Chapter One
1) According to the National Commission on Writing, employees “almost always” use which of the following forms of writing?
*different forms of writing including e-mail messages, PowerPoint, memos, letters, and reports
2) The Dartnell Institute of Business Research found that the cost of producing and mailing one letter averages almost:
*$19.92
3) Select the false statement about writing:
- Good writing tells your audience that you can think logically and communicate your thoughts clearly.
- Poor writing reveals that you can neither think clearly nor communicate your thoughts effectively.
- Writing is an extension of your interpersonal communication skills at work.
- Your writing ability will never affect your job performance.
4) Whether you are looking for a job or are already employed, how will you need to communicate to diverse audiences?
*You must adapt to many different channels of communication.
5) What are the three basic communication styles?
*passive, aggressive, assertive
6) What are the characteristics of an aggressive communication style?
* close minded, poor listeners, domineering, bullying, puts down others, bossy, points with jabbing fingers, frown, must win arguments, threatens, are angry and hostile, this leads to wasting time and energy, micromanaging, provokes others.
7) According to the 2006 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, what are the skills employers identify as part of their top ten employee qualities?
* communication skills, honesty/integrity, teamwork skills, strong work ethic, analytical skills, flexibility/adaptability, interpersonal skills, motivation/initiative, computer skills, and detail oriented.
Chapter Three
1. Avoid Commands, Ask Questions, Use Positive Words or Phrases, Involve Your Audience with “You Usage,” Focus on Audience Benefit, Personalize Your Text with Names
2.
- Specialist Audience: work in a field in which they display expertise. They are experts in their field, understand the terminology of their field, require minimal detail regarding standard procedures, read to discover new knowledge, need little background information regarding a project’s history or objectives.
- Semi-specialist Audience: includes coworkers in other departments. Might include bosses, subordinates, or colleagues. Might have been actively involved at one time, but moved towards management and away from hands-on. Someone might be a semi-specialist based on their level of education or how long they have worked in a certain business, company, or corporation.
- Lay Audience: customers and clients who neither work for your company nor have any knowledge about your field of expertise are the lay audience. Communicating to a lay audience is difficult because they don’t know subject matter.
- Multiple Audience: Information is not always communicated to just one type of audience. Your report could be sent to several audiences.
- Multicultural Audience: creates challenges. Some countries require documentation be written in the local language. Each language version must be identical in content, readability, tone, style, and emphasis.
3. Assigning characteristics in your writing that pertain to a certain demographic. If your writing implies that men only do one kind of job and women do another kind, you are stereotyping.
4. Use gender neutral terms.
5. Avoid office documents that are impersonal and negative. Focus on memos that have audience benefits. Avoid biased comments.
Chapter 6
1) Identify what will help you become a clearer writer.
- Perfecting checklist (see page 157)
- Answer who, what, when, where, why, how?
- Delete dead words and “be” verbs
- Use active voice
- Limit sentence length and prepositional phrases
- Reformat text for easy access (highlight, underline, bold)
- proofread
2) Define and identify “passive voice”.
- In passive voice sentences, the subject is acted upon.
- Sometimes, “be” verbs create passive voice sentences.
- Passive voice causes 2 problems:
- Unclear constructions- replace pronouns with precise nouns
- Often wordy- require helping verbs
3) Describe the Gunning Fog index.
- A popular tool for determining readability based on length of sentence and length of word usage
4) Define multisyllabic.
- A word having three or more syllables
- More difficult to understand
- Using more concise words makes communication clearer
5) What will lower the fog index for a document?
- To lower your index score, use shorter sentences and less multisyllabic words
6) Why should you not rely solely on computer spell checks to catch spelling mistakes?
- Miss proper names, homonyms (ex: to, two, too), incorrectly used words(affect vs. effect)
- do not understand context
Chapter 9
1) Identify how Blogs are a unique type of communication channel.
- Encourages random access, casual tone more informal
- ability to reach an influential audience segment
- Quick and Current
- Personalization
- Encourages reader input
2) Identify the characteristics of Online readers.
- topic specific, information quickly, access documents differently
3) Understand and identify the characteristics of e-mail.
- Time- emails are quick they can be delivered within seconds
- Convenience- you can send an email from many types of wireless communicates and you can access your email at anytime
- Internal/ External- email allows you to communicate internally to coworkers or externally to outside vendors and clients
- Cost- email are cost effective beasuce they are paperless so you can send many files without shipping fees
- Documentation email provides a company with an extencie record of messages for fututrew reference
4) Identify the characteristics of E-mail messages written in the workplace.
Email’s lack of privacy and corporate ownership
· Avoid casual, unprofessional tone
· Recognize your audience so you must factor in their level of knowledge
· Identify yourself by name, affiliation, or title
· Provide an effective subject title so your reader won’t delete that email
· Keep your email message brief
· Organize your email
· Use highlighting techniques sparingly
· Proofread your email message
· Make hard copies for future reference
· Be careful when sending attachments
· Practice Netiquette
5) Identify the benefits & characteristics of instant messaging.
Benefits
- increased speed of communication
- improved efficiency for geographically dispersed workgroups
- Collaboration by mult users in different locations
- Real time communication with multiple people at various location
- More personal link than email
- less intrusive than a phone call
- Allows for multitasking
6) Identify the forms of Blogging.
- Vlogs- posting of video blogs
- MP3blogs
- Podcasting- combination of words “Ipod” and “broadcasting”
- Microblogging- brief text, usually less than 200 characters
- Twitter- free micro-blogging service
- Fickr- Site for sharing photos
Chapter 10
1) Why is the audience for memos usually specialist or semi-specialist? Because they are familiar with the work/workplace and the topics that are being discussed.
2) Identify effective subject lines. They must have a topic and a focus
3) What should you do in the memo’s introduction? Get to the point. Write a sentence telling the reader what the topic is and why are you writing.
4) Why is a clear conclusion important in a memo? Because it could motivate your readers or direct them as to what to do next (regarding the topic discussed in the memo)
5) What is the best solution to make sure that every reader will understand the acronyms you use in your memo? Use parenthetical definitions. e.g. Cash In Advance (CIA)
6) What is the BEST example of an informal, friendly tone appropriate for memos? Not use a dictatorial tone, treat people with respect
7) When is chronological organization appropriate in a memo? No Answer found
8) Why is clustering a useful planning activity for writing memos? To organize your points in order of importance.
9) Which question should you consider when clarifying your audience for memos? Whether it is for a single individual or an entire department.
9) Which question should you consider when clarifying your audience for memos?
Is the message for intrabusiness or extrobusiness? Is the person you are writing to a specialist/boss or a co-worker?
10) What are the dangers of writing sloppy or negative letters?
In writing sloppy and/or negative letters you can appear unqualified, and you appear unprofessional. Both of these things could hurt your future business as well.
11) What information belongs in the writer’s address section of a letter?
Your personal/companies address
12) Where is the proper location for the date of the letter?
In the address section under the writer’s address but over the reader’s address.
13) What is the BEST option in a letter if you do not know the receiver’s name?
To begin the address with a job title or the name of the department.
14) What is the most important information to include in the conclusion of your letter of inquiry?
Explain when you need the response with a specific date for action and why you need it at that time.
15) What are the goals of a cover letter?
The goals of a cover letter is to tell the reader up front what they are receiving and focuses the reader’s attention on key points within the enclosures.
16) When rewriting any letter, what ways do you make sure that you have made it reader-friendly?
Does the letter have the essential components, a good introduction, discussion, page layout, organization, and conclusion? Is the letter clear and concise? Does it appropriately access the audience? Is the text grammatically correct?
