In a claim message, one’s goalmust be to convince one’s recipient that one deserve some
kind of compensation or remedy even if it may sound accusatory.
In addition to displaying the report title, the title page identifies the recipient and the
writer.
Business audiences tend to prefer long, complex sentences over simple ones.
Writing in a conversational language helps build goodwill.
If new items come up during a meeting, they can be taken up at the end or perhaps be
postponed for a future meeting.
If an intern is still in his or her position, and wants to apply for a job, he or she should
usesimple present tense verbs for duties he or she currently performs.
In a bad-news message, a buffer refers toan opening that identifies the subject of the
message but does not indicate overtly that negative news is coming.
Extemporaneous presentations generally sound natural to the listeners, yet they are (or
should be) the product of careful planning and practice.
Talking headings are short constructions, consisting of one or two words.
Spell checkers are effective in identifying all the spelling mistakes in a document.
Work experience is an internal factor that needs to be considered when identifying
appropriate jobs.
To create an effective message, your choice of words needs to be guided by your
audience and purpose.
Which of the following should be done when answering many questions in a favorable
response message?
A. Answer one question in one message.
B. Begin with a general statement and answer all the questions in a single paragraph.
C. Answer the most important question in the first message and reserve other questions
for later messages.
D. Answer one question first, preferably the most important.
E. Request the sender to limit the number of questions.
Which of the following statements is the best closing statement for a claim message?
A. “You must resolve my problem by May 22, or I will report you to the Better
Business Bureau.”
B. “It would be extremely difficult for meto recommend you to others after this
incident.”
C. “I would be thankful if you could solve this problem by Monday.”
D. “On the basis of my experience with your inferior product, I demand a refund.”
E. “You have been extremely disappointing in meeting your claims of prompt delivery.”
Which of the following is a guideline for efficiently gathering information for a
business report?
A. You should avoid gathering more information than that is required for the research as
it is a waste of time.
B. You should keep accurate notes.
C. You should gather just enough information and not waste your time.
D. You should compare noncomparable data to reach an accurate conclusion.
E. You should restrict your search to a single source so as to avoid inconsistencies.
Which of the following is true about standards for punctuation?
A. If a quotation is broken by explanation or reference words, only the first part of the
quotation is enclosed in quotation marks.
B. The semicolon is usedto separate closely related independent clauses that are not
connected by a conjunction.
C. A semicolon should be usedto separate items in a list that already have punctuation
in them.
D. The semicolon should be used to attach a dependent clause or phrase to an
independent clause.
Which of the following information is most likely to help evaluate a website?
A. The amount of information in the website
B. The number of advertisements in the website
C. The purpose of the website
D. The amount of non-indexed content in the website
E. The users’ level of education
Which of the following statements is true about personal communication?
A. Personal communication is a type of external-operational communication.
B. Internal-operational communication does not include personal elements.
C. An external-operational communication often contains elements of personal
communication.
D. The productivity of an employee is unaffected by personal communication.
E. Personal communication is typically regulated by theformal network.
The _____ of a business report provides a clear description of the situation that created
the need for the report.
A. complimentary close
B. purpose statement
C. problem statement
D. salutation
E. hypothesis
Which of the following sentences does not have atwo-word verb?
A. The flight took off an hour ago.
B. She will come back next month.
C. You can always depend on John.
D. There was a fire in the forest.
E. I thought the movie was going to end, but it just dragged on.
Which of the following is true of the closing in a negative announcement?
A. It should not be positive.
B. It should not be forward looking.
C. It should not express gratitude.
D. It should not be direct.
E. It should not begin with an explanation.
Which of the following is true about paragraph design?
A. Paragraphs should be longer than ten sentences for messages.
B. The topic sentence expresses the main idea of a paragraph.
C. One-line paragraphs fail toemphasize major points in business messages.
D. The most common paragraph arrangement begins with the supporting material
followed by the topic sentence.
Which of the following is true about using short words in business communication?
A. The use of short words hinders communication.
B. A heavy use of short words, even those that are understood, leaves an impression of
difficulty.
C. Word length and word difficulty are not related to one another.
D. Short words are generally better at communicating meaning than long words.
E. The use of short words should be avoided as they tend to be unfamiliar words.
The major, well-established channels for information exchange within an organization
are collectively called its _____.
A. personal communication network
B. formal network
C. core business partners
D. regulatory agents
E. grapevine network
A basic technique for shortening sentences is to:
A. avoid active verbs.
B. use cluttered phrases.
C. use the active voice instead of the passive voice.
D. use roundabout constructions.
E. use words economically.
Recent versions of grammar and style checkers differ from older versions in that they:
A. provide accurate problems rather than possible ones.
B. are less flexible.
C. allow the user’s writing to be adapted with their company’s style preferences.
D. detect when the words exceed the required word count.
E. underline grammatical mistakes.
Which of the following is true of cloud computing tools?
A. It allows users to store data efficiently on their computers.
B. It has no system or software requirements to function efficiently.
C. It provides high level of security for all the information.
D. It requires special software and users need to download specialized software.
Discuss how hand gestures differ in meaning across cultures.
In the context of business messages, discuss preaching, its different forms and explain
why it is not courteous to preach in business messages.
Explain the inverted pyramid structure of organizing Web pages and list some common
design elements that canbe applied in Web pages.
Rewrite the following sentences using familiar words.
i) The purchase of a new fleet is not actionable at this juncture.
ii) The most operative assembly-line configuration is a unidirectional flow.
Discuss how you can effectively gain the attention of readers in the opening lines of a
sales message.
How does the assessment of a reader’s likely reaction influence the construction of a
business message?