Experience Communication, 2e (Child)
Chapter 11 Gathering Information and Supporting Materials
1) If you are interested in learning about the relative proportion of students in given majors in your
college, you can get information from the registrar. These numbers are known as data.
2) You know that some sources of information are better than others. For example, you know that
a research study published in a professional journal is better than one discussed in a popular
magazine. Being able to make this distinction is an illustration of information literacy.
3) Information anxiety is the opposite of information overload.
4) If you need help doing research for your speech, reference librarians can be helpful because they
are trained to find and evaluate information.
5) If you have a choice between using a primary source or a secondary source, you should
generally use the secondary source because it consists of information that is more tried-and-true
than that of primary sources.
6) During your research, you find two surveys about whether people feel safe in your community.
One is sponsored by the Security Industry Alarm Association (SIAA). The other is sponsored by
the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The one done by the SIAA is likely to be less
biased because they are experts in the field.
7) Google Scholar is considered too sophisticated a tool for undergraduates to use in gathering
information.
8) You have a biology professor who has done a great deal of research on inherited diseases. You
want to speak on one of these diseases. Interviewing your professor would be a good way to collect
expert testimony.
9) Data triangulation refers to the idea that you need at least three sources of information that state
the same conclusion before you can safely believe the information.
10) You should cite your sources in a reference list at the end of your speech manuscript or outline
in either APA or MLA style.
11) In doing research for a presentation, you need to collect data, which the chapter defines as
A) statistics about the subject of your presentation.
B) facts collected from a particular source.
C) opinions from experts.
D) any information from any source.
12) Which of the following options best exemplifies the term information?
A) the number of murders that occurred in Murray County in 2014
B) a summary of the federal crime statistics for Murray County covering the years 2000 through
2010
C) a newspaper article with details about a murder that occurred in Murray County
D) an expert’s opinion about murders in Murray County
13) Which of the following options best exemplifies the term knowledge?
A) a farmer’s understanding of which areas of his canola fields provide the largest yields
B) a family’s record of their expenditures for food and entertainment
C) a table that shows how many cases of cheating are reported each semester
D) FBI records on the number of crimes that occur in each state
14) The ability to locate, evaluate, and incorporate important information into your own
knowledge base is called
A) intelligence.
B) data analysis.
C) knowledge synthesis.
D) information literacy.
15) A woman who works at a beauty salon tells you more than you ever wanted to know about hair
care products. This is an example of
A) information overload.
B) data literacy.
C) knowledge stress.
D) communication anxiety.
16) Your Internet search about electronic cigarettes has generated hundreds of articles, opinions,
studies, and statistics about the topic, and you panic that you will not be able to organize it all into
a 10-minute presentation before next week. The term to describe this feeling is
A) data overload.
B) information anxiety.
C) opinion overload.
D) stage anxiety.
17) Which item below is NOT a good tip for gathering information?
A) Redefine your problem as you learn more about your topic.
B) Use your library’s online catalog and search engines.
C) Organize and present information in a way that stresses particular points.
D) Try to use everything discussed in a source or research study.
18) The purpose of a concept map is to
A) identify areas where your knowledge of a topic is lacking.
B) outline the main points and supporting materials for your presentation.
C) help you select a topic.
D) serve as a guide for how to deliver the speech to a specific audience.
19) Which of the following is the best description of an annotated bibliography?
A) a list of sources accompanied by your summary of insights from that source
B) a list of sources about your topic
C) a summary of useful information from an important source
D) an article you will use for your presentation that features your notes in the margin
20) Many libraries have staff who are specially trained in finding and evaluating information and
who are available to help patrons perform those tasks. These staff members are typically referred
to as ________ librarians.
A) reference
B) research
C) senior
D) professional
21) Springfield Public Library has a program that allows patrons to search the library’s entire
collection over the Internet. This type of program is known as a(n)
A) virtual library.
B) online library catalog system.
C) bibliographic reference.
D) external reference system.
22) Which of the following options is likely to be the best source of information on current trends?
A) a book
B) a magazine article
C) a scholarly journal article
D) an almanac
23) Which source is NOT regarded as part of the popular press?
A) magazine articles
B) newspaper articles
C) journal articles
D) newspaper opinion pieces
24) Which of the following is a legitimate primary source?
A) a newspaper column whose author is summarizing information from a number of sources
B) a professor on campus discussing her study
C) a rumor about a campus event that you hear from a number of fellow students
D) your synthesis of data from a dozen sources
25) Which source listed below is a secondary source?
A) a magazine’s interpretation of a survey by an expert on the subject
B) a journal article by a professor who is an expert on the subject
C) a survey by a nationally known and respected polling organization
D) a study by an expert researcher
26) Nathan is conducting research for a speech about laser eye surgery. Which of the following
sources is most likely to contain errors?
A) a newspaper interview with a laser eye surgeon in which the surgeon describes some common
procedures
B) a hospital website that describes the procedures and equipment used in laser eye surgery
C) a magazine article that summarizes several recent studies on the risks and benefits of laser eye
surgery
D) a journal article in which a researcher describes the results of her study on the health effects of
laser eye surgery
27) Which of the following options is a good place to get ideas for speech topics but cannot be
credibly cited as source information for a speech?
A) Internet research
B) user-generated content
C) scholarly journals
D) survey research
28) Marjorie is conducting research for a speech about the threat that poaching poses to
endangered species. She finds a newspaper article that summarizes a study Professor Moon of
Temple University published in the magazine Nature. Professor Moon and his team’s research
showed that the population of gorillas in a wildlife sanctuary was declining at a rate of 20% per
year during the 1990s, but that after strict new anti-poaching measures were enacted in 2000, the
population began to increase at a rate of 5% a year. Before using this information in her speech,
Marjorie should
A) triangulate the data by checking for similar results in other studies.
B) confirm that the newspaper has correctly cited the original article’s publication information.
C) locate and read the original article in Nature.
D) check if Professor Moon is still connected with Temple University.
29) Which of the following is a “soft” statement about the results of a research study?
A) The study proves that regular flossing has health benefits.
B) Regular flossing has been shown to be good for your health.
C) Scientists have determined that flossing regularly is good for your health.
D) The study offers an indication that flossing regularly has health benefits.
30) Tenzin is conducting research for a speech about coffee’s importance in U.S. culture. He has
found a survey on coffee consumption that he is considering using as a source. It was conducted by
a major coffee company, which asked its customers to answer a series of questions about their
coffee consumption. More than 10,000 people from across the United States sent in their
responses. The respondents were from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Tenzin ultimately
decided that the survey was likely to be biased and decided not to use it. What factor most likely
motivated Tenzin’s decision?
A) who was included in the survey
B) the trustworthiness of the survey’s source
C) the representativeness of the survey sample
D) the broadness of the survey sample
31) Which study or survey described below would be the most reliable source for your
presentation?
A) the Democratic National Committee’s survey that indicates most Americans want roads and
bridges maintained even if that requires higher taxes
B) a study of ten dentists that shows most of them recommend Colgate toothpaste
C) a women’s magazine report on how satisfying the romantic relationships of their readers are
compared with the general population
D) an independent polling firm’s national survey showing an increasingly old and white
Republican Party
32) Which source below is LEAST LIKELY to be a trustworthy source for numbers and surveys?
A) the U.S. Census Bureau
B) cable news outlets like MSNBC and Fox News
C) the Congressional Budget Office
D) the Bureau of Labor Statistics
33) A website that is used specifically to search for information is called a
A) search engine.
B) virtual library.
C) boolean operator.
D) seminal source.
34) A website that provides links to other sites that it has reviewed and confirmed as relevant and
credible sources of information is known as a(n)
A) virtual library.
B) online library catalog system.
C) seminal source.
D) search engine.
35) What source is recommended for finding seminal sources?
A) Wikipedia
B) Google Scholar
C) Encyclopedia Britannica Internet Guide
D) Dogpile
36) What are seminal sources?
A) heavily cited scholarly studies
B) Internet sources requiring passwords for access
C) information publicized via seminars
D) sources of questionable value
37) Wendy is preparing to give a speech on the lifetime impact of attending preschool. She found
an article called “Benefits of Preschool: a Longitudinal Study” to be very helpful, but she needs
more information. Which of the following methods would be most likely to help her find
additional sources that are relevant to her topic?
A) Perform a phrase search for kindergarten benefits using a general search engine.
B) Search Google Scholar using the terms benefits, preschool, and “longitudinal study.”
C) Conduct a boolean search using a meta-search engine with the terms kindergarten AND
benefits.
D) Search the Internet for the terms lifetime impact preschool.
38) You are conducting an online search about campus crime, but you are having trouble finding
relevant information because so many of your results discuss crime or campus, but not both
together. To get better results, you should
A) use word stemming by placing a single quote mark after campus and crime.
B) place campus crime in quotation marks.
C) place campus crime in parentheses.
D) place a dash between the words campus and crime.
39) Suppose that you are conducting online research on injuries among professional football
players. You are interested in U.S. football players, but your results have included many athletes
who play the sport known as soccer in the United States, as it is called football in many other parts
of the world. Which of the following sets of search terms should provide you with the most
relevant set of results?
A) (professional football) AND (United States) AND (injuries)
B) “professional football injuries” BUT NOT soccer
C) professional football injuries United States NOT soccer
D) (football AND professional AND injuries AND “United States”) NOT soccer
40) Julio is a university student who spent last summer volunteering at a shelter for homeless
youth. He is preparing a speech about homelessness for one of his classes, during which he plans to
use some of his own observations to illustrate and support his points. In doing so, Julio is using
A) experimental results.
B) personal experience.
C) expert testimony.
D) a secondary source.
41) Suppose that you are preparing a speech on the need for better public transportation in your
neighborhood. Which of the following options is an example of independent research supporting
this topic?
A) observations you made at a local bus stop of how long the average passenger had to wait before
their bus arrived
B) a survey in the local paper showing levels of support for various changes to the public transit
system
C) statistics from the city’s transit system detailing ridership numbers for the last several years
D) a television interview with a city planner describing how the community’s needs have changed
since the transit system was originally designed
42) Adelaide is conducting research into how Broadway musicals are staged. As part of her
research, she interviews Ethel, who has spent the last 40 years designing sets for Broadway shows.
The interview with Ethel is an example of
A) oral citation.
B) personal experience.
C) expert testimony.
D) anecdotal evidence.
43) Cite sources accurately and often to avoid serious charges of
A) information overload.
B) slander.
C) libel.
D) plagiarism.
44) Which item below would be an example of data triangulation?
A) The speaker used an anecdote from a single source in her presentation.
B) The presenter discussed a survey he conducted in his class.
C) The speaker used information from one source to verify information he found in another source.
D) The speaker reported a rumor he heard from dozens of students.
45) Which item below is NOT a criterion for testing source credibility?
A) examining the credentials of the source to see if they are relevant to the topic
B) determining if the source is objective about the topic, not a lobbyist for some cause
C) discovering how current the source’s information on the topic is
D) making sure the source graduated from an Ivy League university
46) Whenever you present specific evidence in your speech outline, you should support that
evidence with
A) oral citations.
B) internal references.
C) bibliographic references.
D) personal experiences.
47) What three pieces of information need to be stated to make an effective oral citation?
A) author(s), date of publication (or access), publication name
B) article title, author(s), publication name
C) article title, author(s), date of publication (or access)
D) article title, date of publication (or access), publication name
48) Which item below shows an INCORRECTLY written reference for a personal interview cited
in a speech or outline?
A) Hanson, M. (2013, September 10), Personal Communication.
B) Hanson, Mary. Personal Interview. 10 September 2013.
C) Mary Hanson. (2013, September 10), Personal Communication.
D) Johnson, Jason. Personal Interview. 10 August 2014.
49) According to research in the Journal of Information Science, students are NOT good at
A) accessing information on the Internet.
B) evaluating information from the Internet.
C) selecting the most pertinent sources available to them on the Internet.
D) discovering novel information on the Internet.