CONTEXTS

Book ReviewsProposal Writing for Smaller Businesses—Who Want to Become Bigger Businesses!Lee Lister. 2009. [Ipswich], UK: Biz Guru Ltd. [ISBN 978-0-9563861-0-6. 101pages. US$47.55 (softcover).]Proposal Writing for SmallerBusinesses kicks off with threepages of warnings from theauthor, who tells us that shedoes not believe in get-richquickschemes and does notguarantee any level of profitbased on the information inher 101-page book.In Chapter 1, Lee Listerstates the main reasonsomeone at a small businesswould want to spend time writing proposals: to expandthe business. Each subsequent chapter discusses theapproach and process she recommends to prepare awinning proposal. Although Lister is writing for a UKaudience (with Briticisms such as “keep an eye on theadverts” [p. 46]), the book loses only a bit of utility forAmerican (and presumably Canadian) audiences.Lister’s process is logical, but the informationshe provides tends to lack detail. For example, in thechapter “Now You Need to Get Writing,” she saysthat before starting to write your proposal, you need to“find out exactly what your potential client wants—notalways what they ask for” (p. 56). What’s missing aretips on how to do that.The book needs a good copyedit before the secondedition is published. It contains numerous typographicalerrors, dropped words, incorrect words, and acronymsand abbreviations defined on second reference. Addingone or two examples and using them throughout thebook would help explain concepts; by the end of thebook, this would provide a detailed—and complete—proposal that the reader could use as a template. Lister’swriting is conversational, which isn’t necessarily bad, butit lacks the polish that will inspire small business ownersto do their best when penning their first proposals.Proposal Writing for Smaller Businesses is a basic textappropriate for the business novice who wants to geta fundamental understanding of the proposal process,but to get the next level of understanding, check outsimilar titles at the bookstore. You might get more foryour dollar (or euro).Ginny Hudak-DavidGinny Hudak-David is the associate director in the Office forUniversity Relations, the communications unit of the threecampusUniversity of Illinois system.Virtual English: Queer Internets and DigitalCreolizationJillana B. Enteen. 2010. New York, NY: Routledge. [ISBN 978-0-415-97724-1.208 pages, including index. US$125.00.]Jillana Enteen’s academictext asks an interestingresearch question: Howdoes nonstandard Englishplay a role in digitalcommunication? Enteen,a professor and directorof Gender Studies atNorthwestern University,begins with a lengthy, wellannotatedessay on creolizationas a term that denoteslegitimate language rather than the “nonlanguage”designation given by westerners. She then uses thisposition to state that digital creolization is also legitimateand worthy of study, defining it as “an alternative fordescribing the strategic deployment of English takingplace in digital environments” (p. 42).Enteen’s interests lie in the nonstandard, the queer,the socially divergent, and the underrepresented, allof which make interesting research material, especiallywhen queer theory and cultural studies are the framesfor inquiry. She became interested in the interplayof online technology and English-language termswhen she was hired to teach a class on “life skills” forurban youth. What began as a graduate student’s ideadeveloped into Virtual English, a book that promises aninteresting analysis: “Understanding English in digitalenvironments as a Creole emphasizes the creative aspectof language use and assumes that non-grammaticaldeployments are not mistakes, but poetics” (p. 43).Because I expected to read about the ontology of terms354 Technical Communication l Volume 57, Number 3, August 2010