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Chapter 08 - Researching and Writing Reports
Skills Building Exercises
1. For each of the following problem situations, write a clear statement of the problem and list the
factors involved. When necessary, you may use your imagination logically to supply any
additional information needed. (LO1, LO2)
a. A manufacturer of breakfast cereals wants to attract a new demographic of customers.
b. The manufacturer of a toothpaste wants a bigger share of the toothpaste market.
c. Wal-Mart wants to give its stockholders a summary of its operations for the past calendar
year.
d. A building contractor engaged to build a new office for Company X needs to submit a
progress report.
e. Able Wholesale Company wants to find out how much cash it should have in reserve.
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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Researching and Writing Reports
f. The supervisor of Department X must prepare a report evaluating the performance of an
administrative assistant.
g. Baker, Inc., is experiencing higher than normal employee turnover.
Problem Statement: Employees are leaving Baker at a higher than normal rate because of ____.
h. An executive must rank three subordinates on the basis of their suitability for promotion to a
particular job.
Problem Statement: Should A, B. or C be promoted?
i. The supervisor of production must compare three competing machines that are being
considered for use in a particular production job.
Problem Statement: Which machine will do ___________ job best, machine X, Y, or Z?
j. An investment consultant must advise a client on whether to invest in the development of a
lake resort.
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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Researching and Writing Reports
Problem Statement: Is investment in ___________ property a good investment?
k. A consultant seeks to learn how a restaurant can improve its profits.
Problem Statement: Profits of Restaurant X could be increased through ___.
1. Find a company whose website features a section on its role as a community or world
citizen (e.g., its principles and practices for corporate social responsibility). How
persuaded are you that the information there is complete and accurate? Check the
information there against other Internet resources to see if your assessment was
accurate. (LO6)
2. Search the relevant research databases in your school library to gather information
about a current business topic, practice, or technology. Using the citation style preferred
by your instructor, construct an annotated bibliography that presents and briefly
describes your findings. (See Bonus Chapter E for citation formats and advice.) (LO8)
3. Using your imagination to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a plan for
conducting a survey to research these problems. (LO9, LO10)
a. The American Restaurant Association wants information that will give its members a
profile of its customers. The information will serve as a guide for a promotional
4. Using your imagination to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a plan for
conducting an observation to help solve each of these problems. (LO11)
a. A chain of department stores wants to know what causes differences in sales by
departments within stores and by stores.
b. Your university wants to know the nature and extent of its parking problem.
5. Using your imagination to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a plan for
conducting an experiment to help solve the following problems. (LO12)
a. The Golden Glow Baking Company has for many years manufactured and sold
cookies packaged in attractive boxes. It is considering packaging the cookies in
6. Using your critical thinking skills to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a
plan for conducting focus groups to help solve these problems. (LO13)
a. The Miller Brush Company, manufacturers of a line of hair products, has for years
7. Using your critical thinking skills to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a
plan for conducting interviews to help solve these problems. (LO13)
a. Grow More Company sells children’s clothes. The company has seen an increased rate
8. Select a hypothetical problem with a time division possibility. What other division
possibilities does it have? Compare the two possibilities as the main bases for organizing
the report. (LO16)
9. Assume that you are writing the results of a survey conducted to determine what kinds
of groceries are purchased by female college students in the United States. What division
possibilities exist here? Which would you recommend? (LO16)
Each answer will have to be evaluated on its merits, although these possibilities should be
brought out:
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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Researching and Writing Reports
10. For the problem described in the preceding exercise, use your imagination to construct
topic headings for the outline. (LO17)
11. Point out any violations of grammatical parallelism in these headings: (LO17)
a. Region I Sales Lagging
12. Point out any violations of grammatical parallelism in these headings: (LO17)
a. High Cost of Operation
13. Which of the following headings is logically inconsistent with the others? (LO17)
a. Agricultural Production Continues to Increase.
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Researching and Writing Reports
14. Select an editorial, feature article, book chapter, or other relatively lengthy document
that has no headings. Write headings for it. (LO17)
15. Assume you are writing a report that summarizes a survey you have conducted. Write a
paragraph of the report using the present-time viewpoint; then write the paragraph
using the past-time viewpoint. The paragraph will be based on the following
information: (LO18)
Answers to the question about how students view the proposed Aid to Education Bill in this
survey and in a survey taken a year earlier (last year’s results are in parentheses):
16. List the advantages and disadvantages of each of these different media for writing
collaboratively. (LO19)
a. Face-to-face meetings
b. Email
c. Discussion board
d. Online writing tool (e.g., Google Drive)
e. Website (e.g., blog or wiki)
f. Live online interaction (e.g., chat or Skype)
a. Face-to-face meetings
Advantages: quick give-and-take, can read facial expressions, can have everyone present at once,
conducive to brainstorming
Disadvantages: can be inconvenient or even impossible to get everyone together; people can blurt
things out without thinking enough; hard to get writing done
b. Email
Advantages: can put things in writing; can send the message to everyone at once; easy to see if a new
contribution has been posted
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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
