same topic, preventing you from having a fundamentalist view of things.
We can be more certain of what we know. Finding out that your ideas match the ideas of the previous authors helps validate the things you know. It likewise increases the credibility of the information.

THE WRAP

Don’t forget these very important lessons!

A text’s meaning can be determined based partly on the context in which it was developed.
Hypertext is a reading environment that is based on the internet.
Hypertext allows people to shift to different texts as fast as the internet loading speeds allow.
Intertextuality helps people understand better by referring to multiple texts to compare meaning.

LEVEL UP!

A. Put a tick (/) mark on good practice for both reading and writing, or an X mark for something that’s not.
______ 1. Stick to one source of information.
______ 2. Consider other references as invalid.
______ 3. Be open to other ideas.
______ 4. Look at an author’s references and read them, too.
______ 5. Acknowledge your sources.
______ 6. Add as many sources as possible to your work.

B. Write T if the statement is true and F if false.
______ 1. The meaning of a text is dependent on the other texts.
______ 2. Authors tend to build on what previous authors have published or started.
______ 3. We can gain full understanding of a concept by referring to one text.
______ 4. A well-written research paper has several references.
______ 5. If you want to know more about the topic, you need to read references tackling the same thing.

C. Search the internet for three references for each topic.
1. Climate change
a. ________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________

2. Social media
a. ________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________

3. Bullying
a. ________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________

4. Study habits
a. ________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________

TRANSFER

You are a blogger who has been hired by the Department of Tourism to promote tourist spots in Mindanao. The agreement is for you to create an account on the blog site WordPress.com, and post an entry—complete with text and graphics about tourist spots found in Mindanao. You also need to use hyperlinks in order to help the reader go to websites that will (1) show more pictures; (2) provide travel packages, with services and cost; and (3) book flights or ferry trips.

Your blog entry will get you retained in your job—even promoted—if the blog entry has high-quality graphics, has a well-written promotional text, and has active hyperlinks to all the required web information.