BADM 231 Midterm Practice Exam - Dr. Vincent van Empeh

The best business writing is purposeful, economical, and

audience oriented

A message has high skim value when it

can be browsed quickly for main ideas

A local coffee shop offers a contest for fans to create its new iced coffee concoction by submitting recipes to a website. The creators of the top three recipes are then invited into the store to make taste-size samples for customers, who will determine the winner by voting. This is an example of ________.

crowdstorming

To vs. too and then vs. than are examples of

easily confused words

Of the following, the least rich (or leanest) communication media are

flyers or posters

Ethical business communicators strive to tell the truth, label opinions so that they are not confused with facts, are objective, communicate clearly, use inclusive language, and ________.

give credit when using the ideas of others

Benefits of corporate wikis include enhancing the reputation of expert contributors, making work flow more easily, and

improving an organization's processes

Angelica has been asked to learn how many pedestrians walk by a specific location that her company is considering for a new sporting goods retail shop. Probably the most useful way to research this information would be by ________.

investigating primary sources

Social media are amplifiers, which means that they tend to

make extroverts more extroverted and introverts more introverted

The most emphatic positions in a message are the

opening and closing

An advantage of business blogs is that they ________.

potentially reach a far-flung, vast audience

The purpose of a buffer statement in a negative message is to

reduce the reader's shock or pain related to the bad news.

The most important part of an e-mail message is its

subject line

A business letter is a better channel choice than e-mail when

the matter requires confidentiality

A study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers revealed that a majority of employers consider a minimum GPA of ________ as a cutoff point when screening candidates.

3.0

Which of the following should be organized in a direct pattern?

An online manual showing visitors how to download a software program.

Well-written paragraphs are ____________ , which means that one idea leads logically to the next.

Coherent

You might want to avoid beginning with Will you please ... because, although such a statement sounds like a question, it is actually a disguised __________.

Command

Sofia is an event planner and is responding to an e-mail request from a client. What should Sofia do during the second phase of the writing process?

Determine the best organizational pattern for her reply message to the client.

A disgruntled client has begun leaving negative comments about your firm on its Facebook page. What should you do first?

Determine whether the comments violate your established social media comment policy.

Facebook posts, tweets, and e-mails are examples of ___________ messages because they are generated, stored, processed and transmitted electronically.

Digital

___________ is the ability to understand and enter into the feelings of another.

Empathy

_________________ refers to the conventional standards of right and wrong that prescribe what people should do.

Ethics

Greetings such as Hi, Joe are unnecessary in e-mail messages because it is already clear that the receiver is the intended recipient.

False

Jessica's team is experiencing considerable conflict and tension as they get used to working with one another. They are most likely in the forming phase of team development.

False

Most routine request and response messages should be organized using the indirect strategy.

False

Which of the following statements about headings is least accurate?

Headings are used only in reports.

Business communicators should use the ____________ organizational pattern to deliver bad news when the news will be personally upsetting, will provoke a hostile reaction, will threaten the customer relationship, or is unexpected.

Indirect

Avoiding clichés and slang is important to

Keep your writing fresh

Connor has just been hired by a marketing firm that uses social and other electronic media. What advice should Connor follow to protect himself?

Learn his company's rules about the use of electronic media.

As her supervisor explains a new procedure, Rachel nods her head. Rachel's response is an example of ________.

Nonverbal feedback

What is the most accurate statement about apologizing in an adjustment message?

People like to hear apologies. It raises their self-esteem, shows the humility of the writer, and acts as a form of "psychological compensation."

__________ English laws require businesses to write policies, warranties, and contracts in language comprehensible to average readers.

Plain

During Phase 3 of the 3-x-3 writing process, Jamar is correcting his document's grammar, spelling, punctuation, format, and mechanics. What is Jamar doing?

Proofreading

Mental representations based on general characteristics and open to new definitions when describing cultures are called ________.

Prototypes

Jake is working for a global consulting firm and will be writing letters to intercultural audiences around the world. What is the best advice you can give him?

Replace two-word verbs such as put off with clear single words such as delay.

What type of sentence fault results when a writer joins two independent clauses without using a conjunction or semicolon?

Run-on sentence

Goodwill messages should be selfless, specific, sincere, spontaneous, and _________.

Short

What is the most accurate statement about workplace teams?

Team members are less resistant to change if they are part of the decision making.

Which of the following statements most accurately describes diversity in the workplace?

Teams made up of diverse members are better equipped than homogeneous teams to create products that diverse consumers want.

Which of the following statements about workplace diversity is the most accurate?

Teams with diverse membership are more likely to create the products that consumers demand.

What is the most accurate statement about instant messaging (IM) and text messaging?

Text messaging requires a short message service (SMS) supplied by a cell phone service provider or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service.

Which of the following statements about social networking sites is most accurate?

The number of social media users sixty-five and older has more than tripled in five years.

For what purpose should the passive voice be used?

To de-emphasize bad news

Anticipating whether the receiver's response to message may be neutral, positive, or negative can help in determining your organizational strategy.

True

Generally, teams are able to make better decisions than individuals.

True

Oral and written communication skills, listening proficiency, nonverbal behavior, and etiquette expertise are all examples of soft skills.

True

Wikis capitalize on crowdsourcing, which can be defined as the practice of tapping into the combined knowledge of a large community to solve problems and complete assignments.

True

In which part of the globe do today's workers put in the longest hours on average?

United States

Which of the following sentences best controls exuberance?

We are happy to learn that your banquet room is available on December 15.