Exam 2: Before You Write

The cost of using a particular channel is irrelevant when selecting a channel for your message.

During the _____________ phase of the writing process, the writer will research, organize, and compose the message.

Using a clear, simple style of writing that includes everyday words is known as _____________ language.

According to your text, a reader will more likely be impressed by formal, high-level diction than by mid-level diction in a business message.

You work as a buyer for Sport Chek at its head office in Toronto. The regional manager, your boss, has asked you to collaborate with Hans, a co-worker in Sport Chek’s Winnipeg office, to write a report comparing the costs, retail prices, features, customer reviews, sales histories, and other data of the various bicycles that Sport Chek sells. You and Hans agree to work on different sections of the report and then combine the two sections. Hans agrees to get his portion to you a week before the manager has asked for the completed report. -A colleague asks you to read and comment on the first draft of a letter that she is sending to a client. You come to a sentence which reads as follows: Pursuant to the request you indicated in your letter of March 14, I will expedite the mailing of the information forthwith. You suggest that she should revise this sentence. What kind of language has your colleague used?

Business e-mails are less formal than traditional letters or memos, so planning and organization are less important.

According to your text, anticipating how an audience will react to your message happens mostly in the revising phase.

You work as a buyer for Sport Chek at its head office in Toronto. The regional manager, your boss, has asked you to collaborate with Hans, a co-worker in Sport Chek’s Winnipeg office, to write a report comparing the costs, retail prices, features, customer reviews, sales histories, and other data of the various bicycles that Sport Chek sells. You and Hans agree to work on different sections of the report and then combine the two sections. Hans agrees to get his portion to you a week before the manager has asked for the completed report. -After you have finished the first draft of your section of the report, you revise it, shortening some sentences and paragraphs and adding tables, bullets, and numbered lists to communicate some of the information more clearly and concisely. Which of the following characteristics, according to your text, will likely describe your message after you make these changes?

The three-phase writing process outlined in your text places organizing your message in the second (writing) phase.

Even when the receiver of a message may be at fault and we may be justifiably upset or angry, using _________________ language in a message can help us achieve the outcome we desire.

You work as a buyer for Sport Chek at its head office in Toronto. The regional manager, your boss, has asked you to collaborate with Hans, a co-worker in Sport Chek’s Winnipeg office, to write a report comparing the costs, retail prices, features, customer reviews, sales histories, and other data of the various bicycles that Sport Chek sells. You and Hans agree to work on different sections of the report and then combine the two sections. Hans agrees to get his portion to you a week before the manager has asked for the completed report. -Which of the following sentences illustrates effective business writing, as described in your text?

You work as a buyer for Sport Chek at its head office in Toronto. The regional manager, your boss, has asked you to collaborate with Hans, a co-worker in Sport Chek’s Winnipeg office, to write a report comparing the costs, retail prices, features, customer reviews, sales histories, and other data of the various bicycles that Sport Chek sells. You and Hans agree to work on different sections of the report and then combine the two sections. Hans agrees to get his portion to you a week before the manager has asked for the completed report. -When you arrived at work this morning, you checked your calendar. It showed that, as well as your bicycle report, you have several other tasks to complete in the next few days. According to your text, which of the following messages will likely require that you spend the greatest amount of time profiling your audience?

Your text says that instant messaging has replaced e-mail as the channel of choice in some organizations, but that e-mail is still the most widely used channel.

You are re-reading an e-mail you have written, evaluating the message's clarity and conciseness and your choice of words. You are in the ___________ phase of the writing process outlined in your text.

Profiling your audience helps you organize and write your message.

The ability to prepare concise, audience-centred, professional, and purposeful messages comes naturally to most people.

Your text states that in order to emphasize the benefit of a business message for the reader, we need to eliminate all first-person pronouns such as I, my, we, and us.

Your text recommends spending at least 50% of the total time writing the first draft of a message.

Positive language generally conveys more information than negative language.

You work as a buyer for Sport Chek at its head office in Toronto. The regional manager, your boss, has asked you to collaborate with Hans, a co-worker in Sport Chek’s Winnipeg office, to write a report comparing the costs, retail prices, features, customer reviews, sales histories, and other data of the various bicycles that Sport Chek sells. You and Hans agree to work on different sections of the report and then combine the two sections. Hans agrees to get his portion to you a week before the manager has asked for the completed report. -According to your text, which of the following channels do business communicators use most today?