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The Business Writing Process

Subjects : writing-skills, business-skills

Instructions:

Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.

1. What are Individual Contexts
Garbled Sentences
Organizational - Professional - Personal
Define the Problem - Consider the Audience and their Individual Contexts - Consider your own Contexts - Best Way to Achieve message;
Recursive

2. What is the best advice for Drafting?
Date - To - From - Subject Headings
Long Dashes
Be Flexible - Avoid Perfectionism - Keep Going - Keep making progress
Connotation

3. A sentence that is so tangled with structural and grammatical problems that it cannot be repaired - often result from trying to include too many ideas in one sentence.
Garbled Sentences
Past Correspondence - Employees - Records - Warranties - Product Descriptions - Survey - Interviews
Revision - Editing - Proofreading
Information needed for short report

4. What should you know about a Letter?
Wordiness
Purpose - Format - Composition
Sentence Variety
Idioms

5. How do you know what to include in your message?
Your audience is the best guide for What and How
Things to think through when planning a website
Be Flexible - Avoid Perfectionism - Keep Going - Keep making progress
Define the Problem - Consider the Audience and their Individual Contexts - Consider your own Contexts - Best Way to Achieve message;

6. Plan what you are going to say - polish what you wrote before you sent it - proofread everything

7. Places the reader's interest and perspective foremost. It is based on the principle that most readers are naturally more concerned about their own needs than they are about those of a writer or a writer's organization - often means using the words y

8. When to use Instant Messaging?
Be Flexible - Avoid Perfectionism - Keep Going - Keep making progress
Things to think through when planning a website
Stress Brevity - uses abbreviations - Convey ideas completely - minimal need for response - Telephone message - but in writing.
Information the reader will want - put it first.

9. Am I giving the reader too much or too little info? - does this point belong here? - is this point relevant? - am I repeating or contradicting myself? - have I ended appropriately?
Procedures
Proper Conversation - Personal Pronouns/Contractions - Sentences are Short - Organized - Well Structured;
Use Direct Pattern if positive - Use Indirect Pattern if neutral or negative; State Objective - ALWAYS Consider Audience and Purpose
Key draft questions

10. Casual
Slang; Colloquialisms - Contractions - Short Sentences - for close friends only
Characteristics of job-related writing
Main parts of instructions
Key draft questions

11. Understand and agree on the important goals - organization - and deadlines for the report - Establish group rules early on and stick to them - Put the good of the group ahead of individual egos - Agree on the group's organization - Identify each mem
Direct Statements
Three P's for success in writing a memo
Helps include all important information; Makes you more willing to revise
Guidelines for successful group writing

12. Means that extraneous words - phrases - clauses - and sentences have been removed from writing without sacrificing clarity or appropriate detail.
Gathering and Collecting Information - Analyzing and Organizing Information - Choosing the Form - Channel - and Format of the Message
Keep Distance between Writer and Reader - Avoid Personal References/Contractions - Longer Sentences - for people of Higher Status
Conciseness
Direct Statements

13. What types of research is done in gathering information?
Telegraphic Style
Ethics in Business Writing
Past Correspondence - Employees - Records - Warranties - Product Descriptions - Survey - Interviews
Procedures

14. The relationships among ideas are clear to readers. A logical sequence of related ideas and clear transitions between these ideas.
Gathering and Collecting Information - Analyzing and Organizing Information - Choosing the Form - Channel - and Format of the Message
Cut out nonessentials - Minimize references to Previous Communications
Coherent writing
Cautiously i.e. BTW: by the way

15. Words and expressions that offend because they make inappropriate assumptions or stereotypes about gender - ethnicity - physical or mental disability - age or sexual orientation.
Most Important Information First - and then Descending Order
Your audience is the best guide for What and How
Ethics in Business Writing
Biased Language

16. Put instructions is correct order - right amount of information only - group closely related items into 1 step - give reader hints on how to best accomplish task - state when 1 step affects another - insert graphics where needed
Recipient's Name and Introduce Yourself
Goal of a letter of application
Abstract words
Rules for writing instructions

17. What is Direct Order?
'You Viewpoint'
Sentence Variety
Most Important Information First - and then Descending Order
Information the reader will want - put it first.

18. What are Cons of Email?

19. Modifiers that repeat an idea implicit or present in the word being modified contribute to wordiness by being redundant (basic essentials - final outcome) - Coordinated synonyms (each and every - first and foremost.) - Expletives - relative pronouns
Cliches
Past Correspondence - Employees - Records - Warranties - Product Descriptions - Survey - Interviews
Wordiness
Euphemismss

20. When should email NOT be used?
Business Writing Style
Long - Complicated - Requires Negotiation - Questions/Info need clarification/discussion - Info Confidential/Sensitive - Requires Security - Could be Misinterpreted - Emotionally Charged - Requires Tone of Voice - Sent to Avoid - Contains Sensitive I
Proper Conversation - Personal Pronouns/Contractions - Sentences are Short - Organized - Well Structured;
Instructions

21. The attitude a writer expresses toward the subject and his or her readers. May range depending on purpose etc.
Conciseness
Business Writing Style
Information the reader will want - put it first.
Tone

22. What is a Memorandum?
Past Correspondence - Employees - Records - Warranties - Product Descriptions - Survey - Interviews
Characteristics do employers like to see in a resume
Internal Letters. Sometimes classified as Reports
Three P's for success in writing a memo

23. Used to show - by the structure of a sentence - the appropriate relationship between ideas of unequal importance.
Cut out nonessentials - Minimize references to Previous Communications
Proper Conversation - Personal Pronouns/Contractions - Sentences are Short - Organized - Well Structured;
Long Dashes
Subordination

24. Conciseness
Figures of Speech
'You Viewpoint'
Use Direct Pattern if positive - Use Indirect Pattern if neutral or negative; State Objective - ALWAYS Consider Audience and Purpose
Cut out nonessentials - Minimize references to Previous Communications

25. An inoffensive substitute for a word or phrase that could be distasteful - offensive - or too blunt.
Euphemismss
Attractive and Readable Format
Be Flexible - Avoid Perfectionism - Keep Going - Keep making progress
Eliminates phone tag - saves time - facilitates fast decisions - cheap - provides written record

26. Clairty
Outlining
Strive for Concreteness - Vigor - Precision - Short sentences and paragraphs
Main parts of internal proposals
Things to think through when planning a website

27. Stages can also be summarized as...
Direct Statements
What do you want to say - Say It - Say it Better
'You Viewpoint'
Write Correctly so others will not think you are stupid or lack credibility

28. How is formatting important?
Direct Statements
It is integral in how your audience will receive and accept the information.
Four keys to effective writing
Characteristics of job-related writing

29. Why Avoid Perfectionism in Drafting?
Key draft questions
Helps include all important information; Makes you more willing to revise
Main parts of internal proposals
Recipient's Name and Introduce Yourself

30. To set you apart from the others; show that you have customized your resume for that company/job opening
Characteristics do employers like to see in a resume
Short report
Goal of a letter of application
Past Correspondence - Employees - Records - Warranties - Product Descriptions - Survey - Interviews

31. Use to call attention to a particular word or statement --
Connotation
Long Dashes
It is integral in how your audience will receive and accept the information.
Business Writing Style

32. How do you begin the message?

33. What are three levels of Editing?
Recursive
Sentence Length
Revision - Editing - Proofreading
Connotation

34. Formality Considerations
Casual - Informal - or Formal
Strategy and Humanness
It is integral in how your audience will receive and accept the information.
Wordiness

35. How to end an email
Four keys to effective writing
Your Name - Closing Statement such as Thanks - Regards in more formal messages
Your audience is the best guide for What and How
Repetition

36. Introduction - list of materials - actual steps - warnings - cautions - and notes - conclusion when necessary
Repetition
Subordination
Gathering and Collecting Information - Analyzing and Organizing Information - Choosing the Form - Channel - and Format of the Message
Main parts of instructions

37. The ___________ of a word are its meanings and associations beyond its literal definitions - words often have particular connotations for audiences within professional groups and organizations
Sentence Length
similar
Connotation
Selecting the proper medium

38. Repeating keywords and key phrases
Information needed for short report
Repetition
Slang; Colloquialisms - Contractions - Short Sentences - for close friends only
Use Direct Pattern if positive - Use Indirect Pattern if neutral or negative; State Objective - ALWAYS Consider Audience and Purpose

39. An imaginative expression that often compares two things that are basically not alike but have at least one thing in common.
Long Dashes
Figures of Speech
Your audience is the best guide for What and How
Instructions

40. Purpose - findings - conclusion - and recommendations
Represent writer and topic formally to recipient. Correspondence with People Outside the your organization.
Information needed for short report
Visualize Readers - Keep their interests in mind - List Pertinent Facts - Brainstorming - Diagrams
Rules for writing instructions

41. Less formal than in the past - Varies from conversational style - The use of personal pronouns is important - In emails etc. something between conversational & business writing should be used - Only use we when it is company policy
Denotaion
Business Writing Style
Date - To - From - Subject Headings
Helps include all important information; Makes you more willing to revise

42. Identifying your audience - Establishing your purpose - Formulating your message - and Selecting your style (how something is written rather than what is written) and tone (expresses your attitude toward your topic and audience)
Four keys to effective writing
Proper Conversation - Personal Pronouns/Contractions - Sentences are Short - Organized - Well Structured;
Biased Language
Main parts of a set of instructions

43. What is current emphasis on for a Letter?
Strategy and Humanness
Get Feedback From Others!
Position
Stress Brevity - uses abbreviations - Convey ideas completely - minimal need for response - Telephone message - but in writing.

44. Words or phrases that suddenly become popular and - because of an intense period of overuse - lose their freshness and precisness - E.g. interface (as a verb) - impact (as a verb) - skill sets - deliverables - slam dunk - bleeding edge - cash cow - 2
Conciseness - Clarity - Etiquette - Correctness
Proper Conversation - Personal Pronouns/Contractions - Sentences are Short - Organized - Well Structured;
Conciseness
Buzz Words

45. Introduction; list of equipment and materials; steps for your instructions; warnings - cautions - and notes; conclusion
Outlining
Instructions
Main parts of a set of instructions
Get Feedback From Others!

46. Provide practical info - give facts - not impressions - provide visuals to clarify - give accurate measurements - stating responsibility precisely - persuading and offering recommendations
Active Voice
Characteristics of job-related writing
Conciseness
Outlining

47. Honesty - attractive - carefully organized - concise accurate - current information - relevance
Guidelines for effective business e-mail messages
Characteristics do employers like to see in a resume
Recursive
Stress Brevity - uses abbreviations - Convey ideas completely - minimal need for response - Telephone message - but in writing.

48. What is critical to a message's success?
Attractive and Readable Format
Outlining
Guidelines for successful group writing
Conciseness - Clarity - Etiquette - Correctness

49. The use of language that is more formal - technical - or showy than necessary to communicate information to the reader.
Wordiness
Affectation
'You Viewpoint'
Connotation

50. The skeleton of the document you are going to write--structures your writing by ensuring that it has a beginning - middle - and end.Types: topic outlines - sentence outlines etc.
similar
Business Writing Style
Outlining
Wordiness