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Chapter 4
Principles of Business Communication
Practice Exercises/Practice Quizzes
True/False Questions
F
1. In selecting words for your message, the words that will communicate best
are those slightly above the receiver’s vocabulary level.
F
2. The term bill of sale is an example of obsolete words.
T
3. Verbs are the strongest words in the English language.
F
4. Because of their strong effect on the receiver, you never want to use
negative words in your messages.
T
5. In the U.S., businesspeople prefer concise, efficient, and clear messages.
T
6. A sentence that has unity communicates one main idea—one main
thought.
F
7. For sentence clarity, modifiers in a sentence should be separated from the
word or words limited or described by the modifier.
T
8. A clear relationship between a pronoun and its antecedent means that there
is no question about which word in the sentence is the antecedent.
T
9.
F
10.
A long sentence is one that is 15 words or longer.
T
11.
The basic principle of business communication is the KISS principle.
T
12.
Technical words are sometimes referred to as “jargon.”
F
13.
A thesaurus is available only in book form.
F
14.
Active voice means the sentence is formed in a way to have the subject
acted upon.
F
15.
“Men are 27 percent stronger than women” is an example of biased
language.
A short sentence is easier to understand and more effective than a long
sentence.
Multiple-Choice Questions
a
1.
A sentence structured with the subject as the receiver of the action is
written with
a. passive voice.
b. active voice.
c. objective case.
d. emphasis on the verb.
c
2.
In most business letters, the shortest paragraphs are
a. the middle paragraphs.
b. the paragraphs with the most detail about the topic.
c. the first and last paragraphs.
d. both a and b.
a
3.
Two types of agreement that are important in sentence structure are
between the
a. pronoun and its antecedent.
b. adjective and the noun modified.
c. adverbs and verbs.
d. dependent and independent clauses.
d
4. What emphasis technique is used when you organize two ideas in a
complex sentence, with one idea emphasized in an independent clause and
another de-emphasized in a dependent clause?
a. Format
b. Keywords
c. Length
d. Sentence structure
a
5.
Strong verbs that express action and specific nouns that creat a visual
mind image are sometimes called
a. strong or power words.
b. obsolete words.
c. negative words..
d. redundant words.
a
6.
Emphasizing words by mechanical means
a. special formatting such as boldface, italics, underlines, and color.
b. using strong words instead of weak words.
c. remembering to add “thank you” in the last paragraph of each letter..
d. ending the paragraph by repeating the main idea.
c
7.
In business letters and reports, short paragraphs average
a.
b.
c.
d.
8 to 10 lines.
over one line.
4 to 5 lines.
2 to 3 lines.
d
8. In business reports, long paragraphs have
a. over 6 lines.
b. 6 to 7 lines.
c. 8 lines or more.
d. 12 lines or more.
b
9.
a
10.
Unless there is an important reason to place it elsewhere in a business
letter paragraph, the topic sentence should be
a. in the middle of the paragraph.
b. placed first in the paragraph.
c. the last sentence in the paragraph.
d. omitted from the paragraph.
Three ways to emphasize ideas are by
a. length, location, and sentence structure.
b. repetition, mechanics, and competition.
c. explicitness, strong words, and imprecise meanings.
d. placement at the beginning of a sentence, placement at the end, and
addition of several modifiers of the subject.