A screen shot is a graphic showing what appears on a computer monitor.
A) True
B) False
Which of the critiques listed below applies to the following description of a process?
“Getting a College Degree”
First, you must apply to schools you want to attend. Pick good schools to apply to.
Next, you must enroll at a college.
After you have enrolled, you must pick a degree program. Take every course you need.
After you take all of your courses, you will have a degree. Congratulations!
A) This description has an effective introduction.
B) This description lacks effective detail on substeps.
C) This description has an effective conclusion.
D) This description challenges readers to learn new vocabulary.
Readers of abstracts often ask some typical questions. Which of these is NOT one of
those typical questions?
A) What questions motivated your study?
B) What answers did you discover?
C) What implications do your findings have?
D) How much did your equipment cost?
Which of the following sentences has a strong verb?
A) The acquisition of properties south of the factory is expected to continue.
B) Stephen is responsible for collection of our quality-assurance data.
C) Decades of deception by politicians have left the populace numb and apathetic.
D) Download the test file before you start to answer the questions.
Steven is selling a used car that is 10 years old. He found a way to set the odometer
back 50,000 miles, making his car appear more valuable than it actually is. A potential
buyer looks at the car and is amazed at the low mileage. He asks Steven if anyone has
tampered with the odometer. Steven replies, “Hey, that would be illegal. No one wants
to get caught doing something illegal.” What type of misleading statement did Steven
make in his reply?
A) an exaggeration
B) a euphemism
C) a false implication
D) a double negative
According to Chapter 4, one of the disadvantages of collaboration is that it is likely to
lead to charges of sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, or both.
A) True
B) False
According to Chapter 21, where on a presentation slide should you place the claim you
are making?
A) in the headline area at the top
B) in the body of the slide
C) in a graphic in the middle of the slide
D) in the middle of the footer area
Technical communication involves knowing where to find trustworthy information.
A) True
B) False
According to Chapter 17, which of the options below is NOT an advantage of using a
commercial template to record meeting minutes?
A) The note taker can enter the notes directly into his or her computer rather than typing
up written notes afterward.
B) The form prompts the note taker to enter information he or she might have otherwise
overlooked.
C) The template automatically distributes the minutes to all meeting attendees.
D) Because the template is a table, readers quickly become accustomed to reading it
and locating the information they need.
If you are facing constraints in trying to persuade your audience, you are not an
effective writer.
A) True
B) False
Chapter 1 identifies skills and qualities shared by successful workplace communicators.
Which of the following is NOT on this list?
A) ability to perform research
B) ability to write code
C) ability to analyze information
D) ability to solve problems
You should always avoid recommending a course of action that is inconsistent with the
conclusions you derived.
A) True
B) False
To minimize product-liability lawsuits in the event of improper use of Phillips lawn
mowers, which of the following instructions should the lead technical writer at Phillips,
Inc. NOT give to the company’s manual?
A) Repeat safety information if you think that the repetition will increase the
probability of its being read.
B) If our company does not have an appropriate safety symbol, create your own text
symbol through the use of highlighting, larger point size, and a text box.
C) For ease of use, place all safety information in the Introduction so that users can read
through all of it at once before using the product. Then, in the instruction steps, merely
cross-reference to the Introduction.
D) Do not choose safety labels arbitrarily.
How does writing articles based on lab research differ from writing lab reports in an
academic class?
A) Academic audiences and professional audiences are the same, so there is no
difference.
B) Class work is seen by one or a few instructors, but professional work is often seen
by a larger audience of professional peers.
C) Academic work focuses on generating new knowledge in a field, while professional
writing focuses on demonstrating existing knowledge in a field.
D) Although professional work is often published for the use of large audiences, the
standards for punctuation and spelling are more relaxed than those in academia.
According to Chapter 15, doing a self-inventory is part of planning a job search.
A) True
B) False
According to Chapter 21, maintaining eye contact is one way to use your body
effectively. What are other techniques are discussed in the chapter?
A) Use natural gestures.
B) Control the audience’s attention.
C) Avoid blocking the audience’s view of the screen.
D) All responses are correct.
E) None of the responses are correct.
When you are recording meeting minutes and an argument arises, you should record
both the argument and its outcome in order to ensure comprehensiveness.
A) True
B) False
Which of the following questions would be answered in a feasibility report?
A) Which university has the most prestigious business school?
B) Which truck has more of the options we want, the Ford or the Chevrolet?
C) Is it ethical to pursue this course of action?
D) Is it practical to pursue this course of action?
Which of these graphics would be effective for illustrating visual and spatial
characteristics?
A) organization chart
B) screen shot
C) pictograph
D) table
In which of the following sentences is qualifying information emphasized?
A) The schedule could fall apart if anyone is absent for several days.
B) Shellie will get promoted if she improves her performance rating.
C) If the new administrator gets her way, all of the adjunct instructors will get raises.
D) I will finish my homework if I can stop watching television.
Chapter 12 identifies four stages in the process of creating graphics. Which of the
following is NOT mentioned in the chapter?
A) trademarking
B) planning
C) revising
D) producing
In which of the following situations would a school district be likely to issue a request
for quotation (RFQ)?
A) A school district needs to purchase 30 iPad tablet computers for an elementary
school.
B) A school district needs landscaping for the new district headquarters building.
C) A school district needs someone to provide training for more than 1,000 teachers on
developing curricula to meet Common Core standards.
D) A school district needs to refurbish an older building and bring it in line with current
building codes.
A status report is usually organized according to task.
A) True
B) False
According to Chapter 5, a good way to learn about your readers’ preferences is to read
documents they have written.
A) True
B) False
Chapter 21 describes four types of oral presentations, including impromptu
presentations. What are the other three? (Select the three that apply.)
A) contemporaneous presentations
B) extemporaneous presentations
C) scripted presentations
D) prescriptive presentations
E) memorized presentations
According to Chapter 16, which of these is an example of an indirect cost associated
with a proposal?
A) travel costs for personnel going to a remote work site
B) cost of insurance benefits for personnel going to a remote work site
C) cost of supplies used at a remote work site
D) cost of operating a company’s telephone system
Which of the following types of research is least like field research?
A) observations
B) inquiries
C) demonstrations
D) inspections
You manage a software development group with team members in North America,
South America, and Asia. Your boss wants you to write a status report about your
group’s activities. You need key team members to contribute to the report, but doing so
is challenging when team members are in so many different time zones. Which writing
tool is likely to benefit you most on this project?
A) a preformatted document template
B) a cloud-based, multi-author word processor
C) a set of document styles
D) a microblogging platform
In the following excerpt, a writer tries to persuade his supervisor to respond to a
government request for proposals (RFP) to build an unmanned surveillance plane for
the military. Which aspects of the paragraph undercut the effectiveness of the passage?
(Choose all that apply.)
I think we are making a serious mistake by not responding. If we don’t respond to this
proposal, we will lose our competitive edge. At a conference last month, for example, I
spoke to a couple of people who said the market for unmanned surveillance aircraft will
grow exponentially during the next 10 years. Can we talk about this more at next week’s
planning meeting?
A) It argues that the claim is valid because the person making the claim is an authority.
B) It assumes what the writer is attempting to prove.
C) It draws conclusions on the basis of an inadequate sample.
D) It poses only two alternatives when in fact there might be more.
Chapter 1 defines technical communication as a process encompassing which of the
following?
A) documents and activities
B) documentation and analysis
C) process and analysis
D) diagramming and activities
Your supervisor has asked you to write a completion report about a project you
completed to improve the employee onboarding program at your company. Of the
organizational patterns discussed in Chapter 7, which would be most logical and
effective for describing the project?
Placing definitions directly in the text is a common practice. According to Chapter 20,
what are two other logical locations for definitions?
Chapter 3 lists four techniques for learning from others while revising documents. One
technique is surveying, interviewing, or observing readers as they use the existing
document. What is one other technique?
You are a technical writer for an electrical contractor. You have finished writing a draft
of the procedures to be used by your company’s electricians when installing gas dryers
and water heaters. You have just learned that your county has updated the code that
gives the allowable length of the gas-input pipe used for dryers and water heaters. What
is the name of the process you will engage in when you look at your document to
determine how to change it in light of the revised code?
In typography, what is leading?
In a decision matrix, which factor demonstrates a criterion’s importance?
In the sample internal proposal presented at the end of Chapter 16, what are the authors
proposing to do?
Chapter 4 discusses three features of word-processing software that are particularly
useful in collaboration. Name one feature.
Therefore,furthermore,consequently, and next are all examples of what category of
words?
What is the function of the hashtag symbol (#) that is used on a number of social-media
platforms?
Chapter 5 suggests that, in addition to education, you should consider five other
individual characteristics of readers. What is one other individual characteristic listed in
the chapter?
According to Chapter 2, saying that a new line of air fresheners is “guaranteed to stave
off any and every odor that comes your house’s way” would be an example of what?
What is the difference between formative evaluations and summative evaluations?
Chapter 3 discusses three questions about audience to consider during the planning
stage of the writing process. One is “What are your reader’s attitudes and expectations?”
What is another question about your audience that you should consider?
Identify two coherence devices discussed in Chapter 9.