1. Sample Test Questions

2. b Which of the following is true of competence?
Its importance has decreased in the post-trust era.
It is often evaluated by one’s track record of achievements.
It is innate and cannot be gained through experience.
It is unrelated to one’s communication style.
It cannot be developed through study or observation. b

3. Roberta is the general manager of EZ Equipment, an international manufacturing company. She wishes to give one of her managers the “Employee of the Year” award. Which of the following managers should she choose if she is looking for the employee with the highest level of competence?  
Jack, who adheres to high moral and ethical values
Dora, who has a me-oriented communication style
Maria, who focuses on action and emphasizes results
Peggy, who works independently of the interests of stakeholders c

4. A poor signal for a phone conversation or blurry video feed for a teleconference are examples of _____ noise.
physical
psychological
semantic
physiological
cognitive a

5. When choosing a communication channel, _____ refers to the degree to which communications can be planned and recorded, thus allowing strategic message development.
richness
immediacy
constraint
coordination
control e

6. Vanessa has been assigned the task of creating an effective business message aimed at improving the productivity of the employees in her company. In the process of creating the business message, she studies the background of the employees, their needs and priorities. To which of the following steps of the planning process for developing influential messages does Vanessa’s action typically belong?
Providing feedback
Idea development
Message structuring
Audience analysis
Message review d

7. When lecturing, a college professor uses jargon and words that students do not understand, resulting in poor test scores and a lot of students dropping the class. The professor should be concerned about which stage of the communication process.
Encoding
Channel selection
Feedback
Decoding
a Professor should choose simpler vocabulary in encoding stage

8. Please give consideration to the proposal. Passive voice
Camouflaged verb
Opening filler
Redundant
Identify weakness and correct! b
Correction: Please consider the proposal.
A camouflaged verb is a verb that has been “camouflaged” or weakened by changing it to a noun—often by adding a suffix such as -ance, -ence, -tion, -ation, etc.

9. There are four employees attending the conference. Not parallel
Writer centered
Not clear
Opening filler Identify weakness and correct! d
Correction: Four employees plan to attend the conference.
Opening fillers are words used to begin a sentence that add nothing to its meaning. Examples: there are, there is, it could be shown, it is (when it has no antecedent), etc.

10. Includes camouflaged verbs Uses trite expressions
We assess oral and written communication skills, how well individuals solve problems, whether they can work with teams, and we also look into their interpersonal skills.
Lacks parallelism
Uses difficult words
Includes camouflaged verbs
Uses trite expressions
Identify weakness and correct! a
Correction: We assess oral and written communication skills, problem-solving skills, team skills, and interpersonal skills.
The four items in the series must be consistent.

11. After developing all the procedures the staff size was adjusted.
Incorrect punctuation
Dangling modifier
Passive voice
All of these Identify weakness and correct! d
Correction: After developing the procedures, we adjusted the staff size.
(a) Comma omitted after procedures (long phrase, IC)
(b) Phrase does not modify subject (so dangles)
(c) Passive because staff size did not do the adjusting

12. Each candidate must complete his “intent to run” form by April 30.
Passive voice
Wordy
Opening filler
Biased language
Identify weakness and correct! d
Correction: Candidates must complete their intent … by April 30. OR
Each candidate must complete a ….

13. Once the cost of the project is ascertained, the project can be initiated.
Dangling modifier
Wordy
Difficult language
Biased language
Identify weakness and correct! c
Correction: Once we know the cost, we can begin the project.

14. I cannot give you a cash refund for textbooks that were purchased more than six months ago.
Passive voice
Negative language
Biased language
Opening filler
Identify weakness and correct!
b – Say what you can do.
Correction: We only give cash refunds for purchases made within the past six months.