Business Communication Today, 12e (Bovee/Thill)
Chapter 13 Finding, Evaluating, and Processing Information
1) At the beginning of a research project, you need to
A) develop a formal outline that you plan to stick to throughout your researching and writing.
B) familiarize yourself with the subject.
C) just jump in by finding resources on the Internet and taking notes from them.
D) develop the conclusion you want to reach and start looking for evidence that supports that
conclusion.
2) A problem statement
A) outlines all the potential drawbacks of your research.
B) defines the purpose of your research.
C) is an unsupportable claim or assertion.
D) should be long and complex.
3) Sources of secondary information include
A) first-hand observation.
B) in-person interviews.
C) newspapers and periodicals.
D) experiments.
4) Primary research refers to
A) new research done specifically for your current project.
B) the evidence that stands out in your report.
C) the research you conduct first.
D) research that is fairly easy to conduct.
5) Which of these documents would not qualify as primary research?
A) A recent survey of your company’s top clients
B) The most recent issue of a trade magazine in your industry
C) Notes from a conversation you recently had with a local government official
D) Your company’s latest balance sheet
6) In evaluating material you have gathered for a report, you should
A) assume that those who’ve written the material are credible.
B) shun information with any hint of bias because such information is inherently unethical.
C) check to make sure you’re using the most current information available.
D) avoid using government documents.
7) Regarding the five-step research process, the planning step includes all of the following
elements except
A) developing a problem statement.
B) prioritizing research needs.
C) documenting your sources.
D) maintaining standards of ethics and etiquette.
8) Which of the following is not true of conventional search engines?
A) They travel the web automatically, identifying new websites.
B) They access the deep Internet or hidden Internet.
C) They return to previously identified websites to look for changes.
D) Not all search engines operate in the same way.
9) A web directory differs from a search engine in that
A) it doesn’t include Usenet newsgroups.
B) it doesn’t provide as precise results as a search engine.
C) human editors find and index the websites to include.
D) it usually locates more sites than a search engine.
10) A metacrawler is
A) a highly specialized directory that focuses on a specific subject matter area.
B) a search engine that examines only newsgroup messages.
C) a type of aggregator that offers subscribers all-day information on their desktops.
D) a special type of engine that searches several search engines at once.
11) Which of the following is not a characteristic of online databases?
A) They often categorize information by subject area.
B) They offer access to many materials that are not accessible through standard search engines.
C) Using them requires knowledge of basic search techniques.
D) Most of them are available free of charge.
12) Unlike Internet search engines, online databases
A) can be accessed only from a library.
B) often provide access to various parts of the hidden Internet.
C) are rarely up to date.
D) do not require a subscription.
13) Possible uses of online monitoring tools include all of the following except
A) subscribing to newsfeeds from blogs and websites.
B) following people on Twitter and other microblogs.
C) entering key terms into general-purpose search engines.
D) setting up alerts on search engines and online databases.
14) Documenting the sources that you use in your writing
A) properly and ethically credits the person who created the original material.
B) shows the audience that you have sufficient support for your message.
C) helps readers explore your topic in more detail.
D) all of the above.
15) After you’ve developed a problem statement to define the problem or purpose of your
research, your next step will involve
A) evaluating sources of information.
B) analyzing numerical data and textual information.
C) creating a knowledge manipulation system to categorize your research.
D) discovering the specific information gaps that your research must fill.
16) Innovations in research technology allow you to
A) completely avoid unreliable information on the web.
B) rely exclusively on standard search engines, regardless of your needs.
C) access all online databases free of charge.
D) find webpages and also the documents webpages that are linked to those sites.
17) You would not need to cite a source if you have
A) used a direct quotation of under 250 words from a book titled Modern Economics.
B) used a table from the 1985 Farmer’s Almanac.
C) described, in your own words, a plan for organizing production lines, which appeared in a
professional journal.
D) provided general knowledge about your topic.
18) According to the fair use doctrine
A) plagiarism is not an issue in the business world—it is a problem only in schools and academic
circles.
B) crediting sources is all that is necessary to avoid legal problems.
C) once material is made public, it no longer belongs to the author.
D) you can use other people’s work only if you don’t prevent them from benefiting as a result.
19) The answers you receive from a person you’re interviewing will be influenced by
A) the types of questions you ask.
B) the way you ask your questions.
C) his or her cultural and language background.
D) all of the above.
20) Ask ________ to solicit opinions, insights, and information; ask ________ to elicit yes or no
answers.
A) indirect questions; direct questions
B) closed questions; open-ended questions
C) open-ended questions; closed questions
D) reflective questions; descriptive questions
21) When you’re selecting people to participate in a survey, be sure to get a ________ of the
population you want to survey.
A) stratified sample
B) representative sample
C) cross-sectional sample
D) small sample
22) Ronnie has just started an internship with Finedum & Sellum, Inc., a provider of online
surveys for retailers. One of her first assignments involved drafting an online questionnaire for a
local apparel store. After reviewing the questions she had written, her manager told her to revise
a question that read, “Do you prefer that we extend our weekend hours for the convenience of
customers?” Why did Ronnie’s manager want her to revise that question?
A) It is an open-ended question.
B) It is a leading question.
C) It is an ambiguous question.
D) It is a closed-loop question.
23) An online survey is vulnerable to ________ because it captures only the opinions of those
who visit the site and choose to complete the survey.
A) sampling bias
B) backchannel static
C) circular reasoning
D) transactional dysfunction
24) The two most common primary research methods in the social sciences are
A) not appropriate for test marketing.
B) experiments and observations.
C) surveys and interviews.
D) test panels.
25) You create a survey and administer it five times under identical conditions. Because it
yielded completely different results each time, you should conclude that this survey is
A) not valid.
B) not reliable.
C) valid.
D) reliable.
26) A survey is not valid if it
A) does not include at least 50 responses.
B) is more than one year old.
C) fails to measure what it is intended to measure.
D) lacks secondary evidence to supplement it.
27) People are more likely to respond to a questionnaire if
A) they can complete it within a short time.
B) you allow them plenty of time to research their answers.
C) the questions are open ended.
D) all of the above are the case.
28) Questions such as, “Do you shop at the mall often?” are
A) perfect for most surveys.
B) too ambiguous to yield useful information.
C) likely to offend your respondents.
D) too personal and will offend most audiences.
29) “How do you spend your leisure time on the weekends?” is an example of
A) a closed-ended question.
B) an open-ended question.
C) a restatement question.
D) an inappropriate question.
30) Which of the following is a closed-ended question?
A) Would you rate the proposed expansion plan as likely to succeed or unlikely to succeed?
B) What do you see as the primary benefit of the proposed expansion plan for your family?
C) What corporate goals does the expansion help achieve?
D) How will the expansion affect day-to-day operations?
31) A disadvantage of using too many closed questions in an interview is that they
A) do not take full advantage of the interview format.
B) prevent any important information from being revealed.
C) diminish the interviewer’s control over the interview.
D) none of the above.
32) When conducting an information interview, it is a good idea to
A) learn about the person you are interviewing ahead of time.
B) stick to using just one type of question.
C) save the most important questions for last.
D) avoid making an appointment, since you don’t want the subject to think ahead about answers.
33) Researchers, who are analyzing numeric data, look for ________ to identify patterns that
tend to repeat over time.
A) trends
B) causations
C) correlations
D) cross-differentiations
34) Unlike a summary, a paraphrase
A) restates the original material in your own words and with your own sentence structures.
B) presents the gist of the original material in fewer words by eliminating some of the original
words.
C) does not require complete documentation of sources.
D) is never acceptable in business documents.
35) To paraphrase effectively
A) avoid using any business language or jargon.
B) check your version against the original to make sure that you didn’t alter the meaning.
C) make sure your version is the same length as or longer than the original.
D) do all of the above.
36) What would be the median for the following set of monthly salaries: $1200, $1200, $1300,
$1500, $1700, $2000, $2800?
A) $1200
B) $1500
C) $1671.43
D) $1700
37) To find out your company’s average monthly utility bill over the last year, you would need to
calculate the ________ of the last twelve bills.
A) mean
B) median
C) mode
D) highest
38) The number 29 is the ________ in this set of figures: 25, 29, 34, 29, 29, 42, 8.
A) mean
B) median
C) mode
D) correlation
39) Applying the findings of your research can involve all of the following except
A) summarizing your results.
B) making recommendations.
C) drawing conclusions based on your results.
D) developing a problem statement that defines your research.
40) A ________ is an unbiased condensation of the information uncovered in your research.
A) problem statement
B) research summary
C) cause and effect analysis
D) primary collation
41) A ________ is a logical interpretation of the facts and information in a report; a ________ is
a suggested course of action.
A) recommendation; conclusion
B) problem statement; summary
C) conclusion; recommendation
D) trend analysis; synthesis
42) A ________ is a set of technologies, policies, and procedures that can allow a company to
capture and share information throughout the organization.
A) process superstructure
B) desktop search protocol
C) cross-departmental interchange
D) knowledge management system
43) When drawing conclusions for a report, you should
A) introduce new information that wasn’t discussed in the report.
B) avoid getting input from other members of your research team.
C) ignore information in the report that doesn’t support your point of view.
D) interpret your research results logically, based strictly on the information in your report.
44) Unlike conclusions, recommendations
A) suggest a clear course of action.
B) interpret evidence.
C) are always acceptable to readers.
D) always come at the end of the report.
45) The recommendations you make in a report should
A) interpret the results of your research.
B) not be limited by the report’s conclusion.
C) tell audience members what they want to hear.
D) adequately describe the steps that come next.
46) To help guide your research, you should develop a problem statement that defines the
problem or purpose of your research.