Q&A Hero

Q: How can the journalistic approach help you include all required information in you business messages?

Q: You've been asked to prepare a report on whether or not your company should consider other health insurance providers. List four informal techniques for gathering information to include in your report.

Q: Describe at least three of the tasks involved in developing an audience profile.

Q: A positive email announcing a new, more convenient travel reimbursement policy should follow the ________ approach for organizing messages.

Q: No matter how long your message is, you should limit the number of major support points to roughly ________.

Q: The ________ of your message is the range of information you present, the overall length, and the level of detailall of which need to correspond to your main idea.

Q: Your entire message supports, explains, or demonstrates your ________ ________a specific statement about the topic of your message.

Q: Good ________ helps readers understand and accept your message, and saves them time in the process.

Q: In deciding which ________ to use for a message to a manager in another department, you should consider factors such as formality, confidentiality, feedback, time, and cost.

Q: Media ________ is the ability of a medium to convey a message using more than one informational cue, facilitate feedback, and establish personal focus.

Q: ________ refers to the use of two or more media to craft a single message, typically some combination of audio, video, text, and visual graphics.

Q: Speeches, presentations, and meetings are all examples of ________ media.

Q: A good way to test the thoroughness of your message is to use the ________ approach and ask whether the message answers who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Q: During the planning step you need to analyze your ________, including its size and composition, existing knowledge about the subject, and probable reaction to your message.

Q: In addition to having a general purpose, each business message has a (an) ________ purpose.

Q: The three general purposes of business messages are to inform, to persuade, or to ________ with the audience.

Q: The final step in the writing process is ________ your message, which involves revising, producing and distributing it.

Q: Step one of the writing process is ________, in which you analyze the situation, gather information, select the right medium for the message, and organize the information.

Q: To inform coworkers that the project you've all worked on for months has been unexpectedly eliminated, you should use the indirect approach.

Q: If you expect your audience to be receptive to your message, the indirect approach will be most effective.

Q: The indirect approach is best when your audience is likely to be skeptical.

Q: The best time to choose between the direct and indirect approach for organizing messages is before you've decided on the main idea.

Q: "Latest Investment Performance" is an example of a message topic, whereas "Poor Investment Performance Continues" is an example of a main idea.

Q: In determining the main idea of your message, brainstorming is effective as long as you are working alone and not as part of a group.

Q: Poorly organized messages are unlikely to be effective, regardless of their content.

Q: A real drawback of most visual media is that it requires skill to create effective images.

Q: Face-to-face communication is the richest medium.

Q: Media richness refers to the relative costs of advertising in the various mass media.

Q: Despite the advantages of electronic media, the growth of electronic communication options has caused great frustration for many audiences.

Q: Infographics refers to messages that combine powerful visuals with supporting text.

Q: In today's fast-paced environment, traditional business messages rely primarily on graphical elements, with occasional support from text.

Q: As business communication models evolve, the lines separating oral, electronic, and written media have become more distinct and easier to define.

Q: As long as your message is clear and interesting, the medium you choose doesn't really matter.

Q: Messages can be unethical simply because certain details have not been included.

Q: If you provide inaccurate information in a business message, the best course of action is to say nothing and hope that no one notices.

Q: When it comes to business research, online sources generally require more careful evaluation than other types.

Q: Accuracy of information is less important in business communication than in other types of communicationeveryone is busy, and mistakes are simply unavoidable.

Q: A helpful way to test the thoroughness of your message is to use the journalistic approach: asking yourself whether you have covered the who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Q: Skilled communicators include only the information that their audience has specifically requested.

Q: When you get a vague request for information, the best way to handle it is to provide all the information you can and allow the audience to pick and choose what is useful to them.

Q: In the planning stage of an important business report, you should never engage in free writing, since doing so will only confuse you.

Q: One effective informal method for learning more about your audience's information needs is to ask them directly for input.

Q: Your boss has asked you to "find out everything you can about our newest competitor." This should cause you to take a very narrow approach to your research, sticking to official sources for the new competitor.

Q: As long as your message is clear, the size of your audience should not influence the approach you choose to take.

Q: When analyzing your audience, you should ignore everyone except the key decision makers.

Q: No matter how you feel personally about a situation, your communication should reflect your organization's objectives.

Q: Once you have established your purpose, it's best to consider whether it is worth pursuing at this time.

Q: There's nothing wrong with sending a message if your purpose seems unrealistic: you never really know until you try.

Q: Even if nothing will change as a result of your message, you should send it if you believe it is important.

Q: The three general purposes of business messages are to inform, to persuade, and to collaborate.

Q: All business messages have both a general purpose and a specific purpose.

Q: When allocating your time among the three stages of the writing process, you should use about a fourth of the time for planning, half the time for writing, and a quarter of the time for completing.

Q: No one has time to plan messages anymore, so when you need to create one it is best to simply dive right in and begin writing.

Q: Storytelling is A) inappropriate for professional communication. B) acceptable in business, but only for messages organized in the direct approach. C) an effective way to organize messages in a surprising number of business communication scenarios. D) none of the above.

Q: Whatever the length of your message, you should limit the number of major support points to roughly A) two. B) three. C) six. D) ten.

Q: Which of the following is an example of a message topic? A) "To get the board of directors to increase the research and development budget" B) "Competitors spend more than our company does on research and development" C) "Funding for research and development" D) "The research and development budget is inadequate in our competitive marketplace"

Q: Organizing messages effectively helps readers by A) helping them understand the message. B) helping them accept the message. C) saving them time. D) all of the above.

Q: In general, audiences are likely to A) ignore poor organization if the message is important. B) draw inaccurate conclusions from poorly organized messages. C) fully understand most messages, even those that are poorly organized. D) none of the above.

Q: Which of the following is not listed among factors to consider when choosing a medium for your message? A) Urgency B) Cost C) Sender preferences D) Audience preferences

Q: In high-context cultures, ________ media are often more effective than ________ ones. A) leaner, richer B) oral, written C) foreign, domestic D) none of the above

Q: Which of the following media would be best to make a formal introduction to a potential client? A) Email B) Letter C) Blog D) All are equal in formality

Q: Of the following media, which is the richest? A) An electronic slide presentation that includes a series of images that are arranged to persuade the audience to take a specific position B) An interactive website enabling audiences to participate in the communication process C) A presentation on DVD D) A formal business letter

Q: Leaner media are best used for messages that A) are routine. B) are highly emotional. C) are nonroutine. D) require feedback.

Q: As a new supervisor, you need to introduce yourself to your team of ten employees. The best medium for this type of nonroutine message would be A) a face-to-face meeting. B) an email. C) a conference call. D) none of the above.

Q: A key advantage of oral communication is A) the ability to plan and control the message. B) the opportunity to meet an audience's information needs. C) the ability to transmit highly complex messages. D) the opportunity to get immediate feedback.

Q: The richest communication medium is A) a phone call. B) IM. C) an email. D) a face-to-face conversation.

Q: In part, media richness refers to A) the cost of sending a message through a particular medium. B) the popularity of a specific medium. C) a medium's ability to facilitate feedback. D) the difficulties involved with using a particular medium.

Q: VoIP is a A) widely used format for sending documents electronically. B) technology for making telephone calls via the Internet. C) highly technical videoconferencing program. D) type of voice-to-text translation software.

Q: Which of the following media would be best for sending a brief message (requiring no response from your audience) about an upcoming software update? A) Podcast B) Email C) Blog D) Videoconference

Q: Telephone calls are A) completely incapable of conveying nonverbal signals. B) now acceptable only for external communication. C) capable of conveying quite a few nonverbal signals. D) no longer practical when compared to email.

Q: Which media would be best for keeping in touch with a sales team whose members live in several different states? A) Written media B) Oral media C) Electronic media D) Presentations

Q: Choosing the right medium for your message A) is not important as long as the content of your message is accurate. B) is important only when communicating with managers and supervisors. C) is vital for external communication, but not important for internal communication. D) can make an important difference in how your message is perceived.

Q: After sending project cost estimates to a longtime client, you realize you failed to include information on some discount options. The best thing to do is A) take no action. B) blame someone else. C) contact the primary audience immediately and correct the error. D) start looking for a new job.

Q: A good way to test the thoroughness of your business message is to check it for A) a main idea. B) a purpose. C) the who, what, when, where, why, and how. D) accuracy.

Q: When meeting your audience's informational needs, you should emphasize ideas A) of greatest interest to the audience. B) that are uncontroversial. C) that will have the least impact on the audience. D) that don't need supporting evidence.

Q: A knowledge-management system A) helps companies limit the amount of information employees store on the network. B) enables organizations to test employees periodically to ensure they are doing adequate research. C) is a centralized database of experiences and insights of employees throughout an organization. D) is a tool for creating a bibliography when writing long reports.

Q: You're writing a proposal to give permission to some employees at your company to telecommute. You know management will be skeptical, so you should A) be as straightforward as possible about stating your conclusions and recommendations. B) avoid stating your conclusions and recommendations. C) use less evidence in support of your points. D) build your case carefully, stating clear reasons for each conclusion you draw and recommendation you make.

Q: Forecasting your audience's reaction to your message is A) impossiblethere's no way to know what it will be. B) vital, because potential audience reaction affects message organization. C) helpful only for internal communication. D) helpful only for external communication.

Q: Messages should contain supporting detail and background information when A) you expect a favorable response. B) you and your audience do not share the same general background. C) you and your audience share the same general background. D) all of the above are the case.

Q: In general, for internal communication, the higher up your message goes, the A) more details people want to see. B) fewer details people want to see. C) less likely you are to run into ethical problems . D) more likely you are to run into ethical problems.