Deck 3: Planning, Composing, and Revising

Question 1

Which of the following guidelines is LEAST likely to produce good writing?

A)Have several different strategies to choose from.
B)Have clear goals focusing on purpose and audience.
C)Use rules as guidelines that can be broken.
D)Edit everything as soon as it is written.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which fraction of your total writing time should you plan to spend on planning and organizing?

A)One-tenth
B)One-fifth
C)One-third
D)One-quarter

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following strategies will enhance your style?

A)Clearly separate the subject and verb in long sentences
B)Always edit sentences for tightness, even short ones
C)Use long sentences when your subject matter is complicated or full of numbers
D)Use short sentences to create repetition

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Melanie decides that the data section of her report is weak, so she adds two graphs and explanatory details.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Revising
D)Editing

Question 5

Ben chooses a pattern of organization before he begins a letter.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Getting feedback
C)Brainstorming
D)Editing

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT something to check during a thorough revision?

A)Style and tone
B)Organization
C)Punctuation and spelling
D)Content and clarity

Question 7

Henri's teachers have told him that he has a problem with wordiness, so he goes through each line carefully, looking for places he can tighten his writing.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Revising
D)Editing

Question 8

Amy analyzes her audience to determine how much company history she will need in her report.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Evaluating
D)Editing

Question 9

Before writing a recommendation report to the CEO, Dee and Yossie distribute a survey to everyone in their company to determine which new benefits employees are most interested in.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Evaluating
D)Editing

Question 10

Which of the following strategies will enhance web-based writing?

A)Try to be cute and clever, to maintain interest
B)Tell readers "click here," to enhance clarity
C)Incorporate as many hyperlinks as possible, to appear knowledgeable and well-connected
D)Make each page independent, to facilitate entry from anywhere in the site

Question 11

The problem with the sentence "CLECs exist in many markets" in a letter to the general public is:

A)CLEC has a negative connotation.
B)CLEC is emotionally charged.
C)CLEC has many possible denotations.
D)CLEC is technical jargon.

Question 12

In which part of the writing process is it most important to know the rules of grammar and punctuation?

A)Editing
B)Revising
C)Proofreading
D)Every part of the process

Question 13

"It is the case that good communicators advance more quickly in the company." Which of the following would be the best revision of this sentence?

A)"It is the case that those who communicate well advance more quickly in the company."
B)"It is true that good communicators advance rapidly in the company."
C)"Evidence has shown that good communicators quickly advance in the company."
D)"Good communicators advance more quickly in the company."

Question 14

Which of the following strategies is likely to create successful writing for the web?

A)Get to the point
B)Write for search engines more than for readers
C)Maintain the same document lengths that you have in hard-copy documents
D)Make sure you always use full sentences

Question 15

Which of the following writing strategies is NOT appropriate for writing to strangers?

A)Use abbreviations in email messages if they're part of the reader's business culture
B)Use grammatically correct sentence structures
C)Avoid formality, in order to establish a friendly relationship
D)Avoid clichés, in order to sound interesting and original

Question 16

Which of the following statements does NOT accurately describe the process known as "cycling"?

A)It's usually only used for internal documents
B)It's a fact of life in business, government agencies, and non-profit organizations
C)It's a useful way of getting feedback
D)It can usefully incorporate directed questions for readers about particular drafts

Question 17

When Jacob realizes that his persuasive memo doesn't counteract the most obvious probable objections, he adds two additional paragraphs.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Revising
D)Editing

Question 18

Which of the following strategies will improve your style, making it vivid and vigorous?

A)Read widely and write a lot
B)Read your draft silently to yourself, in full
C)Rely on your own judgment far more than on others' feedback
D)Try to maintain your existing sentence structures, wherever possible

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT a good strategy for dealing with a company that seems to have horrible "in house" style preferences?

A)Recognize that the company's preferred style may serve purposes other than communication.
B)Use good stylistic techniques to demonstrate good writing and possibly change readers' minds mind.
C)Don't ask your supervisor whether s/he actually endorses these preferences.
D)Help others in the company learn about good writing by sharing resources and research with them.

Question 20

Jaye realizes that she has used the word "your" when she meant "you're," so she replaces her original word with the correct term.What part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Revising
D)Editing

Question 21

Choose the alternative that corrects the error in parallelism in the following: "To de-emphasize negative information, you should minimize negative words, state information positively, and sometimes if the negative really isn't important you can eliminate it."

A)You should minimize negative words, state information positively, and, if the negative really isn't important, you can eliminate it.
B)You should minimize negative words, state information positively, and eliminate unimportant negatives.
C)You should minimize negative words, state information positively, and eliminating unimportant negatives can help.
D)You should eliminate negative words, state information positively, and you can eliminate unimportant negatives.

Question 22

Which of the following sentences exhibits the best style?

A)We need to take into consideration the data that are in the most recent report in order to make a decision.
B)We need to consider the data that are in the most recent report in order to make a decision
C)We need to consider the data that the report contains in order to decide.
D)We need to consider the data contained in the report in order to decide.

Question 23

Which of the following statements is true about connotation?

A)It is the same for everyone who speaks the language.
B)It does not merit much consideration.
C)It can substantially change the meaning of a message.
D)It never changes over time.

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT a good reason to use long sentences?

A)To show how ideas are linked to each other
B)To impress your audience
C)To avoid too many short, choppy sentences
D)To reduce repetition

Question 25

"Editing" and "revising" are interchangeable terms.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT true of passive verbs?

A)Passive verbs can be used to emphasize the object, rather the agent.
B)Passive verbs can be used to avoid assigning blame.
C)Passive verbs are useful in very formal or official sounding documents.
D)Passive verbs can help provide coherence when they introduce familiar information at the beginning of a sentence.

Question 27

Which one of the following effectively uses second person pronouns?

A)They can begin to work on their marketing strategy after they meet with the client.
B)I can begin to work on my marketing strategy after I meet with the client.
C)We can begin to work on our marketing strategy after we meet with the client.
D)You can begin to work on your marketing strategy after you meet with the client.

Question 28

Which of the following sentences uses an active verb, rather than a passive verb?

A)The report will be finished before the meeting.
B)The report should be finished before work begins.
C)The report will explain the project details.
D)The report was submitted last week.

Question 29

Which of the following is NOT a strategy for tightening your writing?

A)Combine sentences to eliminate wordiness.
B)Start sentences with "There are" or "It is."
C)Eliminate words that say nothing.
D)Put your core meaning into the subject and verb of your main clause.

Question 30

As they read a draft of their formal report, Lee, Anne, and Akuru realize that sometimes they have used the word "there" correctly, and sometimes the word should be "their." They use their word processor's "find" feature to help them locate all the places they used "there," so they can determine if it is correct or not.Which part of the writing process does this activity represent?

A)Planning
B)Gathering
C)Revising
D)Editing

Question 31

Which of the following is generally NOT good style in business writing today?

A)The use of personal pronouns
B)A formal style traditionally favored in college and university
C)The use of active verbs
D)A conversational style

Question 32

Choose an ending that correctly uses parallelism to complete this sentence: "The best writers are flexible, realistic, and _____."

A)write regularly
B)they use editing
C)will use the writing process
D)practical

Question 33

Which of the following does NOT represent the best word choice in writing?

A)Accurate denotation
B)"Businessese" when writing within the business community
C)Appropriate connotation
D)Technical jargon when writing to a technical audience

Question 34

To get the best feedback on your writing, avoid telling readers which aspects of a draft you'd like comments about.

Question 35

Which of the following was NOT a trait of James Suchan and Robert Colucci's "high-impact" version of a memo report?

A)Short paragraphs with headings
B)Active verbs and concrete language
C)Simple sentences in normal word order
D)"Bottom line" (purpose of the report) clarified in the final paragraph

Question 36

Good writers aim for perfection in the first draft.

Question 37

Where should the topic sentence of your paragraph be located?

A)At the beginning of the paragraph
B)At the end of the paragraph
C)Anywhere in the paragraph
D)A topic sentence is not necessary

Question 38

Which of the following sentences relies only on active verbs?

A)It will be compiled this month.
B)Trained professionals conducted this research.
C)It has been shown that reading screens is 25% slower than reading from paper.
D)The research could be submitted for publication this spring.

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT one of the traits of a good topic sentence?

A)A good topic sentence forecasts the structure of a paragraph.
B)A good topic sentence is implied, rather than being explicitly stated.
C)A good topic sentence is placed at the beginning of the paragraph.
D)A good topic sentence prepares the reader for the content that follows.

Question 40

Research shows that all good writers use the same processes.

Question 41

Often you'll get the best revision by not even using your first draft: set it aside, get a blank page or screen, and redraft.

Question 42

Writing intended for the web should formal in tone and style.

Question 43

The eight activities of the writing process should always be done in a set order.

Question 44

Use a long word if it is more familiar than a short word.

Question 45

Word processing software has raised readers' expectations of documents, and has therefore led to more in-depth and specific feedback from readers.

Question 46

Situational factors like audiences influence how rigid writing "rules" actually are.

Question 47

Writers have the right to package their ideas as attractively as possible, even if that means omitting key information.

Question 48

Only poor writers need to revise.

Question 49

Many letters and memos can be written more quickly if you choose a basic organizational pattern before you begin.

Question 50

A planning guide can help you customize the basic patterns of organization typically used in business and administrative communication.

Question 51

Poor writers seem to use different processes than good writers.

Question 52

Proofreading should be done after you finish revising and editing.

Question 53

Brainstorming requires evaluation of each idea before writing the next idea.

Question 54

Clustering is a visual method for organizing your ideas during the planning stage of the writing process.

Question 55

Spell checkers have eliminated the need for proofreading.

Question 56

It is unnecessary to alter the stylistic formality of various business documents; the same level of formality will always suffice.

Question 57

Relying more on active verbs than on nouns make your writing more forceful.

Question 58

It is much faster to read on a screen than on paper, which means that web writers should feel free to develop their ideas over a lot of space.

Question 59

First-rate writing can be produced even if the writer does not use all eight activities in the writing process.

Question 60

You should always avoid passive verbs.

Question 61

Jill is _____ her draft when she rereads it as though someone else had written it to see how it fulfills the requirements of the audience and the situation.

Question 62

_____ means making sure the final copy is free from typographical errors.

Question 63

Promotional material can productively use ________________ instead of grammatically complete sentences.

Question 64

______ is a method of thinking of ideas by writing the central topic in the middle of the page and circling it, then writing down the ideas the topic suggests and circling them, and finally looking for connections.

Question 65

A gerund, such as the word _____ in the sentence "Writing requires practice and a willingness to work through the process," can help to make sentences smoother and more conversational.

Question 66

The thinking Jill does about how to achieve her purposes in her memo on the new bonus plan is called _____.

Question 67

When two people use the same word to denote different things, _____ occurs.

Question 68

Getting the data you need to write a memorandum, including pulling a memo from your files or doing library research, is called _____.

Question 69

Words that indicate the nature of the connections between ideas and sentences are called ___________.

Question 70

The process of drafting, getting feedback, revising, and getting more feedback is called _____.

Question 71

When you generate as many ideas as you can without judging or evaluating them, you are _____.

Question 72

Tightening your writing should always result in a shorter document.

Question 73

Words that are overused and no longer alive are sometimes called ______________.

Question 74

_____ means putting items in a series or list in the same grammatical structure.

Question 75

Most writers edit more accurately from a printed copy of a document, rather than from a screen.

Question 76

A verb that explains what the subject IS DOING (rather than what is done to is) is the following kind of verb: _________.

Question 77

You are _____ when you write without stopping for 10 minutes or so, even if all you write is "I'll think of something soon."

Question 78

The noun phrase "take into consideration" would be much more effective rewritten as the verb _____.

Question 79

Good business writing is mimics _____ instead of academic writing, and is less formal today than was traditionally expected.

Question 80

The word "you" is classified as __________ person.