Test Item File for Excellence in Business Communication, Fourth Canadian Edition
Chapter 6
1) When completing a business message, you should evaluate content, organization, style
and tone, review for readability, edit for clarity, and edit for conciseness.
A) True
B) False
2) Grammar, spelling, clarity and other fundamentals of good writing are just as
important, or even more important, in electronic media as they are in other written media.
A) True
B) False
3) It is a good idea to set aside a first draft for a day or two before beginning the revision
process.
A) True
B) False
4) The middle section of a message has the greatest impact on the audience.
A) True
B) False
5) The most common readability formulas measure the number of letters in all the words
of a sample paragraph to give you a rough idea of the level of your material.
A) True
B) False
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6) Although readability indexes are easy to apply, they ignore some factors that
contribute to reading ease.
A) True
B) False
7) Professional communicators get their message right the first time and don’t need to
worry about rewriting.
A) True
B) False
8) Parallel forms are more difficult to read and skim.
A) True
B) False
9) The word very is usually unnecessary and contributes to sentence clutter.
A) True
B) False
10) Short words are more vivid and easier to read than long words.
A) True
B) False
11) Redundancies are useful to readers because repetition leads to better recall of
information.
A) True
B) False
12) “Visible to the eye” is an example of a redundancy.
A) True
B) False
13) If you start a sentence with an indefinite pronoun, chances are the sentence can be
shorteneD.
A) True
B) False
14) You can help clarify your writing by stringing together several short sentences into
one long one.
A) True
B) False
15) To avoid making a judgment in your business messages, you should use as many
hedging words (such as may or seems) as possible.
A) True
B) False
16) When you have two or more similar ideas to express, make them parallel.
A) True
B) False
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17) Dangling modifiers are often the result of passive constructions.
A) True
B) False
18) A camouflaged verb is a verb that has been turned into a noun or an adjective.
A) True
B) False
19) The subject and predicate of a sentence should be kept as close together as possible.
A) True
B) False
20) To save words, make liberal use of such directional points as “the latter,” “the
former,” “the aforementioned,” and “as mentioned above.”
A) True
B) False
21) Informative headings put your reader right into the context of your message.
A) True
B) False
22) To avoid wasting paper and to get as much on a page as possible, you should keep all
margins narrow and fill any potential blocks of white space.
A) True
B) False
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23) You should not centre text paragraphs because it “darkens” you message’s
appearance.
A) True
B) False
24) Sans serif typefaces are preferable to serif typefaces when designing long blocks of
text.
A) True
B) False
25) Using as many different typefaces as possible makes your business documents more
appealing.
A) True
B) False
26) To make your message more interesting and accessible, use as many design elements
and decorative touches as possible.
A) True
B) False
27) The software for creating business visuals falls into two basic groups: presentation
software and word processing software.
A) True
B) False
28) To add interest to your message, it is a good idea to vary the margins, typeface, type
size, and spacing.
A) True
B) False
29) Using company document templates ensures a consistent look and feel for all print
and online company documents)
A) True
B) False
30) Spell checkers are the only tool you need to guarantee error-free documents.
A) True
B) False
31) Because computers have become so powerful, grammar checkers can easily
determine whether your document states your message correctly and communicates it
clearly.
A) True
B) False
32) For all the technological advances in communication, there is still no way of
attaching a spoken message or other sound to particular places in a document.
A) True
B) False
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33) Most information transmitted by internal memo is now sent via email.
A) True
B) False
34) When editing for content and organization, pay special attention to _____________
A) grammar and usage.
B) punctuation and spelling.
C) the beginning and ending of the message.
D) style and tone.
35) One readability formula that is built into MsWord is the ____________
A) Flesch Kincaid Grade Level Index.
B) 2 + 2 formula.
C) scan plan.
D) Carnegie Index.
36) Most business messages score in the ________________ for readability.
A) first- to fourth-grade level
B) fifth- to sixth-grade level
C) eighth- to eleventh-grade level
d. twelfth- to thirteenth-grade level
37) Which of the following sentences is the most concisely worded without being
ambiguous?
A) “The project manager is in charge of specifications until such time as the project gets
underway.”
B) “The project manager should provide specifications prior to the start of a project.”
C) “Project managers have the capability of changing specifications.”
D) “The project managers told the engineers last week that the specifications were
changed.”
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38) “Visible to the eye” is an example of _____________
A) a cliché.
B) redundancy.
C) the passive voice.
D) obsolete language.
39) Starting a sentence with “It” or “There” is _____________
A) using an indefinite pronoun starter.
B) perfectly acceptable, and you need not try to rewrite the sentence.
C) a sign of the active voice being used.
D) using a prepositional phrase to begin a sentence.
40) Headings and subheadings serve these important functions: ____________
A) organization, attention, connection.
B) organization, hedging, connotation.
C) organization, sequence, flow.
D) sequence, flow, attention.
41) What is wrong with the following sentence? “Walking to the office, a red sports car
passed her.”
A) It lacks parallelism.
B) It contains a dangling modifier.
C) It contains an awkward pointer.
D) It is grammatically correct as written.
42) “Government task force report recommendations” is an example of _____________
A) redundancy.
B) a dangling modifier.
C) a dependent clause.
D) stringing together a series of nouns.
43) Which of the following sentences contains a camouflaged verb?
A) “Some do; others don’t.”
B) “She is a marketing manager but also serves as ad manager.”
C) “It is John’s recommendation that she be hired.”
D) “He slowly, deliberately added the numbers.”
44) “The above-mentioned book” is an example of _____________
A) a redundancy.
B) a strung-out sentence.
C) an indefinite pronoun starter.
D) an awkward reference.
45) Using white space in a document _____________
A) is considered “cheating.”
B) is only an option when you can’t use colour.
C) makes your document look unappealing.
D) provides contrast.
46) Justified type will _____________
A) darken your message’s appearance.
B) lighten your message’s appearance.
C) distract from your message.
D) create more white space in your message.
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47) Serif typefaces are preferable to sans serif faces for _____________
A) display treatments.
B) headings and captions.
C) large blocks of text.
D) none of the above.
48) When selecting typefaces for a business document _____________
A) avoid using more than two typefaces on a page.
B) make generous use of such styles as all caps, underlines, and boldface.
C) choose a nice sans serif face for your main body text.
D) all of the above.
49) To create a pleasing document design _____________
A) take readability formulas into account.
B) use as many decorative touches as possible to make the pages look more interesting.
C) balance the space devoted to text, artwork, and white space.
D) all of the above.
50) A template is _____________
A) a type of computer software used to help sort files.
B) a preset design or standard format.
C) an unethical means for plagiarizing the work of others.
D) a cumbersome, time-consuming series of actions required by some word processors.
51) A spellchecker ____________
A) compares your document with an electronic dictionary.
B) comes in English only.
C) identifies and corrects all spelling errors within a document.
D) automatically rewrites paragraphs for improved readability.
52) A grammar checker _____________
A) scans visual images into your computer.
B) highlights phrases in passive voice.
C) suggests correct spelling.
D) helps you find just the right word for a given situation.
53) A grammar checker cannot tell _____________
A) the difference between passive and active voice.
B) whether a sentence is long or short.
C) whether your document communicates clearly.
D) any of the above.
54) Using __________________, you can customize your documents to meet the
individual information needs of your readers—just as you can on a webpage.
A) coloured text
B) hyperlinks
C) graphics
D) paragraphs
55) When it comes to proofreading your documents _____________
A) use a methodical approach to help you find errors.
B) it’s okay to let a few mechanical errors slip through, since the content is what counts.
C) you should focus primarily on grammar and spelling; it’s too late to do anything about
the design or format.
D) it’s OK to review quickly if you have done a thorough job editing.
56) In the first phase of editing, you should pay particular attention to the __________
and __________ of the message.
57) You use a __________ to give you a rough idea of how educated your audience must
be to read your message.
58) Word combinations that are needlessly repetitive are called __________.
59) A(n) __________ sentence uses words such as may and seems to avoid stating a
judgment or fact.
60) With __________ construction, two or more similar ideas are expressed with the
same grammatical pattern.
61) A modifier is said to be __________ when it has no real connection to the subject of
the sentence.
62) __________ verbs are those that have been changed into nouns or adjectives.
63) Space on a page that is free of text or artwork is called __________ space.
64) __________ typefaces have small crosslines at the ends of each letter stroke.
65) A(n) __________ is a standard format with preset aspects of page design such as
margins, headings, paragraphs, etc.
66) Using a(n) __________ is a wonderful way to weed out major typos, but you can’t
use it to replace good spelling skills.
67) When you begin the revision process, focus your attention on content, organization,
style, and __________
68) A computer __________ gives you alternative words.
69) Briefly explain what the opening of a document should accomplish.
70) Conclusions should accomplish what two tasks?
71) Briefly describe at least three advantages of using lists in business documents.
72) Rewrite the following sentence to remove the dangling modifier: “Lying next to the
filing cabinet, the office manager found the financial report.”
73) Rewrite the following sentence to improve clarity and avoid the long noun sequence:
“The financial estimates and accounting consulting firm will be closed next week.”
74) Rewrite the following sentence to avoid camouflaged verbs: “The manager will make
a determination about when the payment of refunds will occur.”
75) Rewrite the following sentence to eliminate the unnecessary phrases: “In view of the
fact that the customer service department is closed, we do not have the capability of
offering refunds until such a time as they reopen.”
76) Rewrite the following sentence to eliminate redundancies: “The engineers
collaborated together in order to produce the uniquely original final outcomes of their
research.”
77) Rewrite the following sentence to be more concise by using short, simple words:
“Effective immediately, all employees need to terminate their excessive utilization of the
office duplication machine for personal affairs and activities.”
78) List four characteristics of effective document design.
79) What three functions do headings serve in business documents? Explain each one.
80) Explain at least three of the steps involved in editing documents for clarity.
81) Explain why editing for conciseness is important; then list the four steps it involves.
82) Describe at least three types of software tools that can help you revise and polish a
document.
83) Explain the importance and process of proofreading. Why does it matter and what
should you look for?
84) Describe what is meant by, “For effective design, pay attention to: consistency,
balance, restraint, and detail.”
85) Describe six elements that business letters typically have.