English TEST

Most paragraphs contain two elements

-Topic sentence -supporting information

Four elements of an organization's cultureencourage ethical and legal behavior:

-ethical leadership -supervisor reinforcement -peer support -reinforced and embedded ethical values

Understand seven categories of cultural variables that lie "on the surface":

-political -economic -social -religious -educational -technological -linguistic

Chapter 2: 10 Principles for ethical workplace communication

1. Abide by copyright laws: get written permission when you wish to include copyrighted material. 2. Abide by your organization's policy on social media: if there is no written policy, check with human resources or your supervisors for advice. 3. tell the truth: resist pressure to lie, going over your supervisor's head if necessary. 4. use design to highlight important ethical and legal information: don't bury this information or downplay it using very small type. 5. use design to highlight important ethical and legal information 6. avoid language that discriminates 7. Abide by organization's professional code of conduct 8. Take advantage of your employer's ethics resources 9. Don't mislead your readers- avoid false implications about products, euphemisms, exaggerations. 10. Be clear - using tables of content 11. cite your sources and your collaborators - accurately and graciously

Chapter 2: dealing with copyright questions

1. Abide by the fair-use concept. Do not rely on excessive amounts of another source's work (unless the information is your company's own boilerplate). 2. Seek permission. Write to the source, stating what portion of the work you wish to use and the publication you wish to use it in. The source is likely to charge you for permission. 3.Cite your sources accurately. Citing sources fulfills your ethical obligation and strengthens your writing by showing the reader the range of your research. 4. Consult legal counsel if you have questions. Copyright law is complex. Don't rely on instinct or common sense.

Chapter 9: Elements of a letter

1. Heading 2. Inside address 3. Salutation 4. Body 5. Complimentary close 6. Signature

Chapter 9: know the common types of letters

1. Inquiry: You write an inquiry letter to acquire information. Explain who you are and why you are writing. Make your questions precise and clear, and therefore easy to answer. Explain what you plan to do with the information and how you can compensate the reader for answering your questions. 2. Response to an inquiry: In responding to an inquiry letter, answer the questions if you can. If you cannot, either because you don't know the answers or because you cannot divulge proprietary information, explain the reasons and offer to assist with other requests. 3. Claim: A claim letter is a polite, reasonable complaint. If you purchase a defective or falsely advertised product or receive inadequate service, you write a claim letter. If the letter is convincing, your chances of receiving a satisfactory settlement are good because most organizations realize that unhappy customers are bad for business. In addition, claim letters help companies identify weaknesses in their products or services. 4. Adjustment --Good News: An adjustment letter, a response to a claim letter, tells the customer how you plan to handle the situation. Your purpose is to show that your organization is fair and reasonable and that you value the customer's business. --Bad News: If you are writing a "bad news" adjustment letter, salvage as much goodwill as you can by showing that you have acted reasonably. In denying a request, explain your side of the matter, thus educating the customer about how the problem occurred and how to prevent it in the future.

Technical communication has six main characteristics

1. It addresses particular readers. 2. It helps readers solve problems. 3. It reflects the organization's goals and culture. 4. It is produced collaboratively. 5. It uses design to increase readability. 6. It consists of words or images or both.

Chapter 2: Social media guidelines

1. Keep your private social-media accounts separate from your company-sponsored accounts. 2. Read the terms of service of every service to which you post. 3. Avoid revealing unauthorized news about your own company. 4. Avoid self-plagiarism. 5. Avoid defaming anyone 6. Don't live stream or quote from a speech or meeting without permission. 7. Avoid false endorsements 8. avoid impersonating someone else online 9. Avoid infringing on trademarks by using protected logos or names. 10. avoid criticizing your employer online.

Chapter 14: Drafting Instructions

1. Need to have an introductions that answers questions such as who should carry out the task, why should the reader carry out the task, when should the reader carry out this task, safety measure, items needed and how long will it take. 2. Number the instructions 3. Present the right the amount of into in each step: Each step should define a single task the reader can carry out easily, without having to refer back to the instructions. 4. Use the imperative mood: The imperative mood expresses a request or a command— for example, "Attach the red wire." The imperative is more direct and economical than the indicative mood (" You should attach the red wire" or "The operator should attach the red wire"). Avoid the passive voice (" The red wire is attached"), because it can be ambiguous: is the red wire already attached? 5. Do not confuse steps and feedback statements: a step is an action that the reader is to perform. Feedback describes an event that occurs in response to a step 6. Include graphics 7. Do not omit articles (an, an, the) to save space

Chapter 2: Your ethical and legal obligations

1. Obligations to your employers -Competence and diligence: need to have the skills and training to do the job adequately. Diligence means hard work. A.K.A do not surf the internet the whole time. -Generosity:you are obligated to help your co-workers and stakeholders outside your organization by sharing your knowledge and expertise. If a customer needs help you should help them. -Honesty and candor: You should not steal from your employer and you need to be truthful. avoid trimming, cooking and forging. -confidentiality: do not divulge private company info. no insider trading. -Loyalty: act in the employers interest not in your own. 2. Obligations to public: In general, an organization is acting ethically if its product or service is both safe and effective. However, the manufacturer is not liable when something goes wrong that it could not have foreseen or prevented. 3. Obligations to the environment:As communicators, we should treat every actual or potential occurrence of environmental damage seriously. We should alert our supervisors to the situation and work with them to try to reduce the damage. However, protecting the environment is expensive. 4. Obligations to copyright holders: copyright is a legal issue. Copyright law is the body of law that relates to the appropriate use of a person's intellectual property: written documents, pictures, musical compositions, and the like. Copyright literally refers to a person's right to copy the work that he or she has created.

Chapter 7: Understanding design principles

1. Proximity: The principle of proximity is simple: if two items appear close to each other, the reader will interpret them as related to each other. If they are far apart, the reader will interpret them as unrelated. Text describing a graphic should be positioned close to the graphic, 2. Alignment: The principle of alignment says that you should consciously line up text and graphics along a real or imaginary vertical axis so that the reader can understand the relationships among elements. 3. Repetition: The principle of repetition says that you should format the same kind of information in the same way so that readers can recognize consistent patterns. For example, all first-level headings should have the same typeface, type size, spacing above and below, and so forth. 4. Contrast: The principle of contrast says that the human eye is drawn to— and the brain interprets— differences in appearance between two items. For example, the principle of contrast explains why black print is easier to read against a white background than against a dark gray background; why 16-point type stands out more clearly against 8-point type than against 12-point type; and why information printed in a color, such as red, grabs readers' attention when the information around it is printed in black.

Chapter 6: Guideline for creating effective lists

1. Set off each listed item with a number, a letter, or a symbol (usually a bullet). 2. Break up long lists. Because most people can remember only 5 to 9 items easily, break up lists of 10 or more items. 3. Present the items in a parallel structure. A list is parallel if all the items have the same grammatical form. For instance, in the parallel list below, each item is a verb phrase. 4. Structure and punctuate the lead-in correctly. The lead-in tells readers how the list relates to the discussion and how the items in the list relate to each other. Although standards vary from one organization to another, the most common lead-in consists of a grammatically complete clause followed by a colon, 5. Punctuate the list correctly. Because rules for punctuating lists vary, you should find out whether people in your organization have a preference. If not, punctuate lists as follows:

Chapter 4: Determining the important characteristics of your audience graphic

1. Who are your readers -educational background -cultural characteristics -professional experience -personal characteristics (age, physical) -Job responsibility -reading, speaking and listening preferences 2. Why is your audience reading your document: Consider why each of your most important readers is reading your document. Some writers find it helpful to classify readers into categories that identify each reader's distance from the writer. --primary audience: consists of people to whom the communication is directed. --secondary audience: consists of people who will not directly on or respond to the document but who need to be aware of it. -A TERTIARY audience consists of people who might take an interest in the document, such as interest groups, government officials, and the general public. 3. What are your readers attitudes and expectations -In thinking about the attitudes and expectations of each of your most important readers, consider these three factors: --your readers attitudes towards you -- your reader's attitude toward the subject -- your readers expectations about the document 4. How will your readers use the document- need to consider --the way your reader will read your document. --the physical environment in which your readers will read your document -- your reader's reading skill -- the digital platforms on which your reader will read your document.

Successful workplace communicators share these four abilities:

1. ability to perform research 2. ability to analyze information 3. ability to solve problems 4. ability to speak and write clearly

Avoid four common types of misleading technical communication:

1. false implications about products 2. exaggerations about product specifications 3. legalistic constructions 4. euphemisms

Understand five cultural variables that lie "beneath the surface"

1. focus on individuals or groups 2. distance between business life and private life 3. distance between ranks 4. need for details to be spelled out 5. attitudes toward uncertainty

There are three levels of formality:

1. informal 2. moderately formal 3. highly formal

Technical communication has two meaning

1. the process of making and sharing technical information in the workplace 2. a set of applications—the documents you write and the presentations you deliver

Consider six factors about each of your most important readers:

1. the reader's educational background 2. the reader's professional experience 3. the reader's job responsibility 4. the reader's cultural characteristics 5. the reader's personal characteristics 6. the reader's reading, speaking, and listening preferences

Chapter 1: When creating a document need to consider these three sets of factors.

1.Audience related factors-considers factors such as does your audience know enough about your subject to understand or does the scope need to be limited? does your audience already have certain attitudes about the subject that you wish to reinforce or change? does your audience speak English? does your audience share cultural assumptions? 2.Purpose related factors: Before you write, you need to determine what you want your audience to know, believe or do after reading your document. Communicating the company's brand is an example of purpose related factors. 3.Document related factors: these factors include budget limiting the size/shape of the document? Does the subject dictate what kind of document you choose to write.

Chapter 10: know the elements of the skills resume

A skills résumé differs from a chronological résumé in that it includes a separate section, usually called "Skills" or "Skills and Abilities," that emphasizes job skills and knowledge. In a skills résumé, the employment section becomes a brief list of information about your employment history: companies, dates of employment, and positions. Here is an example of a skills section. Skills and Abilities Management -Served as weekend manager of six employees in a retail clothing business. Also trained three summer interns at a health-maintenance organization. Writing and Editing -Wrote status reports, edited performance appraisals, participated in assembling and producing an environmental impact statement using desktop publishing. Teaching and Tutoring -Tutored in the university writing center. Taught a two-week course in electronics for teenagers. Coach youth basketball. In a skills section, you choose the headings, the arrangement, and the level of detail. Your goal, of course, is to highlight the skills an employer is seeking.

Ethics

Ethics is the study of the principles of conduct that apply to an individual or a group

Chapter 2: a brief introduction to ethics

Ethics:Ethics is the study of the principles of conduct that apply to an individual or a group. When thinking about ethics there are four moral standards that are useful: 1. Rights: This standard concerns individuals' basic needs and welfare. Everyone agrees, for example, that people have a right to a reasonably safe workplace. clear. However, not everything that is desirable is necessarily a right. For example, in some countries, high-quality health care is considered a right. That is, the government is required to provide it, regardless of whether a person can afford to pay for it. In other countries, health care is not considered a right. 2. Justice: This standard concerns how the costs and benefits of an action or a policy are distributed among a group. for example, example: justice requires that people doing the same job receive the same pay, regardless of whether they are male or female, black or white. 3.Utility:This standard concerns the positive and negative effects that an action or a policy has, will have, or might have on others. For example, if a company is considering closing a plant, the company's leaders should consider not only the money they would save but also the financial hardship of laid-off workers 4.Care: This standard concerns the relationships we have with other individuals. We owe care and consideration to all people, but we have greater responsibilities to people in our families, our workplaces, and our communities. -Although these standards provide a vocabulary for thinking about how to resolve ethical conflicts, they are imprecise and often conflict with each other.

Chapter 14: Drafting conclusions

Instructions often conclude by stating that the reader has now completed the task or by describing what the reader should do next. For example: Now that you have replaced the glass and applied the glazing compound, let the window sit for at least five days so that the glazing can cure. Then, prime and paint the window. Some conclusions end with maintenance tips or a troubleshooting guide. A troubleshooting guide, usually presented as a table, identifies common problems and explains how to solve them.

An effective code of conduct has three characteristics:

It protects the public rather than members of the organization or profession. It is specific and comprehensive. It is enforceable.

Chapter 10: know the elements of a chronological resume

Most chronological résumés have five basic elements: 1. identifying information -Full name, address, phone number and email. But don't post include specific mailing info if posting it on the internet. 2. summary of qualifications - a brief paragraph that highlights three or four important skills. 3. education -you are a student or a recent graduate, place the education section next. If you have substantial professional experience, place the employment-history section before the education section. Should include your degree, the institution, location of the institution, date of graduation. 4. employment history -History Present at least the basic information about each job you have held: the dates of employment, the organization's name and location, and your position or title. Then add carefully selected details. Should focus on the skills of the previous jobs, what equipment you oversaw, money, documents, personnel and clients, etc. 5. interests and activities. - community involvement, hobbies related to career, sports if applicable, university sanctioned activities. 6. Sometimes- a reference section is included

Chapter 1: Measures of excellence in technical documents

There are eight characteristics to distinguish excellent technical documents 1. Honesty: the most important measure of excellence is honesty. Not only are dishonest documents unethical but they can hurt readers. 2. Clarity: An unclear technical document can be dangerous and incur additional expenses. 3. Accessibility: because few people will read a document from beginning to end, your job is to make its various parts easy to locate. 4. Comprehensiveness: provides readers with a complete, self-contained discussion. 5. Accuracy: a slight inaccuracy can confuse and annoy your readers, a major inaccuracy can be dangerous/expensive. 6. Conciseness: you can shorten most writing by 10%-20% by eliminating unnecessary phrases, choosing shorter words and using grammatical forms. 7. Professional Appearance: if the document looks professional readers will form a positive impression of it and you. 8. correctness: a correct document adheres to the conventions of grammar, punctuation, spelling,mechanics and usage. Incorrect writing can confuse readers, make your document inaccurate, and make you look unprofessional

Companies have obligations when communicating across cultures

They must not reinforce patterns of discrimination in product information. They are not obligated to challenge the prevailing prejudice directly. They must adhere to other countries' federal and regional laws when exporting goods and services

Chapter 6: Structuring effective sentences

This section describes seven principles for structuring effective sentences: 1. Use lists. 2.Emphasize new and important information. 3. Choose an appropriate sentence length. 4.Focus on the "real" subject. 5. Focus on the "real" verb. 6. Use parallel structure. 7. Use modifiers effectively. ex. We recommend that more work on heat-exchanger performance be done with a larger variety of different fuels at the same temperature, with similar fuels at different temperatures, and with special fuels such as diesel fuel and shale-oil-derived fuels. List Version We recommend that more work on heat-exchanger performance be done • with a larger variety of different fuels at the same temperature • with similar fuels at different temperatures • with special fuels such as diesel fuel and shale-oil-derived fuels other tips: Put new information at the end, put expected information in the front/

Types of correspondence: microblog

Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates) can be useful for informal questions or statements addressed to a group.

Chapter 2: Copyright and determining fair use

Under fair-use guidelines, you have the right to use material, without getting permission, for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. 1. The purpose and character of the use, especially whether the use is for profit. Profit-making organizations are scrutinized more carefully than nonprofits. 2.The nature and purpose of the copyrighted work. When the information is essential to the public— for example, medical information— the fair-use principle is applied more liberally. 3. The amount and substantiality of the portion of the work used. A 200-word passage would be a small portion of a book but a large portion of a 500-word brochure. 4.The effect of the use on the potential market for the copyrighted work. Any use of the work that is likely to hurt the author's potential to profit from the original work would probably not be considered fair use.

Use these three techniques For making your writing specific:

Use precise words. Provide adequate detail. Avoid ambiguity.

Use parallel structure

Use the same grammatical form for coordinate elements in a sentence. For example, all the clauses are either passive or active, all the verbs are either infinitives or participles, and so on. Parallel structure creates a recognizable pattern, making a sentence easier for the reader to follow.

Chapter 9: Know the guidelines for organizing a memo

When writing a memo there are five organizational elements 1. A specific subject line. "Breast Cancer Walk" is too general. "Breast Cancer Walk Rescheduled to May 14" is better. 2. A clear statement of purpose. As discussed in Chapter 4 (p. 74), the purpose statement is built around a verb that clearly states what you want the readers to know, believe, or do. 3. A brief summary. Even if a memo fits on one page, consider including a summary. For readers who want to read the whole memo, the summary is an advance organizer; for readers in a hurry, reading the summary substitutes for reading the whole memo. 4. Informative headings. Headings make the memo easier to read by enabling readers to skip sections they don't need and by helping them understand what each section is about. In addition, headings make the memo easier to write because they prompt the writer to provide the kind of information readers need. 5.A prominent recommendation. Many memos end with one or more recommendations. Sometimes these recommendations take the form of action steps: bulleted or numbered lists of what the writer will do or what the writer would like others to do.

Chapter 9: Presenting yourself effectively in correspondence

When you write business correspondence, follow these five suggestions for presenting yourself as a professional: 1. Use the appropriate level of formality. -People are sometimes tempted to use informal writing in informal digital applications such as email and microblogs. Don't. Everything you write on the job is legally the property of the organization for which you work, and messages are almost always archived digitally, even after recipients have deleted them. Therefore, use a moderately formal tone to avoid embarrassment. (but don't be robotic) 2. Communicate correctly. -Correct writing is free of grammar, punctuation, style, usage, and spelling errors. Correctness problems occur most often in email and micro blogs.You have to plan your digital correspondence just as you plan any other written communication, and you should revise, edit, and proofread it. If not than the reader will think that your are careless. 3. Project the "you attitude." -Correspondence should convey a courteous, positive tone. The key to accomplishing this task is using the "you attitude"— looking at the situation from the reader's point of view and adjusting the content, structure, and tone to meet his or her needs. 4. Avoid correspondence clichÉs. -ex: Attached please find, enclosed please find, pursuant to our agreement, we wish to advise, the writer, etc. 5. Communicate honestly. -You should communicate honestly when you write any kind of document, and business correspondence is no exception. Communicating honestly shows respect for your reader and for yourself.

Purpose

Your purpose refers to what you want to accomplish with the document you are producing

Types of correspondence: memos

are moderately formal and appropriate for people in your organization

Types of correspondence: letters

are the most formal and most appropriate for communicating with people outside your organization.

Some letters include additional elements:

attention line subject line enclosure line copy line header for second page

There are two kinds of paragraphs

body paragraph transitional paragraph

You have five obligations to your employer:

competence and diligence generosity honesty and candor confidentiality loyalty

A chronological résumé typically has six elements:

identifying information summary statement education employment history interests and activities references

Types of correspondence: email

is best for quick, relatively informal communication.

Write one of these four follow-up letters or emails after a job interview:

letter of appreciation letter accepting a job offer letter rejecting a job offer letter acknowledging a rejection

For multicultural readers, consider cultural variations in four areas

paper size typeface preferences color preferences text direction