978-0073403267 Chapter 22 Answers to Textbook Assignments

Type

Solution Manual

Book Title

Business Communication: Building Critical Skills 6th Edition

ISBN 13

978-0073403267

April 6, 2019

Module 22 - Finding, Analyzing, and Documenting Information

Part 2: Answers to Textbook Assignments

Questions for Comprehension

22.1 What is the difference between open and closed questions? (LO 22-3)

22.2 What is the difference between the mean and the median? (LO 22-5)

22.3 What is the difference between correlation and causation? (LO 22-5)

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Module 22 - Finding, Analyzing, and Documenting Information

22.4 How do you decide whether a website is an acceptable source for a report? (LO 22-3)

22.5 Why do you need to know the exact way a question was phrased before using results

from the study as evidence? (LO 22-3)

What people think, remember, or are willing to share with an interviewer may not be the whole

truth. What people say has made them successful is not necessarily the real cause of that

22.6 Why should you test a questionnaire with a small group of people before you

distribute it? (LO 22-3)

Document testing allows the writer to see if people understand the directions for completing the

22.7 Why should you look for alternate explanations in your findings? (LO 22-5)

By brainstorming as many alternate solutions as possible, the researcher better ensures the

22.8 Evaluating Websites (LO 22-2)

How challenging this assignment will be depends both on the complexity of the websites

students choose to evaluate and their own experience surfing the web. Option c may generate

the most opportunity for class discussion. Have students read the information on evaluating

websites in this module’s Building a Critical Skill box (p. 363) before they start working on

22.9 Evaluating Survey Questions (LO 22-3)

a. 1. Unacceptable. How often is “usually”? What if the person goes regularly to one place

for milk and bread and regularly to a different store to stock up on frozen, canned, and

paper goods? The writer needs to reword and divide this question into at least two

questions:

Which statement best describes your grocery shopping?

___ I buy everything at one trip each week to one store.

___ I go to several stores each week, buying the specials at each.

Which statement best describes where you buy groceries?

___ I almost always shop at the same store(s).

2. Unacceptable. The numbers overlap. This question doesn’t allow researchers to tell whether

the respondent shops once a week, once a month, or on some other pattern. Rewrite the

questions:

How much do you spend for groceries last week?

a. Under $25

b. $25-50

Was last week typical?

___ Yes; I usually spend about that amount every week.

___ No; I do not shop for groceries every week.

b. 1. Unacceptable. Biases responses toward positive. (Would you answer “yes” to the above

but “no” to “Would you welcome technology that increased your workload and demanded

A possible revision would be:

Would you be willing to pay $5 a month to get up-to-the-minute stock quotes on your

personal computer?

2. Unacceptable. Biases answer to “free access.” Yet, people may not like having their bank

accounts and a list of videos they rent available to everyone; they may want their grades and

health files to be “regulated and monitored” rather than freely available to the world.

A possible revision would be:

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Module 22 - Finding, Analyzing, and Documenting Information

Available to Available to Available only

anyone those with need by permission

a. Health records

b. Bank accounts

c. Unacceptable. This is much too broad. “Selling ability” may be crucial in an entry-level

marketing or sales job but irrelevant in an entry-level job as a doctor, lawyer, or accountant.

Furthermore, people will differ in how they define the terms. Is “writing ability” simply the

ability to use standard edited English? Or is the requirement for grace and flair (as it might be

22.10 Designing Questions for an Interview or Survey (LO 22-3)

This assignment is a good preliminary assignment for any report or oral presentation which will

be based on an interview or survey. The specific suggestions for topics lead into various report

Students find this assignment easiest when they have a chance to see survey questions or to read

full reports to see how interview or survey information is used to prove a recommendation. You

might want to show students the sample student report in Module 24 (pp. 392-415). Unlike the

Because a student report depends upon having good data, Kitty allows students to revise this

assignment. The aspects which most commonly need revision are (1) narrowing the topic

adequately, (2) asking questions which gather all the data necessary to fulfill the purposes, (3)

Students can use PAIBOC to analyze the situation, as shown on Appendix 22-B through

Appendix 22-C.

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Module 22 - Finding, Analyzing, and Documenting Information

Polishing Your Prose: Using MLA Style (Odd-numbered answers are in the back of the

textbook.)

2. Young, Lauren. “Report Cards on Governance.” BusinessWeek, 13 June 2005: 86-87. Print.

4. Patel, Ameeta, and Lamar Reinsch. “Companies Can Apologize: Corporate Apologies and

Legal Liability,” Business Communication Quarterly 66.1 (2003): 9–25. Print.

manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

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Module 22 - Finding, Analyzing, and Documenting Information

manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

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