The exploration and development of tools for active reading and electronic texts.

This thesis presents the results of research into the process of editing and the decisions faced by editors when approaching early modern texts. By looking at problems faced by editors of Renaissance texts, such as the difficulty of editing and presenting texts that exist in more than one version, for example Shakespeare's King Lear, it has enabled me to gain a better understanding of how these issues can be approached and how technology can assist in this.The thesis outlines the areas of the domain into which research has been undertaken, those where it is currently being investigated, and those which may be explored in the future. A literature review of relevant texts has been included, as well as a review of some of the existing methods of viewing texts electronically. I have focused my practical research on how scholarly readers at Undergraduate level respond to being confronted with an unstable text. The term "Active Reading" is used in this case to refer to a level of dynamic involvement with the text, where editorial decision-making can affect the meaning of the text.In observing the methods by which they currently examine and edit multiple-texts, I have been able to study readers and find out how they would like to be able to undertake this task using technology. I have utilized the knowledge gathered from this research to begin editing my own section of a Renaissance play using TEI XML, and to design some prototype editions of a Renaissance poem incorporating several interactive methods of engaging with multiple-text editions. I hope that by documenting the process of producing this work, as well as drawing conclusions from my findings from user trials, that this will contribute to new work in the development of electronic texts for literary readers.