Deck 10: Planning, Researching, and Documenting Reports

Question 1

Which of the following is the BEST version of a report problem?

A)The problem is hypothetical, but interesting and challenging.
B)The problem is real and, although minor, narrowly defined.
C)The problem is real and, while important, narrowly defined.
D)The problem is real, important, and broad in focus.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

You are interviewing clients at a downtown soup kitchen that provides free, hot meals for families.Which of the following questions ought to come EARLIEST in the interview?

A)"How many times in the past month have you visited the soup kitchen? 1, 2, 3, or more?"
B)"What do you find least acceptable about the soup kitchen?"
C)"What do you like best about the soup kitchen?"
D)"How many days in the last year have you been unable to provide meals for your children?"

Answer 2

A

Question 3

You are planning to write a feasibility report.Which of the following is the best organizational pattern for this report?

A)Comparison/Contrast
B)Problem-Solution
C)General to Particular
D)Functional

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Question: "How often do you use the parking garages downtown?"

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT one of the criteria that can help you decide whether a Web site is good enough to use for a research project?

A)Authors' credentials
B)Objectivity
C)Information
D)Graphics

Question 6

Which of the following BEST describes how you should paraphrase?

A)Find synonyms for key words, preserve the majority of the author's wording, and cite carefully.
B)Find synonyms for key words, preserve the majority of the author's wording, and include an entry for the source on your Reference List or Works Cited page.
C)Put the author's ideas entirely into your own words, and cite carefully.
D)Put the author's ideas entirely into your own words, and include an entry for the source on your References or Works Cited page.

Question 7

Which of the following describes the WORST way to approach data analysis?

A)Include and accept data analysis that was performed by other, reputable sources.
B)Search for at least three possible causes for each phenomenon you observe.
C)Try to identify patterns.
D)Make sure you don't confuse causation with correlation.

Question 8

Which of the following kinds of information should an appendix contain?

A)Data and figures that are essential to your report
B)Supporting material that can be covered in a short amount of space
C)Information that may interest the reader, but that is not crucial to your argument
D)Acknowledgements

Question 9

You are writing a report that focuses on the current challenges in each department in your organization.Which of the following would be the most appropriate organizational pattern for your report?

A)Comparison/Contrast
B)Elimination of Alternatives
C)Functional
D)Chronological

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a requirement of good questions in surveys and interviews?

A)Be phrased neutrally
B)Include only a limited number of possible responses
C)Avoid making assumptions about the respondent
D)Mean the same thing to different people

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a common variety of population sampling?

A)Convenience
B)Evaluative
C)Judgment
D)Random

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT a quality to check for when you evaluate your research?

A)Validity
B)Reliability
C)Currency
D)Popularity

Question 13

You have a solution to a problem; however, your solution is unpopular, and likely to be met with many alternate suggestions.Which of the following would be the most appropriate organizational pattern for your report?

A)Comparison/Contrast
B)Elimination of Alternatives
C)Functional
D)Chronological

Question 14

You are conducting a rough pre-test of a survey to determine how much students would be willing to pay for lab fees for computer courses.You go to the main student computer lab and distribute the survey to the first 50 students you encounter.What is this kind of sample called?

A)Convenience sample
B)Judgment sample
C)Random sample
D)Simple random sample

Question 15

Which of the following options describes the BEST way to use Wikipedia for research?

A)Use it freely-its large community of users means that it's likely accurate.
B)Use it to find other, more reliable sources.
C)Use it to support your credibility.
D)Use it to provide an accurate overview of a topic.

Question 16

When should you begin analyzing your data?

A)While you collect it
B)After you have finished collecting it, but before you start drafting the report
C)After you have finished collecting and have started drafting your report
D)After you have a complete draft of your report

Question 17

Which of the following is an advantage of using closed rather than open questions in a survey?

A)They allow researchers to probe the complexities of a subject.
B)They are easier for researchers to score.
C)They allow subjects to give any possible answer.
D)They can ask for subjective information.

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a good reason to use a quotation?

A)The source's expression is particularly vivid.
B)The source is repeating common, proverbial sayings.
C)The source depends on specialized terminology.
D)The source offers an argument that you want to contest.

Question 19

"Are you satisfied with your health care benefits? (yes/no)." Which kind of survey question is this an example of?

A)A closed question
B)An open question
C)A branching question
D)A secondary question

Question 20

You are creating questions for a survey on the writing problems of students on your campus.You initially hand out surveys to tutors in the writing centre.What is this kind of sample called?

A)Convenience sample
B)Judgment sample
C)Random sample
D)Simple random sample

Question 21

You are writing a report to demonstrate that problems the Business department has with student retention can all be traced to the department's overreliance on teaching assistants.Which of the following is the best organizational pattern for this report?

A)Comparison/Contrast
B)Problem-Solution
C)General to Particular
D)Functional

Question 22

"Internal documentation" means that you list all your sources within the report in a section entitled "methods."

Question 23

It is unprofessional to talk to your readers before you begin writing or researching a report.

Question 24

"Primary research" takes its name from the fact that it must be completed before secondary research on the topic can be started.

Question 25

Which of the following is the correct citation of a paraphrase, according to

Question 26

The most difficult questions for subjects to answer should come first on a survey.

Question 27

If you find you can't prove the claim you set out to, you should modify your data until they support the conclusion you feel is the right one.

Question 28

If you need to probe for complexities of a topic for a survey, you should use closed questions.

Question 29

Which of the following BEST describes what a Creative Commons license is?

A)It allows people to use the source freely, according to their needs.
B)It eliminates the need to cite sources that are covered by the license.
C)It reduces a set portion of the fees that users would otherwise have to pay under the Copyright Act.
D)It promotes sharing and innovation, with some rights still reserved.

Question 30

How you define a problem shapes the solutions you find.

Question 31

If you take a large enough convenience sample, you can generalize your findings to the whole population from which your sample comes.

Question 32

Answers to survey and interviews can be relied upon to always closely represent actual behaviour.

Question 33

Which of the following is NOT a component of a strong purpose statement?

A)The organizational problem (or challenge, or opportunity)
B)The amount of time that the organization will need to dedicate to solving the problem
C)The specific technical questions that must be answered in order to solve the problem
D)The rhetorical purpose, in terms of audience benefits

Question 34

Moe is researching effective online advertising techniques for small businesses.He performs the following Boolean search: advertising and (online or web) and (small business).Which of the following options correctly describes the results that will be returned for him?

A)Sources that discuss small businesses and online advertising
B)Sources that discuss online advertising and web-based small businesses
C)Sources that discuss either online advertising or web-based small businesses
D)Sources that discuss small businesses and advertising that is either online or web-based

Question 35

When you write a report for a class project, plan to complete at least one-quarter of your research before you write the proposal to solve your problem.

Question 36

When two phenomena are correlated, one has definitely caused the other to occur.

Question 37

Respondents and subjects are synonymous terms.

Question 38

A good strategy for organizing report data is to present it in the order in which you became aware of it.

Question 39

In Canada, fair dealing means that, as long as you cite sources properly, you can use them however you want.

Question 40

Open questions on a survey have the advantage of being easy and quick for subjects.

Question 41

A _____ sample is a group of subjects who are easy to get.

Question 42

_____ questions direct different respondents to different parts of the questionnaire based on their answers to earlier questions.

Question 43

A strong report problem is wide in scope.

Question 44

_____ research retrieves information that someone else has gathered; _____ research gathers new information.

Question 45

A study by Columbia University shows that less news is being reported now than before we had blogs, social media, etc.

Question 46

Canada has one of the best track records on access to information requests in the world.

Question 47

A _____ sample is a group of people whose views seems useful for your particular topic.

Question 48

When your report has lots of information, you should group it into three to seven categories.

Question 49

A _____ question paraphrases the content of the last answer.

Question 50

You should be skeptical of company Web sites since, while they are useful forces for company and industry history, they ultimately lack credibility.

Question 51

Reports that contain elements such as a title page, a transmittal, and a table of contents are called _____ reports.

Question 52

In a _____ sample, each person in the population theoretically has an equal chance of being chosen.

Question 53

You should consider the credibility of the author when you decide whether to use a secondary source in your report.

Question 54

Web sites that gather freelance writers' material (e.g.Answers.com) are high quality sources.

Question 55

_____ questions have a limited number of possible responses; _____ questions do not lock the subject into any sort of response.

Question 56

You should never use sources that are more than ten years old.

Question 57

Readers pay a great deal of attention to quotations in business reports.

Question 58

_____ means attributing an idea or fact to its source in the body of the report; _____ means providing the bibliographic information readers would need to go back to the original source.

Question 59

A _____ question follows up an original question to get at specific aspects of a topic.

Question 60

A _____ questions a large group of people; a _____ is a written list of questions that people fill out.

Question 61

A report that is aimed at a neutral reader and that is meant to identify and discuss a problem, its causes, and the advantages or disadvantages of its possible solutions should use the __________ organizational pattern.

Question 62

A report that starts by discussing a problem as it affects an organization and then moves to discussing the problem's parts and solutions to those parts uses the __________________ organizational pattern.

Question 63

A report that starts with a problem as the audience defines it and then moves to larger issues of which the problem is a part uses the _________________ organizational pattern.

Question 64

The section in a report that provides the careful reader with additional information that isn't crucial to your proof is called the ________.

Question 65

How can you decide whether a Web site is good enough to use for a research project?

Question 66

A report that discusses problems and solutions in terms of each unit in a larger organization, business, site, etc.uses the ___________________ organizational pattern.

Question 67

Explain when you should choose to quote a source rather than put it into your own words.

Question 68

A report that focuses on comparing alternatives or comparing the criteria used to choose among alternatives should use the _____________ organizational pattern.

Question 69

The __________ date is the date on which a Web site was last updated.

Question 70

Identify four strategies for analyzing data and information for a report.Explain why these strategies are helpful.

Question 71

When you evaluate a research source, you should consider its _________ by determining whether the data are consistent, making sure the research design tests the hypothesis, making sure the author is credible, and figuring out whether the sources it uses are unbiased.

Question 72

A report that records events in the order in which they occurred uses the _____________ organizational pattern.

Question 73

An interview in which the interviewer has three or four main questions, and then builds the rest of his/her questions based on what the interviewee says, is known as the following kind of interview: ______________.

Question 74

A report that starts with a discussion of impractical solutions first and then works its way to the actual solution uses the _______________ organizational pattern.

Question 75

Providing in parentheses, within the text, the author's name and the source's date of publication is known as _____________ documentation.

Question 76

When you evaluate a research source, you should consider its ________ by determining its accuracy, importance and originality, by discovering if it is widely cited in the field, and by independently verifying it.

Question 77

When should you use a problem-solution organizational pattern in a report, and how should you structure it?

Question 78

What are the pros and cons of online surveys?

Question 79

A _____ is a document that suggests a method for finding information or solving a problem.

Question 80

When you ___________, you place a source's ideas in your own words, while still following the source's line of reasoning.