Business Communication Today, 14e (Bovee/Thill)
Chapter 13 Finding, Evaluating, and Processing Information
1) Which of the following is the first step in an efficient, effective research process?
A) Understand the subject to develop insightful questions
B) Search for areas with critical gaps in data
C) Conduct a general online search and redefine it after reviewing results
D) Use a variety of search terms
E) Enter keywords into a search engine to search corporate sites
2) How can you avoid ethical lapses when conducting research?
A) Share sources of confidential information
B) Don’t force outcomes by skewing research
C) Do not cite sources unless asked to do so
D) Use only online sources to improve the business process
E) Only use areas of the research that support your goals
3) Which of the following is an ethical lapse when handling sources?
A) Respecting the privacy of research participants
B) Documenting sources and giving appropriate credit
C) Respecting intellectual and digital property rights
D) Extracting more from sources than they actually provide
E) Specifically stating the intended use of research results
4) Which of the following should be included in a problem statement?
A) The decision or conclusion that is the focus of the research
B) The scope of the project
C) The potential recommendations that will be proven
D) The probable response of the audience
E) The specific information you need to find
5) Based on the problem statement, how can you determine what specific information will need
to be found?
A) Conduct a preliminary web search to identify topics
B) Look for specific gaps in your information
C) Identify the concepts that can be supported based on current research
D) Conduct a series of secondary research searches
E) Conduct primary research to determine the audience’s level of understanding
6) Which of the following will help to save time and money when conducting research?
A) Use only primary research
B) Limit your search to major news outlets
C) Prioritize your research needs
D) Research each source’s credibility before looking at any data
E) Limit the amount of research used
7) At the beginning of a research project, you need to
A) develop a formal outline you plan to stick to throughout your researching and writing.
B) familiarize yourself with the subject.
C) jump in by finding resources on the Internet and taking notes from them.
D) develop the conclusion you want to reach and start looking for evidence that supports that
conclusion.
E) conduct an Internet search to determine areas to investigate.
8) A problem statement
A) outlines all the potential drawbacks of your research.
B) defines the purpose of your research.
C) is an unsupportable claim or assertion.
D) should be long and complex.
E) identifies your conclusions and recommendations.
9) Businesses believe they have a right to protect confidential information from competitors.
10) The difference between primary sources and secondary sources is that primary sources are
those you create specifically for your project.
11) Explain why it is important to prioritize your research needs early in the process of
conducting business research.
12) List in order each part of the five-step research process that will help you gather and use
information efficiently.
13) List three guidelines to follow in order to avoid ethical lapses when conducting research.
14) Discuss how to familiarize yourself with your research subject to better define the purpose of
your research.
15) Within the context of the research process, what are information gaps?
16) Which of the following refers to research previously done for other purposes?
A) Secondary research
B) Database research
C) Intellectual property
D) Sugging
E) Primary research
17) Which of the following is an advantage of using secondary research?
A) You can determine how others feel about the issue
B) It can save time and money
C) You can skew data to fit your needs
D) There are no intellectual property rights to worry about
E) You never have to pay to access the data
18) Which of the following best defines primary research?
A) Research that was done for a previous project
B) Research done for another purpose but used for a current project
C) New research done specifically for a current project
D) Research done from a corporate website
E) Research that has not been previously placed on the Internet
19) Regarding the five-step research process, the planning step includes all of the following
elements EXCEPT
A) developing a problem statement.
B) prioritizing research needs.
C) documenting your sources.
D) maintaining standards of ethics and etiquette.
20) Which of the following is an advantage of using social media sites as a source of
information?
A) They provide insight from all known experts in the field
B) They are backed by fact checkers like those used in traditional publishing
C) They are edited by editorial boards for accuracy
D) They always provide information that is accurate, objective, and current
E) They can provide unique and valuable insights not available elsewhere
21) Which of the following is NOT true of conventional search engines?
A) They travel the web automatically, identifying new websites.
B) They access the deep Internet or hidden Internet.
C) They return to previously identified websites to look for changes.
D) Not all search engines operate in the same way.
22) Which of the following should be considered when determining how accurate and objective
information is?
A) How unique the information is
B) Whether the information is new, and therefore the most current available
C) The sources’ reputation for honesty and reliability
D) Whether the information used for another purpose will support the goals of the research
E) How easy it is to understand the material
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23) Which of the following is the surest way to verify the reliability of information from a new
or unknown source?
A) Look for bias in the writing
B) Determine the purpose of the material
C) Decide if the author is known and published in a variety of fields
D) Corroborate the information with other sources
E) Determine how well the material fits the goals of the research
24) Which of the following is one of the primary shortcomings of conventional search engines?
A) There are billions of webpages that must be scanned to achieve accurate results
B) Results are based on algorithms that determine the relevancy of results
C) Searches are conducted based on keywords and phrases
D) Results are often ranked by date of publication
E) Humans do not evaluate the quality or ranking of results
25) Which of the following will format search requests for multiple search engines, creating a
broader range of results?
A) Metasearch engines
B) Web directories
C) Librarians
D) Enterprise search engines
E) Online databases
26) Which of the following is one of the most powerful aspects of using online tools when
conducting research?
A) The flood of information received from monitoring tools
B) The ability to automatically monitor for new information
C) The ability to access the deep web
D) The human editors who place information from websites into web directories
E) The ability to avoid a metasearch
27) Possible uses of online monitoring tools include all of the following EXCEPT
A) subscribing to newsfeeds from blogs and websites.
B) following people on Twitter and other microblogs.
C) entering key terms into general-purpose search engines.
D) setting up alerts on search engines and online databases.
28) Which of the following can be done if a search-engine query is not generating enough
results, or too many results?
A) Only look at the first page of results
B) Use consistent terms for the search
C) Switch to an enterprise search engine
D) Adjust the scope of the search
E) Use a different database
29) Documenting the sources that you use in your writing
A) properly and ethically credits the person who created the original material.
B) shows the audience that you have sufficient support for your message.
C) helps readers explore your topic in more detail.
D) all of the above.
30) Which of the following is used to search all the computers on a company’s network?
A) Mobile surveys
B) Web directories
C) NAICS codes
D) Metasearch engines
E) Enterprise search engines
31) Which type of information does NOT need to be cited?
A) Conversations with experts
B) Google search results
C) Common knowledge
D) Anything paraphrased or summarized
E) Ideas taken from someone else
32) Which of the following represents the idea that you can use other people’s work if you don’t
unfairly prevent them from benefiting?
A) Copyright law
B) Citation management
C) Enterprise search engines
D) Secondary data
E) Fair use doctrine
33) Sources of secondary information include
A) first-hand observation.
B) in-person interviews.
C) newspapers and periodicals.
D) experiments.
E) focus group observations
34) In evaluating material you have gathered for a report, you should
A) assume those who’ve written the material are credible.
B) shun information with any hint of bias because such information is inherently unethical.
C) check to make sure you’re using the most current information available.
D) avoid using government documents.
E) use only information that supports your intended recommendation.
35) A web directory differs from a search engine in that
A) it doesn’t include Usenet newsgroups.
B) it doesn’t provide as precise results as a search engine.
C) human editors find and index the websites to include.
D) it usually locates more sites than a search engine.
E) it offers the most recent articles first.
36) A metasearch engine is
A) a highly specialized directory that focuses on a specific subject matter area.
B) a search engine that examines only newsgroup messages.
C) a type of aggregator that offers subscribers all-day information on their desktops.
D) a special type of engine that searches several search engines at once.
E) an online compilation of newspapers, magazines, and journals.
37) Unlike Internet search engines, online databases
A) can be accessed only from a library.
B) often provide access to various parts of the hidden Internet.
C) are rarely up to date.
D) do not require a subscription.
E) provide only peer-reviewed sources.
38) After you’ve developed a problem statement to define the problem or purpose of your
research, your next step will involve
A) evaluating sources of information.
B) analyzing numerical data and textual information.
C) creating a knowledge manipulation system to categorize your research.
D) discovering the specific information gaps that your research must fill.
E) determining how to shape material to match your intended recommendations.
39) You would not need to cite a source if you have
A) used a direct quotation of under 250 words from a book titled Modern Economics.
B) used a table from the 1985 Farmers’ Almanac.
C) described, in your own words, a plan for organizing production lines, which appeared in a
professional journal.
D) provided general knowledge about your topic.
E) paraphrased the outcome of experiment results discussed by the American Medical
Association.
40) According to the fair use doctrine
A) plagiarism is not an issue in the business world—it is a problem only in schools and academic
circles.
B) crediting sources is all that is necessary to avoid legal problems.
C) once material is made public, it no longer belongs to the author.
D) you can use other people’s work only if you don’t prevent them from benefiting as a result.
E) any information found in two or more places is considered public.
41) You’re preforming ________ when you consult books, periodicals, online databases, and
other research reports looking for research that was done previously for another purpose.
A) stealth research
B) secondary research
C) peripheral research
D) primary research
E) observational research
42) ________ scan millions of websites to identify individual webpages that contain a specific
word or phrase and then attempt to rank the results from most useful to least useful.
A) General-purpose search engines
B) Category tagging sites
C) Mobile content managers
D) Multipurpose web portals
E) Database sites
43) Within the context of statistical analysis, the ________ is the “middle of the road” or the
midpoint of a series.
A) common denominator
B) mean
C) median
D) medium
E) average
44) A ________ lets you search the Internet by asking questions in normal, everyday English.
A) code snippet
B) metro-search engine
C) colloquial paradigm
D) natural language search
E) metasearch
45) ________ covers the expression of creative ideas such as documents, web content, movies,
musical compositions, lectures, and computer programs.
A) Copyright law
B) Trademark theory
C) Patent protection
D) Free-market case law
46) The Statistical Abstract of the United States provides access to more than 750 periodicals
and newsletters that focus on specific trades or industries.
47) All important research information is now available online.
48) When using the Internet to conduct research, you can be reasonably sure that any information
you find will be accurate.
49) Briefly explain the difference between trade journals and academic journals.