Business Communication Today, 11e (Bovee/Thill)
Chapter 7 Crafting Messages for Electronic Media
1) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Despite their popularity for personal use, social networking technologies are not very useful
in business.
B) Social networking technology is so complex that only high-tech companies take advantage of
it.
C) Social networking capabilities have led to a fundamental change in business communication.
D) The use of social networks is declining.
2) Email can be used for external communication
A) regularly, although it is replaced in many cases by other tools.
B) only for formal documents that you need to keep a record of.
C) in response to letters your customers have sent.
D) only if a superior approves the message.
3) Compared to email, instant messaging (IM)
A) is slower and more complicated to use.
B) has not caught on in the business community.
C) is much faster, but more costly as well.
D) offers greater speed and is less susceptible to privacy problems.
4) Which of the following is not true of instant messaging?
A) It allows a rapid response to urgent messages.
B) It is less susceptible to security and privacy problems.
C) It costs more than phone calls or email.
D) It is widely utilized in business.
5) When it comes to writing messages in today’s business environment,
A) printed letters are obsolete.
B) printed letters are still best for some forms of communication.
C) email has completely replaced printed memos for all internal communication.
D) printed letters are used primarily for negative messages.
6) Despite your numerous emails and voicemail messages, a normally dependable vendor has not
responded to your important question. Which of the following would be a sensible next step?
A) Consider sending a printed message.
B) Send more email messages, but flag them as “high-priority” or “urgent.”
C) Send multiple copies of the same email message.
D) Use IM to bombard the vendor until he responds.
7) Using “teasers” in electronic media as a way to pull readers or listeners into a story or other
document is
A) unethical and should always be avoided.
B) appropriate only when large purchases are not involved.
C) acceptable, as long as the payoff is valuable and legitimate.
D) never appropriate for microblogging sites.
8) When creating content for social media,
A) to reach a wide audience, you should write as informally as possible.
B) treat every message as a sales pitch.
C) write catchy headlines that play on words.
D) don’t hide from criticism: take the opportunity to correct misinformation.
9) One of your sales representatives has begun using social networks to aggressively promote a
new product line. The best response would likely be to
A) encourage him to continue.
B) discourage him from using blatant “salespeak” since it is likely to alienate the audience.
C) enact a policy forbidding employees from using social networks on company time.
D) do nothing.
10) You have decided to post a video on YouTube explaining how to use one of your company’s
new products. To be most effective, the video should be no more than ________ minutes long.
A) 1
B) 5
C) 25
D) 60
11) When it comes to monitoring incoming and outgoing email,
A) only a few companies make the effort.
B) only about 15 percent of U.S. employers do it.
C) most employers view monitoring email as an invasion of employee privacy.
D) many employers monitor email, either with software, security staff, or both.
12) Thanks to Facebook, you’ve recently connected with an old friend who lives in another state.
She emails you frequently at work, often sharing racially charged jokes that you find offensive.
Concerned about what would happen if your boss or coworkers saw her emails, you should
A) loosen up, since no one at your company has the right to read your email.
B) politely ask her to stop sending the jokes, and tell your boss about the problem and how you
have addressed it.
C) simply delete her email messages from your computer so no one will ever know about them.
D) do none of the above.
13) Email hygiene refers to
A) the absence of slang and informal language in email messages.
B) a nationwide movement to do away with information overload.
C) all the efforts companies make to keep email clean and safe.
D) refraining from using foul language in email.
14) Overusing the “cc” function when sending email
A) is no longer a big deal since very few people pay attention to these messages.
B) is a violation of email hygiene.
C) can waste a great deal of time by generating more reply messages than necessary.
D) is a good way to protect yourself in a hostile work environment.
15) One important element of basic email etiquette is to
A) respect the chain of command.
B) use bullets and lists.
C) include headings on all emails.
D) capture your readers’ attention.
16) Email etiquette requires that writers do all of the following except
A) make sure every email they send is absolutely necessary.
B) respect the chain of command.
C) be careful to keep their emotions in check when composing messages.
D) mark all emails as “urgent” to make sure they are read.
17) Email messages
A) generally require less care than other messages, since email is temporary and easily deleted.
B) should be written with the assumption that they will be stored forever.
C) should always be less formal in business than messages in other media.
D) none of the above.
18) The subject line of an email message
A) is rarely read by the recipient.
B) helps recipients decide whether or not to read the message.
C) should describe only the general topic of the message.
D) does all of the above.
19) Which of the following is the best example of an effective email subject line?
A) Website redesign is on schedule
B) Status Report
C) Employee Parking
D) Read This!
20) Because many email programs display the first few words or lines of incoming messages,
you should
A) be vague in your first sentence, to entice the reader to open the message.
B) leave several blank lines at the beginning of each message.
C) treat the first sentence of the message as an extension of your subject line.
D) use phrases such as “MUST READ” in your first sentence.
21) Email
A) should follow the convention of other business writing in formal situations.
B) should never be longer than one screen.
C) does not need to be proofread.
D) is the best medium for internal messages, regardless of their content.
22) To make everyday email more readable, you should do all of the following except:
A) write the subject line and first line of your message all in caps.
B) keep your message simple and easy to understand.
C) pay attention to grammar, spelling, and usage.
D) observe email etiquette.
23) Which of the following is an example of an effective subject line for an email requesting
information about the August inventory for bananas?
A) Information needed
B) Banana inventories
C) Banana information needed
D) Please send August banana inventory
24) For years email has been the primary communication medium at your company. However,
many of your employees now use IM daily for personal messages, and they’ve come to you
asking your approval to begin using it to communicate with clients and vendors. Your greatest
concern is likely to be
A) incompatibility between your company’s IM system and those your vendors and clients use.
B) the need for users to learn complicated software that may take years to learn.
C) the ability to use it only on expensive, highly specialized devices.
D) the high cost.
25) Advantages of using IM rather than email include its
A) ability to completely eliminate the equivalent of “junk mail.”
B) availability on cell phones but not computers.
C) ability to hold real-time text conversations.
D) all of the above.
26) In the middle of an important meeting, you receive an unsolicited IM from a company
informing you of their great rates on vacations in Hawaii. This is an example of
A) spam.
B) a computer virus.
C) spim.
D) viral marketing.
27) Many businesses now use blogs to
A) keep project teams up to date.
B) replace email in many cases.
C) inform employees and customers about new products and how to use them
D) do all of the above.
28) If you do not have a constant supply of new information to post on a business blog,
A) your audience will appreciate not having to process information that changes constantly.
B) repost old material so your audience will not lose interest.
C) you should create a traditional website instead.
D) keep readers interested by adding daily comments on current events.
29) If a customer uses the comment feature to criticize your business blog,
A) you should respond promptly and honestly.
B) ignore it unless the critic is incorrect.
C) post it, and follow with a blog entry to show your audience that it will not be tolerated.
D) do none of the above.
30) “Viral marketing” is
A) the unethical practice of marketing products through computer viruses.
B) advertising products and services related to the health-care industry.
C) the spread of enthusiasm for a product in much the same way that biological viruses are
spread from person to person.
D) none of the above.
31) When it comes to blogging for business,
A) don’t worry about proofreading—your audience doesn’t expect it.
B) you should apply the three-step writing process as you would for any other business message.
C) don’t spend a lot of time trying to define your audience: you’re writing for everyone.
D) it is a waste of time unless you are selling high-tech products or services.
32) Podcasts are
A) great for entertainment, but not useful in business.
B) helpful for training in business, but not much else.
C) too technical to be practical for business use.
D) none of the above.
33) Compared to blogs, podcasts are
A) much easier to edit.
B) more difficult to edit.
C) equally challenging when it comes to editing.
D) used only by high-tech companies.
34) In terms of the three-step writing process, podcasts differ mostly from written messages in
the ________ step.
A) planning
B) writing
C) completing
D) There are no significant differences.
35) One of the greatest drawbacks to using podcasts in business is
A) they require costly, specialized equipment you’ll need to purchase regardless of the
production quality you want.
B) people find online video and audio to be intimidating.
C) the difficulty of scanning back and forth to find specific parts of the message.
D) the high cost of distributing them.
36) Sites such as Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube are valuable for social communication, but not
for business.
37) In business communication, email is often being replaced by other tools that provide better
support for instant communication and real-time collaboration.
38) There are no important differences between instant messaging and text messaging.
39) Twitter is one example of a microblogging system.
40) One of the few remaining functions for the printed, hard-copy document is in legal papers.
41) One advantage of blogging for business is that it enables you to update content quickly and
easily.
42) Because each electronic medium has unique requirements, basic communication skills do not
usually transfer from one system to another.
43) Writing “teasers” on microblogging sites can be effective, as long as the payoffs to which
they lead are valuable and legitimate.
44) Creating effective social media content in business means taking every opportunity to
promote your company’s products.
45) In a court of law, email messages and other electronic documents can have the same weight
as printed documents.
46) If your company’s social media content draws criticism, it is best to respond promptly and
honestly.
47) In general, user-generated content sites have yielded disappointing results for companies that
have used them for business purposes.