Professional Writing
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
Professional Writing is a course designed to develop students abilities to communicate effectively in diverse workplace and academic settings. It emphasizes the principles and practices of clear, concise, and purposeful writing tailored to specific audiences and contexts. Topics covered include organization of ideas, tone and style, document design, editing, and the use of appropriate formats such as emails, memos, reports, proposals, and digital communications. Through practical assignments and peer review, students learn to produce polished written materials that meet professional standards and support their career goals.
Recommended Textbook
Practical Strategies for Technical Communication 2nd Edition by Mike Markel
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15 Chapters
600 Verified Questions
600 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Technical Communication
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40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/77125
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following forms of delivery is the best one to use if a presenter must clearly communicate precise safety data?
A) impromptu
B) extemporaneous
C) scripted
D) memorized
Answer: C
Q2) In a question-and-answer session, what should you do if you are asked a question you do not understand?
Answer: Ask for clarification. After responding, ask if you have answered the question adequately.
Q3) Chapter 15 describes four types of oral presentations, including impromptu presentations. What are the other three?
A) contemporaneous presentations
B) extemporaneous presentations
C) scripted presentations
D) prescriptive presentations
E) memorized presentations
Answer: B, C, E
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Page 3
Chapter 1: Introduction to Technical Communication
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40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which statement best explains how company branding is related to technical communication?
A) Branding is concerned with making money, and employees are paid to help companies make money.
B) Branding is concerned with the image that a company presents to the world, and that image includes its documents.
C) Branding is largely concerned with color choices, so a document must contain the company's colors.
D) Branding is concerned with slogans, and you might have to write a slogan for your department.
Answer: B
Q2) Chapter 1 mentions a variety of examples of workplace communication. Name four of them.
Answer: Examples include memos, email, wikis, proposals, reports, oral presentations, letters, websites, podcasts, videos, posts on social-networking sites, and newsletter articles.
Q3) As used in Chapter 1, what does accessibility mean?
Answer: Accessibility refers to making the various parts of a document easy for readers to locate.
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Page 4
Chapter 2: Understanding Ethical and Legal Obligations
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Sample Questions
Q1) Your company, Acme Co., is sponsoring a three-hour field day for children at a local park, featuring games, sports, and snacks. Parents must sign up their children online. Your company wants to take pictures of children at the event, but it needs parents' permission. Which option below best describes an ethical way to get parents' permission?
A) At the bottom of the online form, place a checkbox on the online form that reads "I agree to the terms and conditions of the field day" and provide a link to a separate page of terms and conditions. Design the form so that this checkbox is already checked when the parent gets to that page.
B) Provide a link to a separate page of terms and conditions. Have the company lawyers write the terms and conditions in legal language and with citations of relevant laws in case another lawyer reads them.
C) Place a checkbox on the top of the online form, in emphasized type, that reads "I agree to allow Acme Co. to take pictures of my child or children to record and promote field-day activities." Design the form so that this checkbox is not checked when the parent gets to that page.
D) All options are equally ethical.
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 3: Writing Collaboratively
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Sample Questions
Q1) Communicating diplomatically involves a critical tone.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) one advantage of collaboration is that it can yield a more coherent document.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Which of these guidelines will help you listen effectively?
A) Write down everything the speaker says.
B) Ask questions to clarify what the speaker said.
C) Keep your eyes down and avoid distracting the speaker.
D) Allow your mind to wander and trust that you will be able to refocus.
Answer: B
Q4) Chapter 3 discusses three features of word-processing software that are particularly useful in collaboration. Name one feature.
Answer: The three features are the comment, revision, and highlighting features.
Q5) Is email a synchronous or an asynchronous medium of communication?
Answer: Email is an asynchronous medium of communication.
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Chapter 4: Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
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Sample Questions
Q1) Chapter 4 lists seven categories of cultural variables that lie "on the surface." Two of these categories of variables are political and economic. Name two more.
Q2) Social-media searches can provide an organization with significant information about members of their target audiences.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Chapter 4 suggests that, in addition to educational background, you should consider five other individual characteristics of readers. What is one other individual characteristic listed in the chapter?
Q4) which of these is a question you should ask to learn about the primary reader of a document you are writing?
A) What are the reader's political views?
B) What are the reader's cultural characteristics?
C) How many times will the reader read your document?
D) What is the reader's attitude toward the subject?
Q5) Why are LinkedIn profiles a particularly useful resource for learning about one's audience?
Q6) for what primary purpose do private companies use social-media data?
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Chapter 5: Researching Your Subject
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Sample Questions
Q1) Chapter 5 advises researchers to look for information that is current. List two other characteristics of reliable information, according to the chapter.
Q2) Which of the following types of research is least like field research?
A) observations
B) inquiries
C) experiments
D) inspections
Q3) One stage of conducting an experiment is to establish a hypothesis. What is the next stage?
Q4) one disadvantage of a questionnaire is that you cannot be sure the respondents are representative of the population you want to study.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Secondary research is the process of creating technical information yourself, as opposed to collecting information that other people have discovered or created.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What is the difference between secondary research and primary research?
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Chapter 6: Writing for Your Readers
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Chapter 6, one benefit of using a conventional pattern to organize technical information is that the pattern serves as a template or checklist, helping you remember which information to include where. According to the chapter, what is one benefit for your readers?
Q2) Classification is an organizational pattern in which a unit is divided into its components.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Of the options listed below, which is the most effective way to organize a document explaining which of three different trucks your company ought to buy for its fleet?
A) classification
B) comparison and contrast
C) spatial
D) chronological
Q4) In a passive-voice sentence, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed by the verb.
A)True
B)False
Q5) According to Chapter 6, what are the two types of paragraphs?
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Chapter 7: Designing Print and Online Documents
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Sample Questions
Q1) what can you do to make a website easy to navigate?
A) Use "Back to top" links on long pages.
B) Include a site map.
C) Use a table of contents at the top of long pages.
D) All responses are correct.
E) None of the responses are correct.
Q2) The most effective way to distinguish one level of heading from another is to use different sizes of type.
A)True
B)False
Q3) An estimated 50 percent of Internet users are nonnative speakers of English.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A pica is a unit of measurement equal to one-half of an inch.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is chunking?
Q6) What is the difference between a serif typeface and a sans-serif typeface?
Q7) margins serve four main purposes within a document. Identify two.
Q8) In typography, what is leading?
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Chapter 8: Creating Graphics
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Sample Questions
Q1) If a graphic is on the Internet, you may assume that you are free to republish it.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following graphics would be best suited for showing the relative size of parts that make up a whole?
A) photograph
B) table
C) pie chart
D) flowchart
E) organization chart
Q3) A writing team has the six-month sales figures for its company's 14 sales representatives. Because managers must make comparative analyses, the graphic presenting these data must group representatives by region, as well as show each representative's monthly sales total. Which is the best graphic for displaying this information?
A) table
B) logic tree
C) organization chart
D) bar graph
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Page 11
Chapter 9: Writing Correspondence
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Sample Questions
Q1) You are one of four people on a search committee interviewing candidates for a marketing manager position in your department. The Human Resources (HR) department has asked each person on the committee to provide feedback after every interview. The candidate you interviewed this afternoon, Mr. Zoolander, did not seem at ease, and you were disappointed in several of his responses to questions. Which passage would be best to include in your email to the HR department?
A) "I was disappointed with several of Mr. Zoolander's responses to our questions. He did not show that he had thought deeply about the issues our department is facing."
B) "Zoolander is a no-go. Kind of a bug-eyed weirdo if you ask me."
C) "Zoolander almost blew a gasket when I asked him for a specific example of his leadership. And he went to that college on the other side of the state? That's all you need to know right there."
D) "Mr. Zoolander presents a curious case for this committee. I think his nervousness belies his enthusiasm for the position, but one cannot be too sure. I find myself in a position of ambivalence."
Q2) what is one reason to avoid using clichés in correspondence?
Q3) Provide an example of a correspondence cliché.
Q4) What is flaming?
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Page 12
Chapter 10: Writing Job-Application Materials
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Sample Questions
Q1) what should you do after interviewing for a job?
A) Call to express your continued interest in the position.
B) Refrain from taking any action until the interviewer follows up with you.
C) Write a letter or email of appreciation.
D) All responses are correct.
E) None of the responses are correct.
Q2) Chapter 10 lists four questions you should ask before posting your résumé on an Internet job board. One question is "Who has access to your résumé?" What is one of the other questions?
Q3) what is a transferable skill?
A) a skill that you can apply across many different job settings and professional fields
B) a skill that you take when you transfer from one company to the same job in a different company
C) a skill that you develop through attending special training classes
D) a skill that you learn through a mentoring technique called skill-transfer
Q4) Chapter 10 lists four ways to look for a job. One is through a job site on the Internet. Name two of the other ways to look for a job.
Q5) What are the four parts of the body of a job-application letter?
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Chapter 11: Writing Proposals
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the sample internal proposal presented at the end of Chapter 11, what are the authors proposing to do?
Q2) Proposals have two kinds of deliverables. What are they?
Q3) one way to demonstrate professionalism in a proposal is to discuss your work history.
A)True
B)False
Q4) the summary might be the only part of a proposal readers study in their initial review of the document.
A)True
B)False
Q5) proposals are usually written by a single writer.
A)True
B)False
Q6) A solicited proposal is one that you send to a customer who has not requested it.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Which two types of graphic can communicate more information about a task schedule than a table?
Page 14
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Chapter 12: Writing Informational Reports
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these is NOT a typical field report as described by Chapter 12?
A) a report on a visit to a potential building site for an office for a client
B) a report on maintenance performed on a broken piece of machinery in a shop
C) a report on an inspection conducted at a customer's site
D) a report on an experiment conducted in your company's laboratory
Q2) Identify three of the questions you should be sure to answer in a field report.
Q3) Which of the following statements about incident reports is NOT true?
A) Incident reports can be created by filling in report forms.
B) Incident reports often contain graphics and video.
C) Incident reports usually run a few pages long.
D) Specialized types of incident reports go by other names, such as accident reports.
Q4) What is another name for a status report?
Q5) What are common formats for written informational reports?
A) memos
B) reports
C) web pages
D) emails
E) All responses are correct.
Q6) what is the common goal of all informational reports?
Page 15
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Chapter 13: Writing Recommendation Reports
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Chapter 13, the results section of a recommendation report answers the question "What did you see?"
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is the purpose of providing front matter in a report?
A) to help readers understand the whole report and find the information they seek
B) to give readers answers to questions that the body of the report does not cover
C) to help readers know what sources to consult for additional information
D) All responses are correct.
Q3) Which of these would be included in the front matter for a report?
A) the introduction
B) the glossary
C) the executive summary
D) the recommendations
Q4) A feasibility report is an argument that answers three kinds of questions. One kind is questions of possibility. What is one other kind of question?
Q5) In a decision matrix, which factor demonstrates a criterion's importance?
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Chapter 14: Writing Definitions, Descriptions, and Instructions
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Chapter 14, what is the primary way to indicate the nature and the scope of a description?
A) writing an effective title or section heading to precede the description
B) using color cues and formatting changes
C) describing the nature and scope in the introduction to the report
D) creating a sentence definition that mentions the nature and the scope of the description
Q2) What are the four signal words commonly used to indicate the levels of seriousness in comments?
Q3) What technique is used to clarify the term inflammable in this definition: "An inflammable substance is not a substance that cannot catch fire; to the contrary, an inflammable substance catches fire quite easily"?
Q4) What is the function of a conventions section?
Q5) What technique is used in the definition "RADAR originally stood for 'radio detection and ranging,' but these days it is rarely used as an acronym and instead appears as the noun radar"?
Q6) Placing definitions directly in the text is a common practice. According to Chapter 14, what are two other acceptable locations for definitions?
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