Technical Writing Exam 1

What is slander?

oral or written communication of a false statement about another that unjustly harms their reputation and usually constitutes a tort or crime.

What is a sentence list?

a list in which bulleted or numbered items are words, phrases, or single sentences.

What is a paragraph list?

a list in which the bulleted or numbered items are paragraphs, not merely phrases or sentences.

When is a list parallel?

a list is parallel if all the items have the same grammatical form.

What are fair use guidelines?

a part of the copy right law, having the right to use a portion of a published work, without getting permission.

What is a spatial pattern?

a pattern to describe a physical object or scene, such as a device or location.

What is a problem-method-solution pattern?

a pattern to discuss a problem you encountered, the steps you took to address the issue, and the outcome or solution.

What is a cause and effect pattern?

a pattern to discuss the factors that led to (or will lead to) a given situation, or the effects that a situation led to or will lead to.

What is a general to specific pattern?

a pattern to explain a complex situation, such as factors that led to a problem or the theory that underlies a process.

What is a chronological pattern?

a pattern to explain events that have occurred or might occur or task that the reader is to carry out.

What is a more important to less important pattern?

a pattern to present a set of factors.

What is a comparison and contrast pattern?

a pattern to present similarities and differences between two or more items.

What is libel?

a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.

What is a topic sentence?

a sentence that forecasts the main idea of the paragraph.

What is a parallel sentence?

a sentence that its coordinate elements follow the same grammatical form.

What are headings?

a title for a section or subsection that announce what the document will be about.

What is a registered trademark?

a word, phrase, name, or symbol that the company has registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

What does the Correctness excellence mean?

A document that adheres to the conventions of grammar, punctuation, spelling, mechanics, and usage.

What does the Comprehensiveness excellence mean?

A technical document that contains with a completed, and safe discussion that the readers can use.

What does the Conciseness excellence mean?

A way to shorten a document by eliminating phrases, choosing shorter words, and using grammatical forms.

Differences between academic and technical writing?

Academic writing is about proving your knowledge to a specific audience (teacher, professor). Technical writing is instructing how to achieve a specific goal.

What does the Accessibility excellence mean?

Can be accessed and used by people with varying physical abilities.

What are the types of patterns?

Chronological, spatial, general to specific, more important to less important, comparison and contrast, classification or partition, problem-method-solution, and cause and effect.

What does the tertiary audience consist of?

Consists of people even further removed from the writer who might take an interest in the subject of the report.

What does the secondary audience consist of?

Consists of people more distant from the writer who need to stay aware of developments in the organization but who will not directly act or respond to the document.

What does the primary audience consist of?

Consists of people to whom the communication is directed; may be inside or outside the organization.

What are the 8 measures of excellence in writing technical documents?

Honesty, Clarity, Accuracy, Comprehensiveness, Accessibility, Usability, Conciseness, Professional Appearance, and Correctness.

What is a low context culture?

Individualistic, communicate information in direct, explicit, and precise ways.

What does the Accuracy excellence mean?

It is a question of ethics, the technical document must be as objective and unbiased as possible.

What does the Honesty excellence mean?

It means you need to tell the truth and not mislead the reader.

When does a sentence fragment occur?

It occurs when a sentence is missing either a verb or an independent clause.

What does the Usability excellence mean?

Measures how successfully a document achieves its purpose and meets its audiences needs.

What are the 4 moral standards for ethical dilemmas?

Rights, Justice, Utility, and Care.

What is the copy right law?

The body of law that relates to the appropriate use of a person's intellectual property, refers to a person's right to copy the work that she or he created.

What does the Professional Appearance excellence mean?

The document should adhere to the format standards of your organization or your professional field, it should be well designed.

What does the Clarity excellence mean?

To convey a single meaning that the reader can understand clearly.

Demonstrative pronouns should be followed by a nouns, rather than stand alone in the sentence, True or False?

True, if a demonstrative pronoun is by itself, it can be vague and confusing.

What is coherence?

When ideas flow smoothly/clearly/logically from one idea to the next.

what is the pronoun-antecedent agreement?

When the replacing pronoun agrees with the noun in gender and number.

What is a run-on sentence?

When two sentences are improperly connected together.

What is the contract law?

a legally binding agreement that recognizes and governs the rights and duties of the parties to the agreement.

What is the trademark law?

allows the use of a phrase, symbol, logo, etc.

what is the "real" verb?

also known as the "real" subject, should stand out in every sentence.

What is a comma splice?

an error that occurs when two independent clauses are joined, or spliced together by a comma.

What is a sentence fragment?

an incomplete sentence

How can you strengthen your coherence?

by adding transitional words and phrases, repeating key words, and using pronouns followed by nouns.

What is a classification or partition pattern?

classification is a pattern that involves placing items into categories, partition is a pattern that involves breaking a single item or a group of items into major elements.

What is the moral minimum?

companies are ethically obligated not to reinforce patterns of discrimination in product information.

What is the subject-verb agreement in a sentence?

must agree in number, even when a prepositional phrase comes between them.

How should you determine the important characteristics of your audience?

education, professional experience, job responsibility, reading skills, cultural characteristics, and personal preferences.

What is a high context culture?

group oriented, communicate in ways that are implicit and rely heavily on context.

What do repeating key words do?

helps readers follow the discussion.

what is an advanced organizer?

helps teachers present information so that students will better understand and remember it.

Is the USA individualistic oriented or group oriented? China?

individualistic; group

Demonstrative pronouns such as this, that, these, and those can help what?

maintain the coherence of a discussion by linking ideas securely.

What are the three categories of readers?

primary, secondary, tertiary

What is the liability law?

responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated.

What is whistle blowing?

the practice of going public with information about serious unethical conduct within an organization.

what is plagirism?

the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

What is an ambiguous pronoun?

the words or phrases they replace.

What are numbered lists used for?

they are used to suggest a sequence or priority (the steps of instructions or the first item being most important.)

What are bullets used for?

to avoid suggesting either sequence or priority, such as a list of people.

How do you correct a run-on sentence?

use a comma, semicolon, or use a period or a form of terminal punctuation.

How can comma splices be corrected?

using a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, or, nor, but, for, so or, yet. use a semicolon, and use a period or another form of terminal punctuation.