Deck 6: Completing Business Messages

Question 1

A piece of writing that scores well on a readability index is not necessarily readable.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

When you have two or more similar ideas to express,make them parallel.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

If you start a sentence with an indefinite pronoun,chances are the sentence can be shortened.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

To reduce words,some writers make liberal use of such directional points as "the latter," "the former," "the aforementioned," and "as mentioned above." The reduction in words this way helps to make the meaning clearer to the reader.

Question 5

You can help clarify your writing by stringing together several short sentences into one long one.

Question 6

When completing a business message,you should evaluate content,organization,style and tone,review for readability,edit for clarity,and edit for conciseness.

Question 7

The most common readability formulas calculate the amount of usage of the 1,000 most often used words in the English language in order to ascertain the readability level of your material.

Question 8

For longer and/or more complex documents it is a good idea to set aside a first draft for a day or two before beginning the revision process.

Question 9

Spell-checkers,grammar-checkers,and computerized thesauruses are taking the place of good writing and editing skills.

Question 10

Professional communicators get their message right the first time and don't need to worry about rewriting.

Question 11

"Visible to the eye" is an example of a redundancy.

Question 12

The subject and predicate of a sentence should be kept as close together as possible.

Question 13

The details given in the middle section of a message have the greatest impact on the audience.

Question 14

Revising simple and informal messages,such as IM's and Text Messages,can take as long as more formal messages.

Question 15

Parallel forms are more difficult to read and skim.

Question 16

The best use of a thesaurus is to find fresh,interesting words that accurately convey your intended meaning.

Question 17

Although readability indexes are easy to apply,they ignore some factors that contribute to reading ease.

Question 18

Grammar,spelling,clarity and other fundamentals of good writing are just as important,or even more important,in electronic media as they are in other written media.

Question 19

Redundancies are useful to readers because repetition leads to better recall of information.

Question 20

To avoid making a judgment in your business messages,you should use as many hedging words (such as may or seems )as possible.

Question 21

Using company document templates ensures a consistent look and feel for all print and online company documents.

Question 22

To make your message more interesting and accessible,use as many design elements and decorative touches as possible.

Question 23

Most information transmitted by internal memo is now sent via email.

Question 24

Sans serif typefaces are preferable to serif typefaces when designing long blocks of text.

Question 25

To add interest to your message,it is a good idea to vary the margins,typeface,type size,and spacing.

Question 26

Most business messages score in the ________________ for readability.

A)first- to fourth-grade level
B)fifth- to sixth-grade level
C)eighth- to eleventh-grade level
D)twelfth- to thirteenth-grade level

Question 27

For all the technological advances in communication,there is still no way of attaching a spoken message or other sound to particular places in a document.

Question 28

While restraint is important in conveying your message without too much enthusiasm,it is important,in the design of your documents,to make them as interesting as possible with lots of highlighting,a variety of different fonts,and lots of imagery.

Question 29

Which one of the following typo errors is probably more likely to be forgiven?

A)In a financial report
B)In a contract
C)In a team memo
D)In a medical report
E)In a press release.

Question 30

Memos are often distributed within the organization's own environment without sealed envelopes and therefore are less private than most other message formats like IM,texting,emailing,and voice-messaging.

Question 31

To avoid wasting paper and to get as much important information on a page as possible,you should keep all margins narrow and fill any potential blocks of white space.

Question 32

Typefaces have personality,and a sans serif typeface is friendly.

Question 33

The problem with collaborative review of documents is that once participants have made a change to the original document it is saved with the new iterations and it is difficult to return to the original copy to see where the differences in the revisions are and who made them.

Question 34

When editing for content and organization,pay special attention to _____________

A)grammar and usage.
B)punctuation and spelling.
C)the beginning and ending of the message.
D)style and tone.

Question 35

"Visible to the eye" is an example of _____________

A)a cliché.
B)redundancy.
C)the passive voice.
D)obsolete language.

Question 36

The look of your document is not really very important because it is really the content that solely indicates your professionalism and ability to state your message.

Question 37

Because computers have become so powerful,grammar checkers can easily determine whether your document states your message correctly and communicates it clearly.

Question 38

Starting a sentence with "It" or "There" is _____________

A)using an indefinite pronoun starter.
B)perfectly acceptable,and you need not try to rewrite the sentence.
C)a sign of the active voice being used.
D)using a prepositional phrase to begin a sentence.

Question 39

Spell checkers are the only tool you need to guarantee error-free documents.

Question 40

Which are the most common type sizes for regular text in a document?

A)8 and 9 point
B)8 and 10 point
C)9 and 12 point
D)14 and 16 point
E)10 and 12 point

Question 41

A spellchecker ____________

A)compares your document with an electronic dictionary.
B)comes in English only.
C)identifies and corrects all spelling errors within a document.
D)automatically rewrites paragraphs for improved readability.

Question 42

Camouflaged verbs are those that have been changed into nouns or adjectives.

Question 43

When it comes to proofreading your documents _____________

A)use a methodical approach to help you find errors.
B)it's okay to let a few mechanical errors slip through,since the content is what counts.
C)you should focus primarily on grammar and spelling;it's too late to do anything about the design or format.
D)it's OK to review quickly if you have done a thorough job editing.

Question 44

A modifier is said to be dangling when it has no real connection to the subject of the sentence.

Question 45

When selecting typefaces for a business document _____________

A)use a typeface that conveys the right personality for the situation.
B)make generous use of such styles as all caps,underlines,and boldface.
C)choose a nice sans serif face for your main body text.
D)all of the above.

Question 46

Headings and subheadings serve these important functions: ____________

A)organization,attention,connection.
B)organization,hedging,connotation.
C)organization,sequence,flow.
D)sequence,flow,attention.

Question 47

Using white space in a document _____________

A)is considered "cheating."
B)is only an option when you can't use colour.
C)makes your document look unappealing.
D)provides contrast.

Question 48

Serif typefaces are preferable to sans serif faces for _____________

A)display treatments.
B)headings and captions.
C)large blocks of text.
D)none of the above.

Question 49

Justified type will _____________

A)darken your message's appearance by its density of type.
B)lighten your message's appearance by allowing white space to be equally distributed in the document.
C)focus attention to your message by the smooth visual effect it provides.
D)create more white space inside your content field.

Question 50

Which of the following sentences contains a camouflaged verb?

A)"Some do;others don't."
B)"She is the office manager but also serves as ad manager."
C)"It is John's recommendation that she be hired."
D)"He slowly,deliberately added the numbers."

Question 51

You use a readability index to give you a rough idea of how educated your audience must be to read your message.

Question 52

What is wrong with the following sentence? "Walking to the office,a red sports car passed her."

A)It lacks parallelism.
B)It contains a dangling modifier.
C)It contains an awkward pointer.
D)It is grammatically correct as written.

Question 53

In the first phase of editing,you should pay particular attention to the beginning and end of the message.

Question 54

A grammar checker _____________

A)scans visual images into your computer.
B)highlights phrases in passive voice.
C)suggests correct spelling.
D)helps you find just the right word for a given situation.

Question 55

With parallel construction,two or more similar ideas are expressed with the same grammatical pattern.

Question 56

To create a pleasing document design _____________

A)take readability formulas into account.
B)use as many decorative touches as possible to make the pages look more interesting.
C)be consistent when using recurring design elements,spacing,and type.
D)all of the above.

Question 57

Word combinations that are needlessly repetitive are called redundancies .

Question 58

"The above-mentioned book" is an example of _____________

A)a redundancy.
B)what will be a strung-out sentence.
C)an indefinite pronoun starter.
D)an awkward reference.

Question 59

A grammar checker cannot tell _____________

A)the difference between passive and active voice.
B)whether a sentence is long or short.
C)whether your document communicates clearly.
D)any of the above.

Question 60

A(n)hedging sentence uses words such as may and seems to avoid stating a judgment or fact.

Question 61

Rewrite the following sentence to eliminate redundancies: "The engineers collaborated together in order to produce the uniquely original final outcomes of their research."

Question 62

A computer thesaurus gives you alternative words.

Question 63

Rewrite the following sentence to improve clarity and avoid the long noun sequence: "The financial estimates and accounting consulting firm will be closed next week."

Question 64

Rewrite the following sentence to avoid camouflaged verbs: "The manager will make a determination about when the payment of refunds will occur."

Question 65

When you begin the revision process,focus your attention on content,organization,style,and tone.

Question 66

Briefly explain what the opening of a document should accomplish.

Question 67

Rewrite the following sentence to remove the dangling modifier: "Lying next to the filing cabinet,the office manager found the financial report."

Question 68

Space on a page that is free of text or artwork is called white space.

Question 69

Using a(n)spell checker is a wonderful way to weed out major typos,but you can't use it to replace good spelling skills.

Question 70

A(n)template,often provided by a company for consistency,is a standard format with preset aspects of page design such as margins,headings,paragraphs,etc.and will save time during production of a document.

Question 71

Conclusions should accomplish what two tasks?

Question 72

Explain at least three of the steps involved in editing documents for clarity.

Question 73

Explain why editing for conciseness is important and then list the four steps it involves.

Question 74

Rewrite the following sentence to be more concise by using short,simple words: "Effective immediately,all employees need to terminate their excessive utilization of the office duplication machine for personal affairs and activities."

Question 75

What three functions do headings serve in business documents? Explain each one.

Question 76

Briefly describe at least three advantages of using lists in business documents.

Question 77

Rewrite the following sentence to eliminate the unnecessary phrases: "In view of the fact that the customer service department is closed,we do not have the capability of offering refunds until such a time as they reopen."

Question 78

Serif typefaces have small crosslines at the ends of each letter stroke.

Question 79

Describe at least three types of software tools that can help you revise and polish a document.

Question 80

List four characteristics of effective document design.