Deck 2: Adapting Your Message to Your Audience

Question 1

Understanding your audience is important but not fundamental to the success of any message.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Criticizing your boss as sharply as you would a younger sibling is generally a bad idea.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Since customers usually have few options for products and services, there's no need to treat them politely.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Audience analysis and adaptation are important for speakers but not for writers.

Question 5

If you don't know your audience, your best strategy is to write to yourself.

Question 6

Most people imagine themselves as the audience for messages, which is an effective way to analyze audiences.

Question 7

A gatekeeper has no power to keep your message from getting to the primary audience.

Question 8

The spouse of your employee could be a secondary audience.

Question 9

There are seven types of audiences.

Question 10

It's possible for someone to be a part of more than one audience for your message.

Question 11

There is no need to adapt a message to an audience-humans by nature are adaptable and will find a way to understand your message.

Question 12

PAIBOC is useful in audience analysis.

Question 13

The specific questions you need to answer about an audience may vary depending upon the situation and your purposes.

Question 14

The benefits that work for one audience in your message may not appeal to another of its audiences.

Question 15

Noise helps the receiver to decode a message.

Question 16

Most noise in business messages is avoidable.

Question 17

Channel overload occurs when the channel cannot handle all of the message being sent.

Question 18

Miscommunication can occur because people have different ways of interpreting messages.

Question 19

Empathy is crucial to good audience analysis.

Question 20

If it weren't for diversity in such areas as age, race, and gender, analyzing audiences in business would be simple.

Question 21

Demographic characteristics include attitudes about politics and religion.

Question 22

Psychographic characteristics are useless in audience analysis.

Question 23

The most important audience in business communication is the watchdog audience.

Question 24

To be realistic, you should analyze your audience in a cynical way. After all, the world is a cruel place.

Question 25

It's perfectly acceptable to criticize your boss the way you would a friend or sibling; after all, it's more honest.

Question 26

Choosing to defer to authority is a sign of weakness, and something that compromises ethics.

Question 27

The most important audience in any communication situation is the primary audience.

Question 28

However important a watchdog audience might be, it never has the power to stop a message.

Question 29

While noise can be physical, the majority of noise is actually psychological.

Question 30

Hearing is a form of perception; so is seeing.

Question 31

If your message is effective, you can expect little or no feedback.

Question 32

One way to remind readers of information in a tactful way is to preface statements with "As you may know."

Question 33

In general, age is a very important demographic factor to consider in your audience for communication.

Question 34

Unlike extraverts, introverts are more likely to make decisions based on the impact on people.

Question 35

How people have behaved in the past often predicts how they will behave in the future.

Question 36

The secondary audience has the power to stop your message from getting to the primary audience.

Question 37

A reader of your document can be part of your primary audience and part of your initial audience.

Question 38

Always expect audiences to be hostile to your message-that way, you can spend time in your message deflecting their criticisms.

Question 39

Knowing all you can about your audience improves the chances the message will work.

Question 40

Demographics like age and race provide an excellent means to determine your audience's attitude and behavior.

Question 41

Psychographic characteristics are qualitative, meaning that they reflect such factors as values and beliefs.

Question 42

VALS stands for Values and Living Standards and are profiles developed by the SRI research firm.

Question 43

Researcher Jennifer Chatman found that new hires that "fit"the company's culture were less likely to stay with the job because they got bored faster.

Question 44

Which audience may stop your message from getting to its intended audience?

A) Primary audience.
B) Secondary audience.
C) Initial audience.
D) Watchdog.
E) None of the above.

Question 45

Which of the following is NOT a component of the communication model?

A) Sender.
B) Receiver.
C) Message.
D) Channel.
E) None of the above.

Question 46

Oral messages make it easier to

A) Answer questions.
B) Use emotion to help persuade the audience.
C) Get immediate action or response.
D) All of the above.
E) Only two of the above.

Question 47

A gatekeeper audience has

A) The authority to keep your message from getting to the primary audience.
B) The ability to act on your message in lieu of the primary audience.
C) The ability to cancel your message from the start.
D) Political, social, or economic power.
E) None of the above.

Question 48

As an auditor in an accounting firm, you sit down to write a report to your client as soon as you complete the audit. Your client would be classified as what kind of audience?

A) Primary audience.
B) Initial audience.
C) Secondary audience.
D) Gatekeeper.
E) None of the above.

Question 49

You are presenting a proposal to the City Council at a public meeting. Your primary audience is

A) The TV journalists filming your presentation.
B) The council members who will vote on your proposal.
C) Your boss, who has promised you a raise if your proposal is accepted.
D) The speakers who follow you who will have a chance to criticize your proposal.
E) None of the above.

Question 50

Person A decides to send a message to Person B. Person A first perceives a stimulus and then interprets that perception. What is the next stage in the communication process?

A) Choosing the information to send to Person B.
B) Encoding, or putting ideas into symbols.
C) Decoding the proposed message.
D) Offering feedback.
E) None of the above.

Question 51

You are in the audience for a panel of top business executives who are engaged in a heated debate. Some members are talking over one another, one is pointing to her visual aids, and yet another is trying to answer audience questions. You can't keep up. What is the BEST explanation for your difficulty?

A) Channel overload.
B) Information overload.
C) Misperception.
D) Transmission interruption.
E) None of the above.

Question 52

To remind readers of information in a tactful way, you can

A) Give a brief definition in the text.
B) Ask the readers if they need or want additional information.
C) Spell out acronyms the first time you use them.
D) All of the above.
E) Only A and C

Question 53

Which of the following concepts is LEAST likely to help in audience analysis?

A) Past behavior.
B) Demographics.
C) Psychotherapy.
D) Knowledge.
E) None of the above will help.

Question 54

Which of the following is NOT an example of demographic data?

A) Number of children.
B) Age.
C) Interests.
D) Education level.
E) None of the above.

Question 55

According to Myers-Briggs, the personality type most likely to seek harmony is

A) Introvert.
B) Extravert.
C) Intuitive.
D) Feeling.
E) Judging.

Question 56

According to Myers-Briggs, the personality type most likely to talk rather than write when communicating is

A) Introvert.
B) Extravert.
C) Intuitive.
D) Feeling.
E) Judging.

Question 57

You'll be most persuasive if you play to your audiences

A) Egos.
B) Weaknesses.
C) Strengths.
D) Attitudes.
E) None of the above.

Question 58

Your reader's reaction to a message is affected not just by his or her personal preferences, but also by

A) Feelings.
B) Discourse community.
C) Organizational culture.
D) All of the above.
E) Only A and B

Question 59

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of using psychographic information?

A) It is less expensive than interviews.
B) It shows what the audience finds important.
C) It helps a communicator choose the best appeal for the audience
D) It offers objective, measurable data about the audience.
E) None of the above.

Question 60

Which of the following is NOT an example of a VALS category?

A) Thinker.
B) Believer.
C) Achiever.
D) Survivor.
E) All of the above are examples.

Question 61

The VALS categories are

A) Thinkers, Believers, Achievers, Experiencers, Marketers, and Survivors.
B) Thinkers, Believers, Achievers, Exciters, Makers, and Survivors.
C) Thinkers, Benefactors, Achievers, Experiencers, Makers, and Survivors.
D) Thinkers, Benefactors, Achievers, Exciters, Makers, and Survivors.
E) None of the above.

Question 62

You've noticed that your company has very little turnover and promotes people to management positions who have been there longer than others. What aspect of culture is most likely at work?

A) Independence.
B) Team player.
C) Seniority.
D) Technical knowledge.
E) None of the above.

Question 63

As a new hire, you've noticed that your bosses expect more formality than those in your previous job. For instance, rather than addressing a boss by his or her first name, you must use a title and the last name. Which of the following audience concepts BEST accounts for the difference?

A) Values.
B) Discourse community.
C) Organizational culture.
D) Strategy.
E) None of the above.

Question 64

Which of the following questions is among those that can help you to analyze an organization's culture?

A) What are the organization's goals.
B) How do people get ahead?
C) How formal are behavior, language, and dress?
D) All of the above.
E) Only A and B

Question 65

Which of the following does NOT reveal organizational culture?

A) Myths.
B) Clientele.
C) Budget.
D) Mailing Address.
E) None of the above.

Question 66

Which of the following is NOT a gatekeeper?

A) An account executive that approves a marketing plan before it's submitted to the client.
B) A receptionist who routinely opens the mail for a small business and passes each piece on to its owner.
C) A program director at the National Science Foundation who screens all grant applications to ensure conformity to the application criteria before forwarding them to the review board.
D) The personnel director of a large university who screens all internal applicants for eligibility before sending applications to the interviewers for a specific position.
E) None of the above.

Question 67

Carla conducts a three-day training session for new employees. On the evaluation at the end of the session, one participant writes, "You told us you were a feminist, but I thought you were very professional."This comment shows that the participant

A) Sees the term "feminist" as highly negative.
B) Does not yet understand the organization's corporate culture.
C) Thinks that the session would have been better if a man had conducted it.
D) Has never heard the term "feminist" before.
E) None of the above.

Question 68

List and explain the five kinds of audiences.

Question 69

Discuss how PAIBOC relates to audience analysis.

Question 70

List and define each component of the communication model.

Question 71

Discuss the limitations to using demographics and psychographics in audience analysis.

Question 72

Briefly explain what "red flag"words are and why they should be avoided. Give three examples of such words.

Question 73

A ________ has the power to stop your message instead of sending it on to other audiences.

Question 74

________ characteristics are measurable features that can be counted objectively, such as age, sex, race, education level, and income.

Question 75

Important messages should use more ________ channels, whether they're oral or written.

Question 76

The bigger your audience, the more __________ channel choice becomes because few channels reach everyone in your target audience.