A legitimate question is the extent to which the current hypertext and its
organization were idiosyncratic factors in the current corpus of data. The
position taken here is that a single example can be used to reveal
generalities. But an invitation to "know," in theory, that idiosyncratic factors
were not a significant component in invoking idiosyncratic taken-for-
granted assumptions would probably be less convincing to the reader than
an empirical check. An attempt was made, therefore, to empirically
examine the potential variability in idiosyncrasy for the current and, by
implication, any particular hypertext. The question posed was, How
idiosyncratic is the hypertext?

Two volunteers were asked to construct, using paper and pencil, a series
of nodes for a hypertext system, using the text contained in the hypertext
in this study. The volunteers were naive to hypertext, the aim being to
examine an intuitive construction of hypertext, rather than one bounded by
a previous set of experiences with specific systems and/or theories. The
hypertexts created provide instructive comparisons to one another, as well
as to the hypertext employed to collect the corpus of data used in the
preceding chapters.

The two "authors" were given the set of sentences on violent crime
contained in the current hypertext, arranged in alphabetical order, and
asked to organize them for presentation. They were also given the
following written instructions:

You have received both a list of numbered sentences and a packet of
cards. The purpose of this task is to take the sentences on violent

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