Business Communication Final Exam (Chapter 1-5)
The most frequently used chart in comparing the subdivisions of wholes is the
pie chart.
According to studies of readability,
short words generally communicate better than long words.
Which of the following must be included in a business letter's letterhead?
the company's address
When determining how large to make a visual, your main consideration is
how important and complex the information in the visual is.
Which of the following is a form of internal-operational communication?
orders given by supervisors to employees
If a business writer is constructing a table for a document and wants to emphasize the row totals, he or she should
place them on the left side of the table.
Eduardo is in the process of revising his document. He carefully reads through the document to check for errors in the content related to spelling, typography, punctuation, and grammar. In terms of the "levels of edit," Eduardo is _____ his document.
proofreading
Which of the following is an abstract statement?
Most of our employees produce highly satisfactory work.
Which of the following sentences contains a redundancy?
My manager holds a weekly update meeting every Monday morning.
A decision tree
is a chart that allows the reader to follow a particular path and arrive at an outcome.
Which of the following sentences does not feature any mistakes in how it uses words?
Each month, we have fewer customers calling to complain.
Which of the following statements about paragraphs is true?
Each paragraph must contribute to your overall purpose.
_____ have become the most widely used form of written business communication due to their low-cost and superior speed and efficiency in communicating with both internal and external audiences.
Emails
Misha has written a multipage informal business report, and she has decided to format it as a memo. Which of the following does she need to do?
include a header with the date, the reader's name, and the page number
Which transitional word or phrase would most efficiently increase the cohesiveness of the following sentences? "The company recorded a 11 percent increase in domestic profits. The company has not been able to establish much demand in foreign countries."
however
The _____ sentence expresses the main idea of a paragraph, and the remaining sentences build around and support it.
topic
When all parts of a sentence work together to make one clear point, the sentence has
unity.
The direct order of organizing information in a message is likely to produce the most effective result in
an email praising the best-performing employees of the quarter.
Manfred creates a bar graph and starts it at 50 because all of the bars represent numbers higher than 50. What error has Manfred committed?
an error of scale
Two colors that are next to each other on the color wheel are ______ colors.
analogous
One difference between memos and letters is that memos
are initialed by the writer rather than signed.
A says/does chart can help you
be mindful of the purpose of each of your paragraphs.
Which of the following best defines a pictograph?
A pictograph is a bar or column chart that uses bars made of pictures.
Which of the following is an example of external-operational communication?
Adam creates and uploads an online advertisement that will be visible to the general public.
Which of the following sentences uses subordination?
Although we gave a polished presentation, the company chose to work with our competitors.
Which of the following is used to set apart text or a graphic in order to emphasize it for the reader?
External spacing
Which of the following is true of footnotes?
Footnotes are used when some parts of a visual require special explanation or elaboration.
Which of the following sentences uses mixed construction?
Geeta started the meeting by taking roll, then the minutes from the last meeting were read by her.
The informal network inside an organization is typically referred to as the
Grapevine
Choose the sentence below that makes correct use of a two-word expression (also known as an idiom).
I completely agree with you.
Which of the following sentences contains surplus words?
It should be understood that attendance is expected at the staff meeting every Friday.
_____ is the presentation of tabular material in the text without titles or rules.
Leaderwork
Which of the following is a rule of thumb to write sentences that communicate clearly and correctly?
Limit sentence content.
Which of the following statements about memos is true?
Memos are mostly used for communicating within an organization.
Which of the following is true about slang words?
Slang words should be used with caution in business communication.
Which of the following statements about business communication activities is true?
The content and quality of a company's communication have a great deal to do with employees' attitudes and behavior.
Which of the following sentences uses faulty parallelism?
The new manager was both enthusiastic and she was demanding.
Which of the following sentences has a misplaced modifier?
We have compiled a list of selected candidates using the information we gathered during the selection process.
Which of the following sentences uses the active voice?
We increased our equipment sales for January 2016 by 12 percent and reached our goal of $3 million.
Derrick has written a formal report and plans to bind it on the top. Which of the following does he need to do?
add an extra 1/2 inch to the top margin
Which of the following statements about letters is true?
Which of the following statements about letters is true?
Visual literacy is best defined as the ability to
effectively use analytical skills to create and interpret graphics.
A phrase that can be replaced by shorter wording without losing meaning is a
cluttering phrase.
The quality of enabling readers to proceed easily through a message, without side trips and backward shifts, is called
coherence.
A bilateral column chart
contains columns that begin at a central point of reference and may go either up or down.
When laying out your information in a brochure, you should
group content according to the proximity principle.
Which of the following transitional words and phrases indicates that what will be said resembles what has just been said?
likewise
When using acronyms, if there is a chance that your reader may not understand the initials, the best practice is to
spell out the words the first time and follow them with initials.
Repetition of ideas in a sentence through the use of different words that mean the same thing is called _____ in sentence design.
redundancy
Which of the following techniques is a transitional device used in making coherent paragraphs?
repetition of key words and ideas
The increased use of text messages, which prioritizes brevity, has resulted in
the use of many abbreviations and typed symbols for emotions.
The rise of the Internet and social media has resulted in increased transparency when it comes to businesses' practices. As a result, ______ departments and initiatives have been developed to help companies embrace practices that improve their public image.
corporate social responsibility
Dimitry formats his memo so the four heading elements are positioned to the left of the page. This is an example of the design principle of
alignment
Lack of unity in sentences is usually caused by _____ or unrelated ideas.
excessive detail
Which of the following is exclusive to the "interpreting the message" step in a business communication process?
extracting information from the message
Which of the following is an example of something that would affect a communicator's particular context in business communication?
the communicator's degree in psychology
Which of the following constitutes an internal audience for a private sector organization?
the organization's senior management
Which of the following should typically determine the exact placement of a visual on a page?
the size of the visual
Headings in the same level of a report must be grammatically parallel. Choose the answer that is parallel to the following heading: Taking the Next Step
Capturing the Market Response
Which of the following is true of communication in organizations?
Communication-related activities occur in every niche of a company.
Which of the following statements about emails is true?
Emails should mostly use informal language in day-to-day business messages.
Eloise lays out her report based on the assumption that the reader's eye will naturally be drawn diagonally across the document from start to finish. Eloise is following the
Gutenberg diagram.
Hassan is creating a sales training course for the new sales employees his company hires. Which of the following guidelines should Hassan bear in mind when selecting visuals for his document?
Hassan should choose visuals that are appropriate to both the content and context of the information in his document.
Thomas works for a charity and wants to partner with a company to host events that would help his charity and also give the companies some good publicity. He wants to send a letter to the public relations department manager, but he doesn't know the manager's name. How should he write the salutation of his letter?
He should write Dear Public Relations Manager.
Which of the following guidelines should be followed when constructing tables?
If rows are long, the row heads may be repeated at the right.
Which of the following statements is true about ill-defined problems?
Ill-defined problems need to be tackled with research, analysis, creativity, and judgment.
_____ are most identical to telephone conversations as the parties involved communicate in real time.
Instant messages
Which of the following is true of bar charts?
It compares differences in quantities using differences in the lengths of the bars to represent those quantities.
Which of following statements is true about an organization's informal network?
It forms an infinitely complex structure linking the members of an organization to each other.
Which of the following statements about informal writing is true?
It shares some of the qualities of casual writing.
Which of the following is true of numbering visuals in a document?
Lone tables and figures in a document do not have to be numbered.
Malik is in the process of developing a business report. Which of the following conventions should he follow when adding visuals to his document?
Malik should use borders in his document to separate the visuals from the text.
Which of the following is true about social media?
Messages on social media sites should be begin with the main point.
Which of the following statements about professionalism is true?
Professionalism goes beyond just being courteous, having good manners, and dressing appropriately.
Which of the following is an example of a complimentary close?
Respectfully
Which of the following is the best rule to follow for ordering the pieces of the pie in a pie chart?
Slice the largest piece at the 12 o'clock position and then order the pieces from largest to smallest
Which of the following is true about the formal network of an organization?
The formal network includes the lateral movement of information in an organization.
Why should employees be wary of participating in the grapevine in a business?
The grapevine can result in your unwise remarks making it back to your supervisor.
Which of the following statements about a table of contents is true?
The headings and subheadings in a table of contents should be formatted so they are distinguishable as different levels.
Which of the following is true of scatter diagrams?
They allow users to validate hunches about cause and effect, but they can only be interpreted for correlation.
Which of the following is a drawback of using three-dimensional graphs?
Three-dimensional graphs are difficult to present on paper.
Tania had to submit her report to four managers for review, and she is waiting for their replies. Because she is on a tight deadline, she wants to edit her report as each set of comments comes in, but she is reluctant to make permanent revisions because sometimes various managers make contradictory suggestions that she has to resolve. Which of the following features in Word will best allow Tania to keep a record of her edits as she works so that she can reject or change some of them later?
Track Changes
When visuals do not fit a specific part of the document, but are still appropriate to include with a document, you should
When visuals do not fit a specific part of the document, but are still appropriate to include with a document, you should
Which of the following is true about personal communication?
Which of the following is true about personal communication?
A san serif font, like Arial, looks bigger than a serif font, such as Times New Roman, when they have the same point size because
a font's point size is determined by measuring the height of the letter "x" in that font.
Which of the following is a form of external-operational communication?
a letter sent by an employee to a vendor claiming compensation
A chain of parking garages recently offered customers the ability to pay for parking on their mobile phone instead of paying at an office or feeding a parking meter. This is an example of a business making use of the technology known as
a mobile application.
If Ming wants a tertiary color, she should combine?
a primary color with a related secondary color.
Kara is scheduled to present her new sales plan next week. She wants to emphasize one of her key points on a page that otherwise lacks visuals. Which of the following would she use to do this?
a pull quote
Fusion Foods owns several restaurants in a city that has recently raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The wage hike will happen over a period of four years, with an increase of $1.25 taking place each February. Fusion Foods executives are interested to see if there is a relationship between the change in the minimum wage and the profits of their restaurants, which cater to different target markets. What type of visual would best help Fusion Foods reveal a correlation?
a scatter diagram
Raj is writing a forecast report for one of his clients, and he wants to use more than one font to add some interest. Which of the following options should he use?
a serif font for the body of the text and a sans serif font for the headings
Which of the following ought to be included in every memo?
a subject
Deshaun has to write a complex and lengthy year-end report, which is due by the end of January. Which of the following computer tools will help Deshaun schedule time to work on this into every business day?
an electronic calendar
When searching out information on the Internet, people tend to
be focused on accomplishing a specific task.
Orion's boss, Malia, asks him to send a progress report email to a new client by that evening. Orion decides to send the email at 7:00 pm, after returning home from work. Malia calls Orion at around 6:00 p.m. from the client's location, and asks him why he hasn't mailed the progress report yet. It is only then that Orion realizes that Malia expected the email to be delivered at an earlier time. This communication problem, centered on Orion and Malia's different understandings of the phrase "by that evening," exemplifies?
bypassing.
Consider the following email: Hey Lisa! Welcome back! You MUST tell me about your holiday over lunch today. BTW, a couple of us are meeting up this weekend at Mark's place. Care to join us? Cya soon! Jessica This email uses _____ language.
casual
Which of the following headings is not required in a memo?
cc:
Which of the following is typically included in the planning stage of the writing process?
choosing a form of communication
In a business communication process, the step involving the selection of a course of action is most likely to involve the act of
choosing the right communication channel.
Which of the following is an error of format?
choosing the wrong chart type
McKimson Communications recently got rid of most of its bulky servers and move the majority of its software and files to website storage systems. This is an example of a business making use of the technology known as
cloud computing.
The _____ exerts the strongest influence on the act of communication.
communicator's particular context
Francisco is assembling a report for his boss. He uses black text on a white background and sets important points in italics. Which design principle are these choices examples of?
contrast
What are the four principles of design that you should follow when creating business documents?
contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity
The increase of globalization means that businesspeople will often interact with people from other countries who have differing views on punctuality, efficiency, social hierarchy, and even work itself. Because of this, it is important for employees to have
cross-cultural competency.
When creating a chart that uses color, which of the following options should you use to help color blind readers understand it?
different degrees of shading
Lata is writing a message to her boss. She has discovered a source for office supplies that carries name brands but whose prices are at least ten percent cheaper than their company's current supplier. She intends to open her message with a statement saying that she has found a way to save the company money. Lata's plan for her message is called the
direct order.
Which of the following is a category of common errors in graphs?
errors of format
The production manager of a company writes a message to one of the company's suppliers regarding a revised quote for raw materials. This is a form of ______ communication.
external-operational
When writing a personal letter, the return address is
featured at the top of the page.
Which of the following is one concern associated with using photographs and clip art that is not an issue when creating charts or graphs using your own data?
following copyright laws
Once the goal of writing is established and the audience analysis is done, the immediate next step is to
gather relevant information.
Ronaldo is in the planning stage of writing a message. During which of the following steps in the planning process is he most likely to review the sales reports of the last three quarters?
gathering and collecting information
Lindsay has a business communication problem that she has never seen before. To solve it, she should use ______, which are basic guidelines, rough models, and other aids that can help her relate the problem to something else so that she isn't starting the solving process from scratch.
heuristics
In which of the following cases will the indirect order of organizing information be most appropriate?
in an email apology to a customer for dispatching the wrong order
Jonah is binding his single-sided report on the left. Where should he place his page numbers?
in the header aligned to the right margin
The different stages involved in the writing process are recursive. This implies that the stages are
interrelated and not linear.
Zebcon, a new company, wants to establish a business relationship with a raw material supplier, Kaymine Sol. Zebcon wants to make a positive impression on Kaymine Sol. Considering that this is the first time that Zebcon is interacting with Kaymine Sol., Zebcon should use a(n)
letter.
Which of the following terms is best defined as the ability of people to quickly assess the emotions of those around them and adapt their words, tone, and gestures accordingly?
social intelligence
Which of the following can be considered part of the "larger context" in business communication?
the general business-economic climate
Which of the following best illustrates the declining formality of letters?
the omission of old-fashioned salutations and the switch to more modern options
What is included on the title fly?
the report title
In the context of the errors involved in graphing data, which of the following is an error of scale?
unequal dimensions from left to right or bottom to top
Fatima does not like the margins in her document, but she cannot remember how to change them. To solve this problem quickly, she should
use the help feature of the program.
When creating online documents, a writer should
use the inverted pyramid style to organize information.