Exam 2 Study Guide

Which statement best exemplifies a modest persona?

"I think the Hughes Security system will give us most of the features we are looking for."

Chapter 8 lists four characteristics that can help you establish an effective professional persona. One is cooperativeness. Which of the following characteristics are also listed in the chapter? (Select the three that apply.)

- Fair-mindedness - Moderation - Modesty

How does culture affect the process of persuasion?

- It determines the content of effective arguments. - It determines the structure of effective arguments. - BOTH A AND B ARE CORRECT.

According to Chapter 7, one benefit of using a conventional pattern to organize technical information is that the pattern serves as a template or checklist, helping you remember what information to include. What is the main benefit for your readers, according to the chapter?

- It helps readers relax. - It keeps readers from becoming bored. - It helps readers associate new information with other information presented in the same pattern. - It makes a positive impression on readers. - NONE OF THE RESPONSES ARE CORRECT.

"Refer to the person first, the disability second" is one of the guidelines for using the people-first approach to writing about people with disabilities. Which of the following are other guidelines discussed in the chapter?

- Refer to a person who uses a wheelchair as wheelchair bound or confined to a wheelchair. - Remember that handicap and disability are synonymous terms. - Refer to people with disabilities as abnormal, as opposed to atypical. - NONE OF THE RESPONSES ARE CORRECT.

Which of these is an example of a workplace document?

- a video describing how a piece of equipment works - an oral presentation about selecting appropriate insurance coverage - a podcast about Internet servers - ALL RESPONSES ARE CORRECT

Your supervisor might have several purposes in mind as he or she reads your documents. Which of the following describes one possible purpose?

- to determine the current status of the project you are describing - to evaluate part of your job performance - to determine whether you should be assigned to this kind of project in the future - ALL RESPONSES ARE CORRECT

Chapter 10 suggests that the passive voice is generally more appropriate than the active voice in four circumstances. One is when the agent is clear from the context, as in "Students are required to take both writing courses," in which it is clear that the college sets the requirements. Under what other circumstances is the passive voice generally more appropriate?

- when the agent is less important than the action - when a reference to the agent is embarrassing, dangerous, or in some other way inappropriate - when the agent is unknown - ALL OF THE RESPONSES ARE CORRECT.

According to Chapter 5, which approach is best when writing for multiple audiences?

A modular approach

Which of these design features in a document does not primarily involve the principle of contrast?

A rule

Helvetica Regular, Helvetica Light, Helvetica Italic, and Helvetica Bold all belong to what group?

A type family

What type of argument is one made against the writer, rather than against the writer's argument?

Ad hominem

What type of argument states that a claim is valid because many people think it is or act as if it is?

Ad populum

The following statement appears in a university's report to its board of regents: "Several other notable universities, including Stanford and Harvard, are offering massive, open online classes, or MOOCs. It is imperative for Old State University to keep pace in the educational marketplace." What type of reasoning does the passage display?

Ad populum argument

How should you punctuate a restrictive modifier?

Add no extra punctuation.

The following graphic shows a page from a user's manual. Which of the following should the writer of this manual NOT consider doing?

Adding pull quotes

According to Chapter 8, crafting a persuasive argument involves six tasks. One is using the right kinds of evidence. What is another of the tasks listed in the chapter?

Another task in order to craft a persuasive argument would be to recognize and address opposing viewpoints.

Sentences are often easier to understand and more emphatic if new information appears in which position?

At the end of the sentence

Which method of addressing opposing viewpoints is likely to be least effective?

Avoid discussing the opposing viewpoint

You are writing a report about new regulations that affect your company. Your primary audience of company executives is very busy and will read your report quickly, but secondary- and tertiary-audience members are likely to read more slowly and carefully. Which of the following options is most appropriate for your situation?

Break your report into modules and put highly detailed information in an appendix.

Which of the organizational patterns below depends on relationships that can be difficult to prove?

Cause and effect

Of the options below, which is the most effective way to organize a discussion highlighting the most important events in your company's 31-year history?

Chronological

Which pattern of organization would be most helpful for organizing the work-experience section of your résumé?

Chronological

What type of argument restates the main point without presenting any evidence to support it?

Circular argument

Which three of the following are elements of an argument? (Select the three that apply.)

Claim, evidence, and reasoning

What type of argument appeals to a person's understanding and experience of how the world works?

Commonsense argument

Of the options listed below, which is the most effective way to organize a document explaining which of three different trucks your company ought to buy for its fleet?

Comparison and contrast

Which of these organizational patterns does NOT benefit from the use of "signposts" in your document?

Comparison and contrast

You are writing a report using a template provided by your supervisor. If you increase the margins around your pages by 30 percent and do not change anything else, which aspect of the overall design will change the most?

Contrast

Which of the following is NOT a principle for using the problem-methods-solution pattern of organization?

Describe your problem in general terms.

Chapter 5 discusses certain variables that lead to differences among cultures. Which of these statements about cultural variables is true?

Different organizations within the same culture can vary greatly.

According to Chapter 7, where in your document should you put your main point if you expect that your audience will like what you have to say?

Early in the document

What type of argument poses only two alternatives when in fact there might be more?

Either-or argument

Chapter 8 discusses the three elements of an argument. One is the claim. What are the other two?

Evidence and reasoning

Chapter 8 discusses four broad goals of an audience. One is security. Which is NOT one of the other three goals?

Fair-mindedness

A commonsense argument is usually more persuasive than numerical data.

False

A euphemism is a bit of shoptalk, a word or phrase that has a precise meaning to members of a particular group, organization, profession, or occupation but may have little meaning for people outside that group.

False

A sentence using negative construction expresses bad news or the writer's dissatisfaction or unhappiness.

False

According to Chapter 5, if you think your document will have a number of readers, you should consider writing a variety of documents addressed to different kinds of readers.

False

Although many aspects of private life and community life differ from culture to culture, in most developed countries business is conducted in more or less the same way.

False

An estimated 50 percent of Internet users are nonnative speakers of English.

False

An idiom is a phrase identified by linguists as universally understandable.

False

Chapter 7 states that one disadvantage of the problem-methods-solution organizational pattern is that you cannot alter the sequence of those three elements.

False

Graphics and design elements are relatively unimportant in communicating persuasively.

False

In a passive-voice sentence, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed by the verb.

False

In describing your company's product, you should not compare it with a competitor's product because the competitor will sue your company for misrepresentation.

False

It is always unethical to compare your company's product to a similar product by another company when trying to argue that your own company's product is superior.

False

It is often helpful to combine bases of classification or partition simultaneously when using that pattern to write a passage.

False

New and important information should come at the beginning of a sentence, where readers will be sure to notice it.

False

People who write proposals are the only technical writers who need to be concerned with persuasion.

False

The following passage would be appropriate for a document aimed at a multicultural audience: Two companies found themselves in the financial equivalent of sudden-death overtime. The first to raise the necessary capital would be the one to survive.

False

According to Chapter 5, what should you do once you have analyzed your audience and purpose?

Get management's approval.

In which of the following sentences is qualifying information emphasized?

If the new administrator gets her way, all of the adjunct instructors will get raises.

The following statement appears in a proposal to install a large pond near an amphitheater: "Jones Company is an expert in pond preparation. We installed our first pond at Jameson Park earlier this year." What type of reasoning does the passage display?

Inadequate sampling

What is Simplified English?

It is a set of about 1,000 English words used for writing technical manuals in certain industries.

Which of the following is a potential drawback of using a multicolumn design?

It might differ from the design the audience expects to see.

You work for a semiconductor manufacturer. You are writing a quarterly report on the activities within your section of the company. One of the people who will read your report is Lila Waltman, divisional vice president. You search online for information about her. Which piece of information is most likely to help you as you write the report?

Lila is an active member of the local chapter of IEEE, a professional society for the electronics industry.

The following two headings indicate which type of organizational pattern? Two Tasks You Must Complete Today Other Tasks That Need Your Attention

More important to less important

Which of the following is NOT a category of constraints on your ability to be persuasive in a workplace document?

Partitional

Which of the following sentences illustrates the best approach to writing about people with disabilities?

People with advanced cases of scleroderma should avoid cold climates.

In many cases, removing which type of phrase following a noun will make your writing more concise?

Prepositional phrase

If you know the audience for your website is diverse, what should you do?

Provide more than one way to find specific content.

What is the definition of queuing?

Queuing is a page-design technique in which visual patterns show levels of importance.

Chapter 8 discusses the four broad goals of an audience. One is security. Name one of the other three goals.

Recognition, growth, and connectedness

Which design principle is especially important when creating accessing aids for your document?

Repetition

Which organizational pattern is least susceptible to a writer's attempts to mislead readers?

Spatial

Your supervisor has asked you to write a brief description of an abandoned silver mine that is slated for hazardous-waste cleanup. Of the organizational patterns discussed in Chapter 7, which would be most logical and effective for describing the mine?

Spatial

Which sentence below shows a comma splice?

The 728B polo shirt is our most popular model, it offers an unequaled blend of comfort and durability.

Which of the following sentences has a strong subject?

The challenge of pursuing higher education while using a foreign language should not be underestimated.

An inappropriate choice in which of following areas has the highest potential to confuse an international audience?

The pictures used as icons

You are writing a proposal to restructure your department's organizational chart. Your manager was a member of the committee that originally set up the department's current structure. Which purpose statement would be best for a proposal to your manager?

The purpose of this proposal is to show how we can reorganize our department to improve our efficiency while keeping intact the values that have allowed us to succeed to this point.

What does it mean to say that a report you are writing contains several logical fallacies?

The reasoning used in your report is illogical and untrustworthy.

A nominalization is a verb that has been transformed into a noun, as when to install becomes to effect an installation, or to analyze becomes to conduct an analysis.

True

A page grid is a drawing, or map, in which areas of white space and text in a document are arranged clearly and consistently.

True

A post hoc argument claims that because A preceded B, A must have caused B.

True

A sentence with a negative construction uses a word or phrase to describe what something is not. One example is the use of not many rather than few.

True

A testimonial can be an effective persuasive element.

True

According to Chapter 5, a good way to learn about your readers' preferences is to read documents they have written.

True

Chapter 7 explains that one challenge in using the cause-and-effect organizational pattern is that it is very difficult to prove a causal relationship between two factors.

True

In designing an entire document as opposed to individual pages, you will need to consider size, paper, bindings, and accessing aids.

True

In some cultures, it would be considered rude to create a document that contains information the audience already knows.

True

One of the main challenges of document design is using as few pages as possible while still making the document easy to read.

True

Social-media activities can provide an organization with significant information about members of their target audiences.

True

The general-to-specific pattern is effective for explaining the factors that led to a specific problem.

True

The point of learning about your audience is to use that information to tailor a document to fit the audience's needs.

True

In what situation do graphics benefit your reader?

When graphics complement the text

Where do real or conceptual subjects often get "buried" within confusing sentences?

in prepositional phrases following weak subjects

Which organizational pattern often occurs in a comparison-and-contrast discussion?

whole-by-whole