Business Communication Today, 11e (Bovee/Thill)
Chapter 4 Planning Business Messages
1) The three primary steps involved in preparing a business message are
A) planning, writing, and completing.
B) informing, persuading, and collaborating.
C) defining the purpose, the main idea, and the topic.
D) satisfying the audience’s informational, motivational, and practical needs.
2) In developing business messages, the step during which you step back to see whether you
have expressed your ideas clearly is
A) planning.
B) writing.
C) completing.
D) feedback.
3) You are pressed for time and need to send an important message to your manager. To
optimize your writing time, you should devote about ________ percent of your time to planning.
A) 10
B) 20
C) 50
D) 70
4) Which of the following is not a general category common to business communication?
A) To inform
B) To persuade
C) To negotiate
D) To collaborate
5) An example of a specific purpose for a business message would be
A) to impart information to the audience.
B) to inform employees about the new vacation policy.
C) to persuade readers to take an action.
D) to obtain audience participation and collaboration.
6) Most messages should not be sent unless they will
A) bring about a change.
B) increase your chances of being promoted.
C) please your boss.
D) do all of the above.
7) The best reason to defer or cancel a message is if
A) your news is bad.
B) someone else wants to deliver it.
C) your audience is highly receptive.
D) the time is wrong.
8) The primary audience for your message should always include
A) all who receive it.
B) the key decision makers in the audience.
C) those people with the highest status.
D) those people who represent the opinions and attitudes of the majority.
9) In general, for internal communication, the higher up your message goes, the
A) more details people want to see.
B) fewer details people want to see.
C) less likely you are to run into ethical problems .
D) more likely you are to run into ethical problems.
10) Messages should contain supporting detail and background information when
A) you expect a favorable response.
B) you and your audience do not share the same general background.
C) you and your audience share the same general background.
D) all of the above are the case.
11) Forecasting your audience’s reaction to your message is
A) impossible—there’s no way to know what it will be.
B) vital, because potential audience reaction affects message organization.
C) helpful only for internal communication.
D) helpful only for external communication.
12) You’re writing a proposal to give permission to some employees at your company to
telecommute. You know management will be skeptical, so you should
A) be as straightforward as possible about stating your conclusions and recommendations.
B) avoid stating your conclusions and recommendations.
C) use less evidence in support of your points.
D) build your case carefully, stating clear reasons for each conclusion you draw and
recommendation you make.
13) A knowledge-management system
A) helps companies limit the amount of information employees store on the network.
B) enables organizations to test employees periodically to ensure they are doing adequate
research.
C) is a centralized database of experiences and insights of employees throughout an organization.
D) is a tool for creating a bibliography when writing long reports.
14) When meeting your audience’s informational needs, you should emphasize ideas
A) of greatest interest to the audience.
B) that are uncontroversial.
C) that will have the least impact on the audience.
D) that don’t need supporting evidence.
15) A good way to test the thoroughness of your business message is to check it for
A) a main idea.
B) a purpose.
C) the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
D) accuracy.
16) After sending project cost estimates to a longtime client, you realize you failed to include
information on some discount options. The best thing to do is
A) take no action.
B) blame someone else.
C) contact the primary audience immediately and correct the error.
D) start looking for a new job.
17) Choosing the right medium for your message
A) is not important as long as the content of your message is accurate.
B) is important only when communicating with managers and supervisors.
C) is vital for external communication, but not important for internal communication.
D) can make an important difference in how your message is perceived.
18) Which media would be best for keeping in touch with a sales team whose members live in
several different states?
A) Written media
B) Oral media
C) Electronic media
D) Presentations
19) Telephone calls are
A) completely incapable of conveying nonverbal signals.
B) now acceptable only for external communication.
C) capable of conveying quite a few nonverbal signals.
D) no longer practical when compared to email.
20) Which of the following media would be best for sending a brief message (requiring no
response from your audience) about an upcoming software update?
A) Podcast
B) Email
C) Blog
D) Videoconference
21) VoIP is a
A) widely used format for sending documents electronically.
B) technology for making telephone calls via the Internet.
C) highly technical videoconferencing program.
D) type of voice-to-text translation software.
22) In part, media richness refers to
A) the cost of sending a message through a particular medium.
B) the popularity of a specific medium.
C) a medium’s ability to facilitate feedback.
D) the difficulties involved with using a particular medium.
23) The richest communication medium is
A) a phone call.
B) IM.
C) an email.
D) a face-to-face conversation.
24) A key advantage of oral communication is
A) the ability to plan and control the message.
B) the opportunity to meet an audience’s information needs.
C) the ability to transmit highly complex messages.
D) the opportunity to get immediate feedback.
25) As a new supervisor, you need to introduce yourself to your team of ten employees. The best
medium for this type of nonroutine message would be
A) a face-to-face meeting.
B) an email.
C) a conference call.
D) none of the above.
26) Leaner media are best used for messages that
A) are routine.
B) are highly emotional.
C) are nonroutine.
D) require feedback.
27) Of the following media, which is the richest?
A) An electronic slide presentation that includes a series of images that are arranged to persuade
the audience to take a specific position
B) An interactive website enabling audiences to participate in the communication process
C) A presentation on DVD
D) A formal business letter
28) Which of the following media would be best to make a formal introduction to a potential
client?
A) Email
B) Letter
C) Blog
D) All are equal in formality
29) In high-context cultures, ________ media are often more effective than ________ ones.
A) leaner, richer
B) oral, written
C) foreign, domestic
D) none of the above
30) Which of the following is not listed among factors to consider when choosing a medium for
your message?
A) Urgency
B) Cost
C) Sender preferences
D) Audience preferences
31) In general, audiences are likely to
A) ignore poor organization if the message is important.
B) draw inaccurate conclusions from poorly organized messages.
C) fully understand most messages, even those that are poorly organized.
D) none of the above.
32) Organizing messages effectively helps readers by
A) helping them understand the message.
B) helping them accept the message.
C) saving them time.
D) all of the above.
33) Which of the following is an example of a message topic?
A) “To get the board of directors to increase the research and development budget”
B) “Competitors spend more than our company does on research and development”
C) “Funding for research and development”
D) “The research and development budget is inadequate in our competitive marketplace”
34) Whatever the length of your message, you should limit the number of major support points to
roughly
A) two.
B) three.
C) six.
D) ten.
35) Storytelling is
A) inappropriate for professional communication.
B) acceptable in business, but only for messages organized in the direct approach.
C) an effective way to organize messages in a surprising number of business communication
scenarios.
D) none of the above.
36) No one has time to plan messages anymore, so when you need to create one it is best to
simply dive right in and begin writing.
37) When allocating your time among the three stages of the writing process, you should use
about a fourth of the time for planning, half the time for writing, and a quarter of the time for
completing.
38) All business messages have both a general purpose and a specific purpose.
39) The three general purposes of business messages are to inform, to persuade, and to
collaborate.
40) Even if nothing will change as a result of your message, you should send it if you believe it
is important.
41) There’s nothing wrong with sending a message if your purpose seems unrealistic: you never
really know until you try.
42) Once you have established your purpose, it’s best to consider whether it is worth pursuing at
this time.
43) No matter how you feel personally about a situation, your communication should reflect your
organization’s objectives.
44) When analyzing your audience, you should ignore everyone except the key decision makers.
45) As long as your message is clear, the size of your audience should not influence the approach
you choose to take.
46) Your boss has asked you to “find out everything you can about our newest competitor.” This
should cause you to take a very narrow approach to your research, sticking to official sources for
the new competitor.
47) One effective informal method for learning more about your audience’s information needs is
to ask them directly for input.
48) In the planning stage of an important business report, you should never engage in free
writing, since doing so will only confuse you.