Deck 6: Short Reports, Proposals, and Technical Documents

Question 1

Which of the following is true about reports?

A) They tend to be very personal.
B) They are distributed to just one or two people.
C) They express a personal relationship.
D) They employ a more formal tone than emails.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

You should add a title page and table of contents if your report exceeds ________ pages.

A) 2
B) 7-8
C) 10-15
D) 20

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT true about summaries?

A) They are generally written first.
B) They are condensed versions of your report.
C) Writing them is like submitting a report twice.
D) They contain the main ideas of the report.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT true about the context section of a report?

A) It is sometimes referred to as the introduction.
B) It provides the "meat" of the report.
C) It allows the report to make sense to people years down the road.
D) It establishes the purpose of the report and how it fits into a project or business.

Question 5

Inspection reports, trip reports, and incident reports describe events that ________.

A) happened in the past
B) are happening right now
C) are being proposed for the future
D) are controversial and may never happen

Question 6

The questions "What was your overall impression?" and "What deficiencies did you find?" should be answered in which section of an inspection report?

A) Summary
B) Context
C) Inspection
D) Next Step

Question 7

The question "What unforeseen work were you required/asked to do?" should be answered in which section of a trip report?

A) Summary
B) Context
C) Work Done
D) Next Step

Question 8

Which of the following does NOT require a trip report?

A) an overnight trip
B) a trip to another city
C) a trip to another country
D) a commute to a site within your normal reach of business

Question 9

The question "To what project or work task does this accident relate?" should be answered in which section of an incident report?

A) Summary
B) Context
C) Incident
D) Next Step

Question 10

A report that is written monthly for several years is most likely a(n) ________.

A) periodic progress report
B) long-term progress report
C) task report
D) incident report

Question 11

The question "What are you doing right now to deal with the problems?" should be answered in which section of a progress report?

A) Summary
B) Context
C) Progress
D) Next Step

Question 12

An internal proposal is likely to be presented in ________ format.

A) standard report
B) long report
C) email
D) memo

Question 13

When writing an internal proposal, the ________ section is likely to be shorter than for an external proposal.

A) Summary
B) Details
C) Context
D) Next Step

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a document intended to recommend future action (though it may recommend follow-up in the Next Step section)?

A) internal proposal
B) investigative report
C) feasibility study
D) inspection report

Question 15

A proposal attempts to ________.

A) identify and define a problem
B) seek approval to make a change or pursue a project
C) compare several options and recommend one
D) assess a previously proposed solution, project, or idea

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT a typical subsection in a proposal?

A) Costs
B) Schedule
C) References
D) Procedure and Equipment

Question 17

An investigation report attempts to ________.

A) assess a previously proposed solution, project, or idea
B) identify and define a problem
C) compare several options and recommend one
D) seek approval to make a change or pursue a project

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT true about a feasibility study?

A) It assesses multiple competing projects.
B) It makes a yes-or-no recommendation.
C) It justifies a course of action.
D) It provides due diligence.

Question 19

Investigation reports often precede ________.

A) recommendation reports
B) feasibility studies
C) proposals
D) inspection reports

Question 20

A specifications document does NOT contain which of the following?

A) a summary
B) a general description
C) a part-by-part description
D) headings and subheadings

Question 21

An abstract is the equivalent of a(n) ________.

A) introduction
B) summary
C) context section
D) index

Question 22

Procedure and Equipment is a standard section in a ________.

A) proposal
B) lab report
C) recommendation report
D) feasibility study

Question 23

The most important part of a lab report is the ________.

A) results
B) discussion
C) conclusion
D) appendix

Question 24

Which of the following functions can a project log NOT fulfill?

A) record ideas during meetings and brainstorming sessions
B) provide a time log for individual days or whole projects
C) be submitted as a project proposal
D) act as a source for debriefing after completion of a project

Question 25

What is the best reason to fill consecutive pages in a project log and not leave blank spots on pages?

A) to conserve paper
B) to prove that you have not gone back to fill in some blank spaces in order to alter your time line
C) to provide a dense, professional look to the document
D) to ensure you can fit the entire project into a single logbook

Question 26

There is no real difference between correspondence and reports.

Question 27

Trip reports describe only what an employee actually accomplished-not what the employee was sent to do.

Question 28

An investigation report typically seeks to define a problem.

Question 29

Closed specifications are more restrictive than open specifications.

Question 30

It is general practice to use "must" to denote requirements in a specifications document.

Question 31

Open specifications are also known as "functional specifications."

Question 32

Abstracts function much like introductions.

Question 33

To make readers of a solicited proposal receptive to a solution, the writer must first convince them that they have a problem.

Question 34

In a lab report, the appendix always comes before the references section.

Question 35

A recommendation report assesses a previously proposed solution, project, or idea to see if it can be pursued.

Question 36

Unsolicited proposals are always preceded by an RFP.

Question 37

Summaries are generally written first but read last.

Question 38

A next-step discussion should never appear in a transmittal document.

Question 39

Project logs are only useful in engineering design projects.

Question 40

Properly recorded, a project log can provide legal proof for patent dispute resolutions.

Question 41

What is an inspection report and what sections should it contain?

Question 42

What are the two different types of progress reports?

Question 43

Describe the difference between a proposal and an investigation report.

Question 44

Describe the subsections that should be included in the "proposal" section of a proposal.

Question 45

What is a recommendation report?

Question 46

What is a feasibility study?

Question 47

Why do specifications documents not require a summary or next steps section?

Question 48

What are the differences between open specifications and closed specifications?

Question 49

Describe the similarities and differences between trip reports and progress reports. Why are these two types of reports vital to business operations?

Question 50

In Figure 6.9 (in the text) we are shown two different examples of specifications formats for a Blackberry phone. What are these differences and why are they significant?

Question 51

Take a look at the standard structure of a lab report. How does this structure compare to the standard document structure used by most of the other documents discussed in this chapter?