Critical Thinking: Linear Essays vs. Hypertexts

Critical thinking is careful and deliberate determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment.
Moore and Parker, 1994.

I think that this quote is relevant to my opinion about how you think when you're writing a linear essay versus a hypertext. What you're writing on a hypertext is going to go online onto a public website where everyone can read it. You've got to censor yourself at least a little bit so you won't anger that many people. At the same time writing for a hypertext can relax the tone of your writing--you're writing for the public, not your professor so you can loosen the tone of your writing. For a linear essay, you're writing for your professor so you're going to write in a much more polite tone.
Linear essays provide a lot more thinking about how to be concise with your writing. Yes, you have to be concise and to the point with your hypertext, but you have SO much more room to be able to write however long you want. Linear essays rely on judgement from one person, whereas hypertexts rely on judgement from more than one person.