Which of these statements provides an effective definition of a sentence list?
A) It is a list of all the parts of a sentence.
B) It is a list in which the bulleted or numbered items are words, phrases, or single
sentences.
C) It is a list in which each bulleted or numbered item is a group of sentences.
D) It is a list of definitive statements about a sentence.
Which of these guidelines will help you listen effectively?
A) Write down everything the speaker says.
B) Ask questions to clarify what the speaker said.
C) Keep your eyes down and avoid distracting the speaker.
D) Allow your mind to wander and trust that you will be able to refocus.
A directive should include the reasoning behind a new policy or procedure so that
readers will be persuaded that the new policy or procedure is desirable or at least
necessary.
A) True
B) False
Graphics and design elements are relatively unimportant in communicating
persuasively.
A) True
B) False
Communicating diplomatically involves a critical tone.
A) True
B) False
Most technical documents are produced by professional technical communicators
working alone.
A) True
B) False
How does culture affect the process of persuasion?
A) It determines the content of effective arguments.
B) It determines the structure of effective arguments.
C) Both A and B are correct.
D) None of the responses are correct.
What is the term for demographic information about individuals who use and follow
social media?
A) big data
B) analysis
C) analytics
D) mined data
Which pattern of organization would be most helpful for organizing the
work-experience section of your rsum?
A) spatial
B) chronological
C) partition
D) comparison and contrast
If you write your own rsum instead of paying someone else to do it, you will be more
likely to adapt the rsum to different situations.
A) True
B) False
Which of these abilities is NOT likely to help you as a workplace communicator?
A) the ability to perform research
B) the ability to solve problems
C) the ability to speak and write clearly
D) the ability to deflect attention
You work for a pharmaceuticals company. During your lunch breaks, you have become
acquainted with one of the graphic artists at your company. He has just finished
designing a logo for a new product, and the logo is now on your company’s website. He
mentions that he created the new design by downloading a logo that he found on an
automaker’s website and changing it a little. Which of the following statements is true?
A) Your company is protected by the fair-use concept because your company and the
other company are in different industries.
B) Your company is protected by the work-made-for-hire concept.
C) Your company has probably violated the automaker’s trademark.
D) Your company is protected because there is no trademark or registered trademark
symbol after the logo on the automaker’s website.
Chapter 1 states that technical communicators use design to increase readability and
make their documents more effective. Which of the following is an example of a design
feature?
A) easy-to-understand vocabulary
B) typography
C) definitions of key terms
D) effective topic sentences
E) all of the above
According to Chapter 15, which of these is NOT a guideline for establishing your
professional brand?
A) Research what others have done.
B) Describe your job skills.
C) Focus on problem-solving and accomplishments.
D) Focus on academic accomplishments and awards.
It is often helpful to combine bases of classification or partition simultaneously when
using that pattern to write a passage.
A) True
B) False
You are writing a report on the two candidates competing to represent your district in
the U.S. House of Representatives. You create a pie chart for each candidate to show
where the candidate’s campaign money comes from. You use purple for small individual
donations, orange for large individual donations, blue for corporate donations, yellow
for political action committee (PAC) contributions, red for political-party donations,
and gray for other money. Which principle of using color effectively have you
followed?
A) using color to create contrast between the text and the background
B) using color to emphasize particular items
C) using symbolic meanings of colors
D) using color to create patterns
Which of the following is NOT a guideline for creating a readable website?
A) Use thumbnail graphics.
B) Use complex background images with fine details.
C) Choose conservative colors for body text.
D) Avoid clip-art graphics.
Chapter 5 discusses certain variables that lead to differences among cultures. Which of
these statements about cultural variables is true?
A) Different organizations within the same culture can vary greatly.
B) Cultural variables line up in clear, predictable patterns.
C) Each variable represents a small number of attitudes.
D) An organization’s cultural attitudes tend to be static over time.
The first step in comparing and contrasting two or more items is to determine the
criteria: the standards or needs you will use in studying the items.
A) True
B) False
The point of learning about your audience is to use that information to tailor a
document to fit the audience’s needs.
A) True
B) False
The following graphic shows a page from a user’s manual. Which of the following
should the writer of this manual NOT consider doing?
A) chunking
B) using consistent page grids
C) increasing negative space
D) adding pull quotes
A project manager is using a word processor to review an electronic file of a document
written by a team member, and she does not understand the meaning of a term used in
the document. What should the project manager do?
A) Use the comment feature to ask “Will the reader understand this term?”
B) Delete the term using the revision feature.
C) Check the change bar for an explanation.
D) Use the highlighting feature to call the writer’s attention to the term.
Chapter 8 lists four characteristics that can help you establish an effective professional
persona. One is cooperativeness. Which of the following characteristics are also listed
in the chapter? (Select the three that apply.)
A) fair-mindedness
B) punctuality
C) moderation
D) self-control
E) modesty
Of the options listed below, which is the most effective way to organize a document
describing the events that led to an Internet company’s bankruptcy?
A) classification
B) comparison and contrast
C) problem-methods-solution
D) chronological
Which organizational pattern is least susceptible to a writer’s attempts to mislead
readers?
A) comparison and contrast
B) cause and effect
C) more important to less important
D) spatial
If you consulted a source during your research but you did not cite it, you should leave
the source out of your references list.
A) True
B) False
Step-by-step instructions should be written in the imperative mood.
A) True
B) False
Signposts are especially useful for readers of passages written according to the spatial
pattern of organization.
A) True
B) False
According to Chapter 8, in most cases the best place to state your claim is at the end of
the argument because you may alienate your audience if you state it at the beginning.
A) True
B) False
What is Simplified English?
A) It is a way to teach English to elementary-school children.
B) It is writing that has been dumbed down.
C) It is a set of about 1,000 English words used for writing technical manuals in certain
industries.
D) It is English written in sentences with five or fewer words.
Chapter 6 advises researchers to look for information that is current. List two other
characteristics of reliable information, according to the chapter.
What type of argument poses only two alternatives when in fact there might be more?
What fundamental question does the results section of a recommendation report
answer?
Usability refers to five aspects of a person’s use of an item. What are two of these
factors?
According to Chapter 15, what is an elevator pitch?
Identify one of the four strategies listed in Chapter 10 for avoiding ambiguous pronoun
references.
What should you do if a belligerent audience member rejects your response during a
question-and-answer session and insists on restating his or her point?
Besides using existing graphics, what is one other approach to producing graphics,
according to Chapter 12?
According to Chapter 21, there are four techniques for concluding a presentation. One
is to look to the future. What is one other?
According to Chapter 5, for what primary purpose do private companies use
social-media data?
One stage of conducting an experiment is to establish a hypothesis. What is the next
stage?
One factor affecting your decision about whether to review, evaluate, or test a draft of a
document is the document’s relative importance. What are the other two factors?
What do the initials RFP stand for?
Which of the procedures you performed should you mention in the “Materials and
Methods” section of your report?
What is the difference between secondary research and primary research?
What is a euphemism?
Saving space is not an ideal reason for cropping a photo to be used in technical
communication. What is a better reason?
If your report presents multiple recommendations, how should you consider presenting
them?