 |
| 1 | |
There are five basic steps to follow when you are writing a report. Which of the following is NOT one of them? |
| | A) | Define the problem. |
| | B) | Gather the necessary data and information. |
| | C) | Analyze the data and information. |
| | D) | Ask your client to review the project. |
|
|
|
| 2 | |
Often the problem statement for a report needs to be narrowed. For example, "Improving advertising to children" is much too broad. Which of the following ideas is NOT an option to help you narrow this topic? |
| | A) | Choose one type of product or one advertising medium. |
| | B) | Identify the specific problem. |
| | C) | Create a survey to give to every parent whose child has been influenced by advertising in the past year. |
| | D) | Identify the specific audience with the power to implement your recommendations, such as the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. |
|
|
|
| 3 | |
A good purpose statement makes three aspects of your report clear. Which of the following is NOT one of them? |
| | A) | The documentation and citations you will use in composing the report. |
| | B) | The organizational problem or conflict. |
| | C) | The specific technical questions that must be answered to solve the problem. |
| | D) | The rhetorical purpose in terms of audience benefits. |
|
|
|
| 4 | |
One of the best ways to strengthen your credibility as the author of a report is to |
| | A) | Bypass the top few results of a Google search and use sources from the third or fourth page of the search results instead. |
| | B) | Consult more sources than is really necessary to get the information you need. |
| | C) | Have a research plan before you start doing research for the report. |
| | D) | Avoid using information from any sources that have a marketing purpose. |
|
|
|
| 5 | |
What unique ability does a human researcher have that adds value to the results of a Google search for information? |
| | A) | The ability to specify which corporate or industry association sites to search. |
| | B) | The ability to evaluate content. |
| | C) | The ability to manipulate keywords. |
| | D) | The ability to focus exclusively on the results of the Google search. |
|
|
|
| 6 | |
You're researching the impact of interest rates on people's consumption and savings behavior. Which of the following ways of constructing a Boolean search would likely yield the most fruitful results? |
| | A) | (impact) and (rates) and (behavior) |
| | B) | (people) and (behavior) and (savings) and (consumption) |
| | C) | (consumption behavior) and (savings behavior) |
| | D) | (interest or rates) and (savings or consumption) |
|
|
|
| 7 | |
Which if the following is NOT a criterion to use when you're evaluating research sources on the Web? |
| | A) | How recently the material was last updated. |
| | B) | The credentials of the author(s) and sponsoring organization. |
| | C) | How many links the site includes. |
| | D) | The objectivity of the site. |
|
|
|
| 8 | |
In designing survey questions, how would you correct for the bias that occurs because respondents tend to agree with statements more than they disagree? |
| | A) | Change the wording so some statements are negative, generating "disagree" instead of "agree" responses. |
| | B) | Add more steps to the scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." |
| | C) | Add an instruction at the beginning cautioning respondents to think carefully about their answers instead of automatically agreeing with each statement. |
| | D) | Take the tendency to agree into account when you're scoring the results, giving less weight to "agree" than to "disagree" responses. |
|
|
|
| 9 | |
A focus group interviewer asks you to describe the last time you had dinner at a particular restaurant. What type of question is the interviewer asking? |
| | A) | A structured question. |
| | B) | A critical incident question. |
| | C) | A mirror question. |
| | D) | A hypothetical question. |
|
|
|
| 10 | |
In a report organized in the functional pattern, information is presented |
| | A) | In the way that would be most functional for the readers who will be using the report. |
| | B) | In the way that would be most functional for the writer's purpose. |
| | C) | For each functional unit in turn (such as Purchasing, Human Resources etc.) |
| | D) | According to the order in which the writer carried out the research function. |
|
|
|
| 11 | |
You work at a wireless outlet that just started carrying a new smart-phone model. So far, five of the six customers who bought it have complained about the short battery life. On that basis, should you recommend that you stop carrying that model? |
| | A) | Yes. When 83% of customers complain, the new model obviously causes poor battery performance and you should stop selling it. |
| | B) | Yes, because there's obviously a correlation between the new model and the poor battery performance. |
| | C) | Not until you've sold the new model to a much larger group of customers and can see if most of them complain, too. Six customers isn't a sufficiently large sample size on which to base a recommendation. |
| | D) | Not without investigating further. The new model might be the cause of the poor battery performance, but you should first look for other causes too. For instance, perhaps the instructions aren't clear and customers aren't charging the battery properly. |
|
|
|
| 12 | |
In a comparison/contrast section of a report, focus on the criteria used (instead of on the alternatives) when |
| | A) | The superiority of one alternative to another depends on the relative weight assigned to various criteria. |
| | B) | The criteria are difficult to separate. |
| | C) | The reader does not want to compare and contrast the options independently of your recommendation. |
| | D) | One alternative is clearly superior. |
|
|
|
| 13 | |
In your report, you would choose to quote rather than paraphrase or summarize your source in all of the following situations EXCEPT: |
| | A) | When the source's expression is especially original, vivid or effective. |
| | B) | When the source states a point concisely. |
| | C) | When you want to dispute the terms of the source's argument. |
| | D) | When the source depends on specialized or technical terms. |
|
|
|
| 14 | |
You do not need to cite sources in any of the following cases EXCEPT: |
| | A) | For well-known quotations. |
| | B) | For facts that are common knowledge (such as the date of Confederation). |
| | C) | For information obtained from a Web site. |
| | D) | For proverbs. |
|
|
.