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Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Chapter 11: Informing and Persuading
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Which philosopher wrote The Art of Rhetoric?
a. Plato
b. Aristotle
c. Homer
d. Socrates
2. Formal presentations and opportunity presentations are identical in which two areas?
a. preparation and presentation
b. length and format
c. timing and setting
d. goal and result
3. Passive agreement is a goal of what kind of presentation?
a. informative
b. solicitation
c. call to action
d. persuasive
4. Which of the following is an example of a specific purpose?
a. I want to inform my employees.
b. I want to persuade my team.
c. I would like ABC Company to select us as the bank to serve their employees’
banking needs.
d. I want to inform people.
5. Informative speakers should be ______ while persuasive speakers should be ______.
a. objective; subjective
b. objective; objective
c. subjective; objective
d. subjective; subjective
6. Cindy is concerned that her presentation does not follow a logical sequence. Which
persuasive appeal should she work on before making her presentation?
a. ethos
b. logos
c. pathos
d. outlining
7. Mentioning previous work experience, awards, and recognitions is one way of establishing
which of the following?
a. ethos
Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
b. pathos
c. logos
d. rapport
8. Emotional appeal should be included in which kind of speeches?
a. informative speeches
b. persuasive speeches
c. informative and persuasive speeches
d. speeches to entertain
9. During persuasive speeches, if the presenter wants the audience to take some sort of action,
they are seeking which of the following?
a. passive agreement
b. active agreement
c. active agreement and call to action
d. passive agreement and call to action
10. Credibility of the information being presented can be established by doing which of these?
a. using quotes
b. using statistics
c. using personal examples
d. listing or mentioning the sources
11. Roman wishes to introduce a new drinking water system to his office and do away with the
bottled water vending machine. He asks the audience to raise their hands if they like to waste
money and plastic. He then asks the audience to raise their hands if they would like to save
money and the environment. Roman is using what technique to persuade his audience?
a. cognitive dissonance
b. analogical reasoning
c. causal reasoning
d. logical reasoning
12. Marcus is trying to persuade his managers to give an extra day off for Thanksgiving break by
reminding them that they want employees to be happy and that holiday breaks make
employees happy. Which type of persuasion is Marcus using?
a. inductive reasoning
b. deductive reasoning
c. cognitive dissonance
d. causal reasoning
13. Rashid’s company is considering adopting a new policy. A competitor adopted the same
policy and received bad press. He thinks that they too will receive bad publicity if they adopt
the policy. Rashid is using which type of reasoning?
a. inductive reasoning
b. deductive reasoning
c. analogical reasoning
d. logical reasoning
14. Which of the following should be included in a persuasive speech?
a. pathos and logos
b. pathos, logos, and ethos
c. pathos and ethos
d. ethos and logos
15. Presentational excellence is important because of which of the following?
a. Presentations serve as a tool to communicate only with the upper management
effectively about business goals.
b. Presentational excellence must be present to achieve professional excellence.
c. Product presentations, team huddles, running meetings, press conferences, special
events, and other forms of oral communication reveal mostly information about your failure as
a professional.
d. Presentations are mostly about entertaining others, so they think you have
presentational excellence.
16. Tom recently gave a presentation at work highlighting the problems with customer service.
He asked all his coworkers to spend an extra 30 minutes each day handling customer
complaints. This is an example of which of the following concepts?
a. motivation
b. coaching
c. call to action
d. leadership
17. During a recent poverty awareness event, Sara incorporated pictures of starving children
into her presentation. This persuasive appeal is known as which of the following?
a. ethos
b. pathos
c. logos
d. cognitive dissonance
18. Which philosopher viewed credibility as central to any effective rhetoric?
a. Quintilian
b. Aristotle
c. Socrates
d. Plato
19. What supporting material would you use to supplement the logos of your persuasive
argument?
a. a picture from your Facebook account
b. an emotional appeal
c. examples
d. funny stories
20. Robert is giving a speech at his local YMCA. He begins by emphasizing that he has grown up
in this neighborhood and has seen many of the same problems as other members in the
audience. Robert is engaged in which activity?
a. making an emotional appeal
b. baiting the audience
c. establishing common ground
d. making an informative appeal
21. Alice was recently criticized for the poor performance of her store this quarter. When Alice
stated that profits for the company overall were down for the quarter, she mentioned that
recent highway construction in front of her store was the main reason for low profits. She
presented reports that compared store sales along the highway versus other stores in her town
to prove her point. This is an example of which of the following?
a. inoculation
b. inductive reasoning
c. deductive reasoning
d. cognitive dissonance
22. Jennifer’s company starts off every day with a casual meeting where any employee can talk
about issues or concerns regarding the department. Jennifer’s company is using which type of
opportunity for presenting?
a. formal presentation
b. huddles
c. impromptu presentation
d. active agreement
23. Why is ethos important to a persuasive presentation?
a. It highlights your use of clear, factual knowledge on the subject.
b. It helps produce imagery to help the audience connect emotionally with the topic.
c. Ethos keeps the audience from considering other possibilities.
d. Ethos establishes your credibility on the subject.
24. Using an argument that is flawed or incoherent is a violation of which of these?
a. ethos
b. pathos
c. logos
d. rhetoric
25. When a speaker mentions the other causes in her or his speech and explains why this cause-
-the cause presented in the speech--should be the focus, that speaker is using what strategy?
a. inoculation
b. anticipatory argument
c. smoothing the road
d. greasing the pan
26. Speaking off the cuff is known as which of the following?
a. impromptu speech
b. indelicate speech
c. internal speech
Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
d. inexplicable speech
27. Words that have a strong emotional implied meaning may also be said to have a strong
which of these types of meanings?
a. denotative
b. empirical
c. nonsensical
d. connotative
28. Rick is trying to persuade the audience simply to agree or disagree with an idea. Rick is
seeking which of the following?
a. call to action
b. passive agreement
c. active agreement
d. informative agreement
29. According to Aristotle, presenters who demonstrate ethos or positive character by
demonstrating competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill are able to establish which of the
following?
a. audience participation
b. gratitude
c. credibility
d. new friendships
30. Cherise is giving a speech and has asked the audience members to become organ donors.
Cherise has issued which of these?
a. passive agreement
b. null agreement
c. deductive reasoning
d. call to action
31. In her speech, Kiera is building an argument by using individual examples, pieces of
information, and cases that she is pulling together to make a generalization. Kiera is using
which type of reasoning?
a. causal
b. deductive
c. inductive
d. analogical reasoning
32. In her speech to work toward changing the education system in the United States, Brandi
compares how children in Finland excel in areas of education that American children do not. In
comparing these cases, Brandi is using which type of reasoning?
a. causal
b. deductive
c. inductive
d. analogical reasoning
33. Your persuasive speech should be organized as an argument. Where should be the use of
persuasive appeals?
a. at the end of the speech
b. only in the introduction of the speech
c. only in the body of the speech
d. throughout the speech
34. Willis is giving a speech to the Young Republicans group on campus this evening. He is going
to work to explain to them why they should vote for Mr. Bluestate, the Democrat running
against the Republican incumbent mayor. Which strategy for persuading with excellence has
Willis ignored?
a. You must develop a clear argument, supported by solid logical appeals and credible
evidence.
b. Your entire speech should be persuasive.
c. You can have a speech that is half informative and half persuasive.
d. You must assess the target audience.
35. When persuading, it is important to show the audience how you have a shared interest,
concern, or background. This is known as establishing which of the following?
a. specific purpose
b. inoculation
c. common ground
d. cognitive dissonance
36. Thadeus has been asked to give a speech in a traditional presentation setting. By definition,
this type of speech is known as which of the following?
a. traditional
b. impromptu
c. informal
d. formal
37. When Jeff is developing his persuasive argument, he will have to demonstrate that certain
events or factors produced, or in some cases prevented, a certain result. This type of reasoning
is known as which of the following?
a. critical
b. causal
c. ad hominem
d. latent
38. Trish is preparing her informative speech for the club to which her mother belongs. Trish is
trying not to be influenced or affected by emotions or her own point of view. Trish is trying to
be which of the following?
a. subjective
b. left-leaning
c. objective
d. right-leaning
39. Travis has been asked to give a speech on the organization of a community garden at the
local lifelong learning class next week. Travis’s speech will be informative in nature. Which of
Aristotle’s appeals should Travis include?
a. logos and pathos
b. ethos and pathos
c. logos, pathos, and ethos
d. ethos and logos
40. In the case of professional excellence in presentations, which step of the KEYS approach
suggests that you, as the speaker, should know yourself, which includes knowing your strengths
and weaknesses and knowing how to use them to your advantage?
a. first
b. second
c. third
d. fourth
True/False
1. Meetings can be an excellent chance to give an opportunity presentation.
2. Disagreeing with an idea is referred to as active disagreement.
