GEN216: Written Communications
Which of the following is an example of skewing the comparison in favor of an outcome?
Many studies have shown that married people are happier than single people.
Which of the following is true of good writing?
Good writing is organized so that it is easy to follow.
Which of the following is true of a critique?
A critique often provides a summary of the article that is being critiqued.
Which of the following best summarizes how a writer should select items for comparison?
Any items you compare must share some common ground.
Which of the following statements about the visual design of a research paper is true?
Bullets should be used to list information when there is no implied sequence.
Which of the following is the best research question for a survey that you plan to administer in your dorm?
If you had the chance to vote again, would you vote for the current president?
Why is your reading environment important to effective reading?
If your environment is too noisy, you are too tired, or you have something on your mind, you can have trouble reading.
Jazmine was reviewing job placement data for several colleges. When reviewing the data for Jason College, she noticed that all of the graduates of the college's accounting program for the past four years got a job. This information is based on data from the college and validated by the government. She was ecstatic and enrolled at Jason College, convinced that upon graduation she was certain to get a job. What was her mistake concerning inductive arguments?
She falsely assumes certainty that induction cannot provide.
If you have trouble writing an introduction, which of the following is the best approach?
Skip the introduction and come back to it later.
A student is writing a paper for a business class on different types of styles for managing educated professionals. Which of the following guidelines is appropriate for this paper?
Such a paper might end with a recommendation.
What should you do after you've finished skimming, but before you reread a text?
Think about what you've learned and then, express it in your own words.
Which of the following is true of the earliest stage of the writing process?
You don't always have to start with a clear sense of your audience and purpose.
Angela read an editorial attacking a politician's call for increasing the minimum wage. The editorial pointed out that the politician calling for the increase was a self-admitted socialist. Which logical fallacy does the editorial commit?
ad hominem
What type of definition is used in the following excerpt? My mother and her sisters have a habit of "hoseying," or reserving, their seats when they leave a room.
synonym
What is missing from the following essential definition? A dog is a canine.
what distinguishes the term from other items in that category
Which of the following statements is true of prewriting strategy for writing a description?
One possible effective strategy is to develop branching details for what you are seeking to describe.
Which of the following provides the correct citation for an online newspaper article with no author?
"Apocalyptic films loom large, but heroes and hilarity may rescue us." (2013, July 23). Boston.com. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com
Which of the following would be an appropriate interview question to a college counselor about the stress experienced by college students?
In your experience, what seem to be the factors that produce stress in the lives of college students?
Which reasoning error is found in the following statement? "The trees are moving, which is making the wind blow."
It confuses cause and effect.
Suppose that an essay compares community colleges with top-notch research universities and concludes that community colleges do not offer adequate courses. Which ethical rule does this essay violate?
It does not properly match the items being compared.
Jim has always believed that climate change is exaggerated and really not a reasonable idea at all. How, he reasons, could people change something as big as the climate? He found many articles that support his view that climate change is not proven science. He also found articles that support the idea that climate change is occurring, but he figured he could ignore those articles, especially since his other sources debunk that position. He carefully noted his sources, which include some scientists and others on scientific committees in Congress, and was very careful about documenting his sources. What should he think about the ethics of his paper?
It is unethical because he doesn't adequately acknowledge the evidence that is contrary to his conclusion.
Which of the following is true about plagiarism and documenting your sources?
Proper documentation can strengthen your work because it shows that you got your information from a credible source.
Which of the following claims is true of definition?
Synonyms for a given word may provide slightly different shades of meaning and therefore should be selected carefully.
A criminal science professor has done extensive research. After a statistical analysis of the data from all countries, he has discovered that the United States leads in gun deaths per person and in the number of mass shootings per person. In an article reporting his results, he indicated that the level of gun ownership in the United States is correlated with the high level of gun deaths and mass shootings. How would you evaluate the ethics of his article?
The article is ethical.
Having received funds that can be distributed to the students at John Jason College, the scholarship committee organized applicants based on grade point average into categories of GPA ranges, such as 4.0, 3.5-3.9, and 3.0-3.4. Which of the following is a reasonable critical position regarding this classification?
The committee should investigate other kinds of classification as well
For a class, Joan wants to make an argument about the harm we do to the planet when we lose a forest through clear-cutting. She found a beautiful photograph of an old-growth forest that she wants to include in her paper, because she thinks it makes her argument very well. What is a potential problem with Joan's approach?
The image does not directly illustrate the point.
Which of the following is true of identifying audience, purpose, and media for your writing?
The media for your writing may influence how formal or informal it will need to be.
A student is considering writing a paper about the minimum wage. It seems obvious to the student that if you raise the minimum wage, then workers will cost more, employers will therefore hire fewer employees, and people will lose their jobs. Based on the section on critical thinking, indicate which one of the following is true.
The student should test this common assumption by examining the available evidence.
Jamie is writing a research paper on the causes and effects of the recent decrease in violent crime and crime in general in the United States. Which of the following should Jamie expect of this project?
There may be widespread disagreement on this topic, and Jamie will probably have to weigh the differences of opinion.
Tony is writing a paper on the process a police officer might use to defuse a domestic dispute. Which of the following is true of the approach he should consider?
Tony might organize such a process paper by discussing different recommended processes for the different situations.
How does reading for pleasure differ from reading for information?
When reading for pleasure, a reader can read at their own pace; reading for information requires a methodical approach.
You are reading a detailed process essay about the Canadian plan to store low- and mid-level nuclear waste well below ground level near Lake Huron. The essay was written by a university geologist. Which of the following would be a reasonable critical response to the essay?
You might wonder if there are other processes available for storing the waste and do some further research to see if alternative processes have been proposed.
Which of the following situations would call for definition?
You need to help your daughter understand why she shouldn't use inappropriate language.
Which of the following situations would be the least likely to involve process analysis?
Your boss asks you to analyze your product against the competitor to identify your product's strengths and weaknesses.
Sandy is committed to raising the minimum wage because she knows from experience that people can't live on minimum wage. She has decided to write a Rogerian argument to small-business owners, who have reason to be opposed to an increase in the minimum wage. Which of the following would be an appropriate Rogerian strategy based on her audience?
an argument that starts by admitting that businesses need to make a profit, which means paying an affordable wage to workers, but goes on to show how an increase in the minimum wage will not only help workers but also increase business and profits
The ultimate purpose for all writing is to __________.
have an effect on the reader
Which answer best identifies the problem with the following definition? "A roommate is the person with whom a college student shares a dorm room, apartment, or shared house."
overly narrow definition
Jasmine is starting her research project on the potential dangers of fracking. Which of the following would probably not be a good place for her to start her library search?
periodical area
If you were to argue that vaccines are generally safe, which of the following forms of rational appeal would be least useful?
primary source information
What is the most effective way to monitor your comprehension of a text while reading?
restating the ideas in your own words
What is the backbone of descriptive writing?
sensory details
Which of the following classifications <i>least</i> suits the needs of its audience? A home goods store manager is trying to organize his wares for his audience of busy, budget conscious shoppers.
length of time the item has been in the store
What pattern of causal analysis is most appropriate for an essay with the following thesis statement? "The U.S. stock market fell in the face of a declining Chinese market and economy, falling oil prices, and a troubled euro."
several causes—one effect
A student is writing a paper to illustrate the violence in first-person-shooter video games. How many examples should the writer include?
several examples of video games
Which of the following is a sufficiently narrowed topic for a five-page paper?
the environmental effects of flushing unused medicine
What should be your two main concerns when evaluating sources?
the expertise of the author and the credibility of the publication
Which of the following is a correct APA-style citation for an article accessed through a database?
Krajewski, K. (2012). "Prosecution and prosecutors in Poland: In quest of independence." Crime and Justice, 41(1). 75-116. doi: 10.1086/666520
Angela wants to write a paper illustrating the many worldwide conventions and rules about women's need to cover their head or hair. Which of the following would be trueof her illustration and writing process?
She should check multiple sources and make sure that she doesn't look at too narrow a range of sources.
Which of the statements is true of the following description? "To me as a child, my Uncle Jim seemed a giant with hands as big as shovels and whose head would brush the ceiling."
The description is ethical because the reader receives adequate clues of deliberate exaggeration.
Mark reads a very detailed description of an ideal vacation escape. What might be a reasonable response for Mark to have of this description?
He should consider what details might have been left out or exaggerated.
Henry is preparing to use interview material in his report on the stresses of college life. Which statement is true?
He should include material from the interview in the sections of the report where it fits best.
Which of the following is the best question to ask in an interview?
How did you get involved in the battle against childhood obesity?
Which of the following would be the least effective question to ask in order to guide your reading?
How long is this reading?
Which of the following questions would be appropriate for a survey on stress experienced by college students?
I have trouble getting adequate sleep most nights: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree
Which of the following is true about reading in college?
It is important to be conscious or aware of the biases or viewpoints that might be guiding what you are reading.
Which of the following best summarizes the guidelines for working with examples?
Make sure the examples directly support your claim and display all the chief features of whatever you're illustrating.
Gerard is doing a research paper on the effect that student loan debt is having on students while they are in school. Which of the following should be his approach to using primary research in his paper?
Primary research would be useful because it would allow him to address more specific questions not in the general news coverage.
Which pre-writing strategy yields a set of sentences that you then look over for writing ideas, and that you form by writing for about five minutes on your general subject, putting down everything that comes into your head, without worrying about grammar, spelling, or punctuation?
freewriting
Writing a paper to illustrate the differences between college classes from high-school classes, and to make the point that college classes can be impersonal, Sue will choose four large lecture classes to illustrate her point. Her audience is composed of high-school seniors. Think about the strategies that Sue should use to choose her examples. Which statement is true?
Because large lecture science classes with labs are atypical and not a part of many students' schedules, Sue should not include lab courses as examples.
Which of the following is true of the reading process?
The title can help you orient to the focus of the material.
Which of the following is true about writing a comparison based on multiple sources?
Use either a block or alternating pattern, as you would with any comparison.
Which of the following approaches to taking notes is appropriate?
Use the strategy of summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting based on how you might use the material in your paper.
Which of the following situations is least likely to require classification?
A paper for a management class demonstrates effective management techniques by presenting cases that show the techniques of successful managers.
What is classification?
Classification breaks a broad topic into categories according to some specific principle, presents the distinctive features of each category, and shows how the features vary among categories.
Which of the following is the correct APA-citation format for a translation?
Derrida, J. (1978). <i>Writing and difference</i>. (A. Bass, Trans.). Chicago: Chicago University Press. (Original work published 1967)
Which of the following would be an appropriate thesis statement for a five-page paper?
Despite the cost, a college education offers an increase in lifelong earnings for graduates that makes it a reasonable investment.
Which of the following is true of writing a process that a reader will perform?
Feedback on what readers should see helps them know they are completing the process correctly.
Trinidy, who is entering a program on recreation leadership, has decided to write a paper that identifies the different ways to relax. Which of the following is true of her project?
She might benefit by making a table of each kind of classification she is proposing and list distinguishing features of the category and detailed examples to help with her pre-writing.
When Jasmine gets to the library, she is a bit stumped about how to focus her topic and get more material because her initial search is not turning up the material she needs. What should she do?
She should go to the library help desk.
Which of the following is the correct APA format for an article in a journal?
Slovic, P. (1987). Perception of risk. Science, 236, 280-285.
Which of the following is the correct APA format for statistical information from an online Canadian statistical website?
Statistics Canada. (2010). Homicide rates by province and territory. Retrieved from http://www40.statcan.ca/lo1/cst01/legal12a-eng.htm.
Jake has written a paper illustrating the gamer lifestyle based on his personal experience as a gamer. He has several examples and he looked hard to define the different kinds of gamers. He has worked hard not to promote a gamer lifestyle and tries to be clear about some of the problems that gamers can experience. Which of the following might be an ethical problem that Jake might need to consider?
While Jake seems to be ethical here, he needs to be careful to avoid creating a negative stereotype of all gamers.
Which of the following situations would be the least likely to involve illustration?
a stranger stopping you on the street to ask for directions to a tourist location
It seems simple to Joe. Reading is boring. He doesn't like to do it, so he doesn't. As a result, he doesn't do well with school. The problem with education, he concludes, is reading. If teachers assigned much less reading, students would do better and learn more. He has decided to write a cause-and-effect paper in which he will argue that reading is the cause of student failure and that decreasing the number of reading assignments would help students learn better. Which of the following is true of Joe's thoughts on the matter and his paper on the topic?
Joe hasn't thought beyond his first impulse, and he therefore failed to uncover the causes and effects that may be involved in the problem.
In writing a paper on science fiction that requires use of APA style, you need to include a quote from Ted Sturgeon that you got from Daniel C. Dennett's Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, New York: Norton, 2013, p. 36. Which of the following correctly uses APA style to quote and cite your source?
Science fiction writer Ted Sturgeon is reported as saying at the 1953 Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention that "Ninety percent of science fiction is crud. But then ninety percent of everything is crud, and it's the ten percent that isn't crud that is important, and the ten percent of science fiction that isn't crud is as good or better than anything being written anywhere" (as cited in Dennett, 2013, p. 36).
Carl is excited about the many hybrid cars on the market today (for example, the Hybrid Ford Explorer) that uses a large battery in conjunction with fuel. He searched the database ArticleFirst for "electric cars" in the term category and found very few articles, mostly about cars like the Tesla, an entirely electric car. What was the problem with Carl's search?
The search term was too narrow.
In APA format, which is the correct in-text citation for general information from Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, New York: Penguin Books, 2012?
Our historical period has shown a decrease in violence due to the influence of a variety of civilizing forces (Pinker, 2012).
What dictates the number of categories that are covered in a classification essay?
circumstances and purpose
Which dominant impression best identifies the following short description? "All the fruit was covered with an unidentifiable green fuzz. The meat seemed to stink like a dead animal that had rotted in the sun. The vegetables in the vegetable drawer had gradually turned into a sticky liquid."
disgust
Which of the following pairs provides the best basis for comparison?
football and hockey as contact sports with physical impacts on players
In addressing those who hold that there should be no limits on the right to bear arms, Steve argues that this right might mean that people could own bazookas, anti-aircraft weapons, ground-to-air missiles, machine guns, and other weapons that most reasonable people think should not be owned by individuals. Therefore, he argues, we must agree that there must be some restrictions on the right to bear arms. Which strategy does this argument use?
reductio ad absurdum
Which of the following is true?
It might be unethical for a writer who extols the pleasure of extreme kayaking to leave out entirely any discussion of the potential hazards.
Joan has to read a textbook selection about the five stages of dying: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages are described as a process. How should Joan approach reading about this process?
She should accept it as probably describing a common sequence of responses but also examine whether some people go through a different process.
Which of the following would be a reasonable topic for an argument?
Should students' payments of student loans after graduation be adjusted to reflect their earnings?
Which of the following is the appropriate APA format for a book with a single author?
Vint, S. (2007). Bodies of tomorrow: Technology, subjectivity, science fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
How is writing different from face-to-face conversation?
When writing, the document is a permanent record of your thoughts that must stand on its own. When conversing, you can revise your thoughts based on immediate feedback from the audience; most often, conversations are not recorded.
Which of the following is an adequate statement of purpose for a writing project?
Write an informative paper to warn college athletes of the potential danger of the excessive use of standard pain medications.
Which of the following statements is true of description?
Writers should select the details that help establish the mood or impression that they want.
The __________ delivers the main message and exhibits a clear connection between ideas so that the reader can easily follow the writer's thoughts.
body
Which of the following terms best describes this organizational plan? I. Cell phones can be used to coordinate activities that would be otherwise difficult to coordinate given students' busy schedules. A. Cell phones can help students find out where a study session is being held. B. Often there is a complex schedule of classes, work, meals, and meetings to organize. C. Cell phones can let members of a team project keep the project on track.
sentence outline
Having a __________ helps you define your audience; select the details, language, and approach that best suit their needs; and avoid going off in directions that won't interest them.
specific purpose
Which of the following is a flawed question for a questionnaire?
Do you think that the rise in the gas tax will hurt consumers and politicians? [] yes[ ] no, On average, how many gallons of gas do you buy a week? [] 0-10 [] 10-20 [] 20-30 [] 30+
Anthony is writing a paper on college tuition. He was fortunate enough to get to interview his college's president. In the interview, the president indicated that he was concerned by the current level of tuition and the rate of increase, but he went on to explain the factors that contributed to that increase, including the decrease in state funding, the increased cost of technologies, and faculty salaries. In reporting on the interview, Anthony wrote that President Grimwood had agreed that student tuition was unacceptably high because of excessive faculty salaries. Which of the following is <i>true</i> of the ethics of his use of the interview information?
It is unethical because the interviewee would not accept the statements attributed to him.
For an English paper, Joe, a criminal justice major, wrote a detailed process analysis on how to make crack cocaine, with all the steps and materials. This is something every law enforcement officer should know, Joe argued with his teacher. He wrote the paper as a process for readers who would perform it. Which of the following is the most likely ethical issue with the process account as described?
It lacks adequate warning about the possible harm.
Tim is doing a paper for his humanities class on the representation of race in movies, especially action movies. The teacher stressed the need to use academic resources. Which of the following databases would be his best choice?
JSTOR
Alan wants to make a political point, so his paper on conservatism defines "conservatism" as a movement that seeks to maintain the status quo and resist change even in the face of changing circumstances. He hopes to use examples such as the history of responses to integration and the recent response to gay marriage to make his point. Which of the following is an ethical issue raised by Alan's approach?
The writer is slanting the definition based on a prejudice.
Which of the following situations would call for writing about causation?
Your employer wants a report on why a certain product's sales have plummeted.
Which of the following topics might be supported by direct observations?
the extent to which the use of cell phones impacts socialization on college campuses
Janice has a lot of information for her paper on airport security and is seeking a tentative organizing strategy. Which of the following is probably her best choice?
the flexible note system
