22 -— North Shore News — Friday, November 24, 2000 ng ihe rit Bi The Rolling Stone Book the Beats edited by Holly George-Warren, Hyperion, 452 pages, $22.95. .. Beats. The word can con jure up many images depen ing on your age and cultural feferences. For the ost war baby Boomers, the Bea ts were the signposts, the “ones pointing the way to a differ- ent direction. Without a - doubt, Jack Kerouac is the most famous of the writers who contributed to the cre- tion of the Beat culture. His’ See Beats page 5 KétchenAid’ " KitchsnAid® : STAND MIXER between MOY. 1, 2006 and Fine Marcie Good News Reporter mgood@nsnews.com THE Internet is new, fascinating, and grow- ing by quantum leaps. But it still needs old-fash- ioned grammar and spelling to make it work properly. That's the message of Crawtord Killian’s latest book, Writing for the Web: Geek's Edition. The Capilano College instructor has taught and wiit- ten online since he first discov- ered the Internet in the 1980s. Vorking as a writer-in-elec- tronic-residence, he was fasci- nated by the power of the new medium — the ability to read the work of a student in Iqualuit or a poet in the Interior. While he remains “biased” towards print on paper, he was captivated by the way the Internet changed the way peo- ple communicate. “Just as people were nding differendy in e-mail than they would respond in a letter on paper, the way people were writing and reading on the Web was totally different. I thought it was a really interesting thing to see a whole new genre of writing.” One that, often times, is sloppy and too fixated on what he calls “dancing baloney” — irrelevant anima- tions that add nothing to a Web site. The Internet, he says, both “revs us up and dumbs us down.” We have come to expect instant results, and get impatient quickly. But at. the same time, tlic low resolution text slows down our reading speed by up to 25 per cent. “If know my readers are going to be reading chat much slower, I better give them less text and it all bet- ee be very related to whatever it is they’re looking r.” ~The Internet has also spawned its own vocabulary. Some of those words and expressions — like “digerati” Fore Mivceenware OOD PROCESSO BUY ANY HEW KitchenRid® 600 Series FOOD PROCESSOR between DEC. 24, 2000 and (very computer literate) or “greybar land” (wasting time while your browser slowly downloads a big file — are funny and provide insight into the culture of the new medium. Buc like technology itself, the words quickly become obsolete. Kilian also draws attention to expres- sions like “Y2K” or “this site under construction” as overused clichés. Others might not be as well-known as you assume. — The struggle for good and clear, effective writing seems like a losing battle on the World Wide Web, which will likely always be unregulated. Bur Kilian maintains that proper English, or any language, will prevail when people find that it works. “Particularly for professional, business, and acade- mic sites, therc will be quite a lot of pressure to make NEWS photo Tarry Peters: CRAWFORD Kilian, an instructor at Capilano College, has published 18 books. His latest Is a guide to good writing for the Internet, and he’s working on a hypertext novei. sure that good English is part of the subtext of any’ Web page. Because otherwise, the message is that ’'m too sl peach or too stupid to notice the mistakes Pm eae is working oa an on-line novel, which spans. nearly the whole 20th century. While he “has spent 30: years writing and publishing, he feels that this project’ is an “apprenticeship.” Instead of a chronological nar. rative form, the novel is a series of letters and chunks that a reader chooses. “You can Speop the se would say in the way you out of this experience, they’re going to have to devel. op some new habits and new responses. That's what I. find so interesting.” - Grand Opening Caulfeild Village A Culinary _ Change oO - Scenery Cuisinart ‘GET A NEW... KitchenAld® .. Gourmet Quality, - @" SUILLET : Model 75971 $119.99 MSRP, reg. 329.99 _Sale $299” 24 pee i8/10' sisteel FLATWARE ‘SET “Reg. $150.00 Saie 584 Reg. $299.99 Sale $229.