Quiz's 1-12
Which of the following is most likely to bring out you-attitude at a sentence level?
Using passive verbs to avoid assigning blame
Which of the following is an example of a startling statement in an opener?
"As many as 170,000 homeless children in some parts of the world have only one meal a day."
Which of the following is an example of a direct request?
"Please email me the details of the annual conference this year."
Which of the following is a typical difference between a conversational writing style and a good business writing style?
A conversational writing style does not contain paragraphs; a good business writing style does contain paragraphs
Which of the following statements is true of the basic criteria for an effective message?
A message should present a positive image of the communicator and his or her organization.
Who among the following individuals is likely to earn more?
A person with good communication and technical skills
Which of the following is an ineffective way to change the audience's knowledge or understanding of something?
Acknowledging the audience's initial interpretation toward the end of the message
In the context of interpersonal communication, which of the following is true of a debating conversational style?
Aggressiveness is seen as one way to organize the flow of conversation.
Ergo Inc., a retailing company, is hosting a massive event for its 25th anniversary. The HR manager at Ergo Inc. is drafting an e-mail invite for the employees. Which of the following examples illustrates the most nonsexist subject for the e-mail invite?
All salespeople and their guests are invited to the 25th year celebrations
Which of the following is an example of psychological reactance?
An employee refuses to meet his deadlines after being passed over for a promotion
Which of the following is an example of a demographic characteristic?
An individual's income
While designing a brochure for the new water pistol introduced by her company, Meredith identifies the central selling point and objections the audience may have. In order to attract the attention of more people, she plans to include a contest to win the new water pistol with the brochure. Which of the following stages of designing does this scenario exemplify
Analyzing the rhetorical situation
Which of the following is a trait of a successful intercultural communicator?
Being aware of the values, beliefs, and practices in other cultures
_____ is the term for the enormous amount of data generated by electronic communications.
Big data
Midwest Insurance Company has recently launched a unit link life insurance plan. It is now planning to offer bonuses to employees who achieve the maximum sales target of this new plan. The company needs to send e-mails to all its life advisors about the bonus offered. Which of the following would be the best subject line for this e-mail?
Bonuses for the New Unit Link Insurance Plan
Which of the following is a step in editing a document during a collaborative writing project?
Checking for consistency in the way that format elements are handled
After six months on the job, David is still one of the slowest resources in his team. Jonathan, his manager, needs to give him a performance appraisal. Which of the following should Jonathan undertake?
Cite specifics observations about his performance in the last few months.
Which of the following is true of values, beliefs, and practices in business communication?
Communication is crucial in today's world because cultural practices change rapidly
Which of the following statements is most likely to be true of the attitudes of people in North American cultures toward oral and written communications?
Context is less important and information is explicit
Which of the following is true of oral communication?
Cultures vary in the way they deal with unpleasant details
Sarah O'Neil is writing an e-mail to Eleanor Rice, the director of a funding agency. Sarah has not communicated with the director before and is wondering how best to address her. Which of the following illustrates the most polite way to address Eleanor Rice?
Dear Ms. Rice
Which of the following is an example of a sentence using active voice?
David Riley, a sales executive identified flaws in the report
Which of the following activities is included in the planning process of writing?
Defining your purpose and analyzing your audience
Which of the following should a negative message to superiors begin with?
Describing the problem clearly
Which of the following is a way to handle being out of the job market for a while?
Do freelance work to keep you occupied
Which of the following ethical questions best pertains to the qualities of a message?
Does the message use good sources and are these sources used honestly?
_____ is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to feel with that person.
Empathy
Dan is the owner of a small pastry shop. He wants to create a profile for his shop and share information about his shop to his customers and other interested people. Dan decides to create a focus group that will help him share pictures and other information about his shop and also receive feedback from the customers. According to this scenario, which of the following means of communication should Dan use to promote his shop?
Which of the following describes the right way to provide feedback to a team?
Feedback should be generated as soon as team decisions are implemented.
Ronaldo, an employee at Insure Cycle Inc., is drafting a letter to send along with other insurance documents. Which of the following styles of writing should he use while preparing the report
Friendly and businesslike
Aziza is applying to various colleges and is required to write an essay about her ambitions for each college. After spending weeks on the essay, she has finally completed it. Before submitting it, she wants to revise it a few times. Which of the following questions will Aziza ask herself when checking the style and tone of her essay?
Have I used you-attitude in my content?
Which of the following examples best illustrates good you-attitude?
I should not have to edit documents in addition to all the writing work I do.
Which of the following statements is true of Charles Kostelnick's four levels of design?
If a person chooses to use bullets to list items, he is making an inter-level choice
Which of the following is recommended while providing reasons in a negative message?
If you do not have a good reason, omit the reason rather than use a weak one.
To maintain an appropriate tone in a negative message, which of the following statements is most appropriate?
In future, I want you to report any issues you are having to me
Identify the correct statement about infographics
In infographics, text provides supporting detail, while visuals communicate the message.
_____ are people outside a company whose posts and tweets help sales.
Influencers
Which of the following statements about the dimensions of teams is true?
Informational dimensions focus on content; procedural dimensions focus on process.
Which of the following statements is true about innovation/creativity as a trend in business communication?
Innovation/creativity is a process that can be learned.
Robert complains to Selena, his co-worker, that he is overloaded with work and cannot cope. Selena responds that the work he has is nothing compared to hers. She tells him that he should be thankful that he does not work with her boss. In the context of interpersonal skills, which of the following is true of Selena's response?
It is a blocking response that minimizes Robert's problem
Free Reach Inc., a company that manufactures exercise equipment, creates a non-traditional corporate culture characterized by "active workstations." It also encourages teams to balance on giant balls during team meetings. Which of the following is most likely true of Free Reach Inc. in this scenario?
It is hurting the productivity of its employees.
Which of the following is an advantage of using passive voice in sentences?
It is more tactful than active voice and is often used to avoid assigning blame.
Which of the following statements is true of a poor document?
It is not influenced by conventions
Which of the following best describes "bypassing" in business writing?
It occurs when two writers use the same word but intend different meanings.
Jo lives in a country that is characterized by a culture that relies on nonverbal signs of communication more than explicit verbal communications. It attaches a high degree of importance to building and establishing business relationships. Considering these characteristics, which of the following countries is the most similar to the country described here?
Japan
_____ refer to words and phrases that an employer will have a computer seek in an electronic résumé
Key words
Which of the following is a common ground rule for a team during the formation stage?
Leave the meeting with a clear understanding of what each member is to do next.
Janet works as a nurse in a school for underprivileged children. She is a single mother of two children and lives with her aged parents. A major part of the household expenses come from her earnings. From her small Christmas bonus, she intends to buy new clothes for her family. Which of the following objective features of an apparel store would appeal the most to Janet?
Lowest prices in town
Which of the following leads to increase in the cost of communication?
Maintaining and administering archives
Which of the following is most likely to build goodwill in granting a request to resolve a complaint?
Mentioning the grant of request in the very first sentence of the message
When delivering which of the following messages would audience benefits be unnecessary?
Negative messages
Which of the following is true of networking as a skill in interpersonal communication?
Networking becomes even more important as you climb the corporate ladder.
Which of the following statements is true of the half-truths about business writing?
Never forget to acknowledge your source if you have borrowed words or ideas.
Malcolm has recently joined his first job at an advertising firm in Manhattan. It has only been a few weeks at his new organization, but he is already well-adapted to the new environment. David, Malcolm's colleague, asks him how he has managed to adapt himself so quickly and Malcolm says, "Knowing and understanding the conventions at work really enabled me to adapt to the new work environment." Which of the following practices would have best helped Malcolm in learning the company's conventions
Observing what other employees are doing
_____ is a major aspect of global business that refers to the process of sending corporate work to other companies
Outsourcing
One of Pablo's subordinates, Aliya, is highly efficient at work. She always meets the deadlines and performs beyond the average expected levels. Pablo has also observed that Aliya is an introvert. He wants all his team members to suggest ideas to celebrate the company's latest achievement. In this scenario, which of the following channels of communication should Pablo use to interact with Aliya?
Pablo should write an e-mail to Aliya asking her to reply to the mail with some suggestions
Which of the following is true of job hunting?
People who do not need jobs immediately are more confident and usually get better offers
Which of the following is a nonsexist replacement for "manpower"?
Personnel
Aliyah prepares a to-do list of all the tasks she needs to complete within the week. First, she completes her high-priority tasks. She then divides her large tasks into smaller ones, so that they are easier to undertake. At the end of the week, she evaluates the tasks that remain incomplete. In which of the following processes is Aliyah primarily involved?
Practicing time management
On which of the following does an interpersonal dimension of a team focus?
Promoting friendliness
Which of the following is a guideline to design web pages?
Provide visual variety in the text.
The sales manager of a bank wants his team members to send him the sales figures for the month of March. He creates an email asking for the update. Which of the following is most likely to be the best subject line for the manager's email?
Sales Reports for March 2011
According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the _____ dichotomy essentially measures the way an individual prefers to take in information.
Sensing-Intuition
Ravi is a job applicant who plans to send his résumé with an e-mail. He is afraid that it will get rejected by spam filters. While e-mailing his résumé, which of the following is a preventative step that Ravi can take to avoid the effect of spam filters?
Set his personal spam filter to high and send his résumé to himself.
Rhonda is the CEO at Eliat Corporation, a multinational company. In the context of spatial cues in nonverbal communication, which of the following best indicates that Rhonda has a position of power and status in the company?
She occupies a corner office on the top floor of the building.
Kayla, a graduate student, is preparing her first résumé She makes it a point to frequently use key words throughout her résumé. Which of the following guidelines should Kayla follow while writing her résumé?
She should ensure that items in the list follow a parallel structure
Which of the following is most likely to be used as a technology to organize a quick virtual meeting?
Skype
Which of the following is true of networking?
Successful networking is characterized by a "two-way" reputation
Which of the following statements is true about student teams?
Successful teams regularly communicate as a team; less successful teams meet less often
A website developed by a web designer is ready to be published. Before making it open to the public, the designer wants to test its usability. Which of the following would be a good technique for assessing the usability testing of this website?
Test it with an audience
Manuela is preparing the annual report for her company, which will reach her subordinates, her superiors, the board of directors, the distributors, and the employees in other branches. Who among the following is the external audience of the annual report?
The distributors
Which of the following statements is true of a document summary?
The main point should be present in the first paragraph.
Which of the following is true of nonverbal communication?
The meanings of gestures vary widely in different cultures across the world.
Which of the following best demonstrates a message with positive emphasis?
The new Mr. Potato flavor includes more tasty ingredients.
Aida is preparing a PowerPoint presentation on the services her company provides. She wants the PowerPoint presentation to look very attractive, so she used three types of fonts in each slide. She made sure that there were enough white space and headings everywhere necessary. She used very few words that were set in all capital letters or highlighted. Which of the following is a mistake in Aida's PowerPoint presentation according to the guidelines for document design?
The use of three fonts
Which of the following is true of informal meetings?
They are better for team building than formal meetings.
Which of the following is true of using social media as channels to solve customer complaints?
They are ineffective for solving customer complaints
Which of the following is true of buffers?
They are statements that delay the negative in the news.
Which of the following is true of arguments?
They are the reasons you offer to prove your solution is best
Which of the following is true of compound sentences?
They consist of two main clauses joined by a conjunction
Which of the following statements is true of serif fonts
They have little extensions
Which of the following is true of complex sentences?
They have one main clause and one subordinate clause.
Elijah, the HR manager of ArtDeco, sent an e-mail to an interviewed candidate stating that the candidate has been shortlisted for the assistant designer post of ArtDeco. The e-mail also includes details about ArtDeco and the job profile. In business communication, which of the following is most likely a secondary purpose of this message?
To build a good image of the sender's organization
In business communication, which of the following is a purpose of claims adjustment documents?
To inform customers
Rodrigo is a regular customer at a local restaurant. Recently, he has noticed that the restaurant has reduced its serving portions, yet the prices have remained unchanged. He decides to write a letter of complaint to the management of the restaurant to state his displeasure. Which of the following should he do while writing his complaint letter?
Try providing supporting facts for his complaint.
While choosing appropriate words for business writing, which of the following is true?
Use a long word if your audience prefers it.
Rita applies for the position of a visualizer in a web designing company. On her résumé, she experiments with layout and fonts to make it look attractive, and at the same time she wants to ensure that she follows the basic guidelines pertaining to layout and design. While doing so, which of the following should she adhere to?
Use enough white space to group items
Which of the following is a top web design mistake according to Jakob Nielsen?
Use of large text blocks
Which of the following will help in dealing with information overload?
Using choice engines
Which of the following examples best illustrates positive emphasis in a sentence?
We will obtain the contract by next week.
Which of the following examples illustrates the highest level of politeness from a superior to a subordinate?
Would you be able to turn in your assignment by Friday?
Which of the following is true about writing to international audiences?
Writers need to research a culture before composing messages for people in it.
Which of the following represents poor writing in documents?
Writing that requires a reader to gather more information
Cara recently received criticism in the form of an e-mail from the communications manager in her organization. The e-mail stated, "The public phase of the water campaign has been stalled because the sample press releases are still pending from your end." Which of the following criticism responses used by Cara best indicates effort to buy time with limited agreement?
Yes it is true. The sample press releases are being worked on and are not ready yet.
Mistletoe Inc., a retail store, prints a newspaper advertisement for its Christmas sale. To maintain you-attitude, which of the following examples of advertisements is most likely to be effective?
You can now avail of our Christmas discount of 50 percent on all products at Mistletoe
Xorbia is a software company that recently sold its new V-2 model to a client. Which of the following would be an appropriate goodwill ending for an e-mail to the new customer?
You have made a wise decision by purchasing the personalized V-2 software
Which of the following examples best demonstrates the use of you-attitude in a sentence?
You will receive complete insurance benefits as a full-time employee.
Daunte is frustrated about management's recent decision to merge his two teams into one. He discusses this issue with Claire, a co-worker. Claire responds by saying, "It sounds like management's decision really bothers you." In the context of listening skills, Claire's statement best exemplifies a(n)
active response that mirrors feelings
A(n) _____ on job candidates includes a verification of legal and criminal records, complete employment history, and academic credentials
background check
While composing a claim, you should:
begin by stating the problem
The term _____ refers to résumé that summarize what one did in a time line starting with the most recent events, and going backward in reverse order
chronological résumé
Responding to the need for global experience, business schools are
conducting international case studies and setting up overseas campuses
Design choices for graphics that accompany text such as the way one uses photographs, charts, and graphs, and the ways in which one emphasizes information on those graphics refers to the _____ of design distinguished by Charles Kostelnick
extra-level
In an organization, a person who has the power to stop your message from reaching the primary audience is called a(n) _____.
gatekeeper
When speaking or writing to multiple audiences, if it is not possible to meet everyone's needs, it is advisable to meet the needs of the _____ first.
gatekeepers
Relative to written messages, oral messages make it easier to:
get immediate action or response.
When people object to your proposal because they benefit directly from keeping things as they are, it means they:
have a vested interest.
Patricia Nicholas plans to attend a business meeting in Paris to obtain a client's approval on a new line of clothing. Her client has a leisurely approach to matters related to time of which Patricia is unaware. Patricia is late to the meeting by five minutes and apologizes repeatedly to the members present. Patricia is most likely to have calculated time
in five-minute blocks
In many discourse communities, the ending "Call me if you need more information" in a letter of recommendation means that the writer:
is unwilling to put negative details on paper but can share details over a phone call.
A secondary purpose of persuasive messages is to
overcome any objections that might prevent or delay action
The survey conducted by the National Commission on Writing showed that almost all employees have writing responsibilities that include:
presentations with visuals
An informative and positive message should start by:
providing the most important information
A secondary purpose of a negative message is to:
reduce further communication on the same subject
Selena is the first woman to be made a director at her company. At her first meeting as a director, the CEO begins the meeting by saying, "I am proud to announce that all the best businessmen in the country are present at this meeting." The phrasing of his statement offends Selena. This is most likely because the statement is:
sexist
Joshua is in his office break room having coffee when he is joined by two other colleagues, Frank and Ross. The colleagues start to talk about the new hierarchical structure introduced in the organization, a topic that has been the focus of controversy for some time. Frank and Ross are completely against the new structure and are critically evaluating the company's management. They refer to Joshua and want to know what he thinks. Joshua is uncomfortable since this is a controversial topic. To maintain an appropriate tone in his message to Frank and Ross, Joshua should
state that this is an important topic and then leave the break room quickly.
Cindy attends a career counseling session in her neighborhood where she receives career advice and useful tips from seasoned career counselors. These experts specifically discuss how career objective statements should be framed and provide general guidelines regarding them. Cindy is advised that career objective statement should:
state what one wants to do and the responsibility one wants to hold
A problem-solving pattern is most likely to be used when
the audience may resist doing as you ask
A _____ is a memo accompanying document, informing it is being forwarded to the receiver
transmittal
To make an effective phone call, you should:
use an information hook
Humor is appropriate in informative messages when:
used with restraint in select situations.