Technical Writing
Mock Exam
Course Introduction
Technical Writing is a course designed to develop students abilities to communicate complex information clearly and effectively to diverse audiences. The curriculum focuses on principles and practices of creating technical documents such as manuals, reports, proposals, and instructions. Emphasizing clarity, precision, organization, and audience awareness, students learn how to conduct research, utilize appropriate formatting, and implement graphics to enhance understanding. Practical assignments and collaborative projects help students build essential skills for writing in scientific, engineering, business, and technological fields.
Recommended Textbook
Practical Strategies for Technical Communication 2nd Edition by Mike Markel
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15 Chapters
600 Verified Questions
600 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Technical Communication
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40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Chapter 15, which statement about oral presentations is correct?
A) The audience and purpose are basically the same for any presentation you give.
B) The audience for an oral presentation will be receptive to your message; otherwise, they would not attend.
C) You can always find a way to fit all of your ideas into the allotted time.
D) Some presentations call for both informing and persuading the audience.
Answer: D
Q2) Because a presentation occurs only once, you must work harder to maintain and direct the audience's attention to what you are saying than you do when writing a document.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Which of the following is an example of a nonfluency?
A) When you say "rural juror," the audience hears "ruhr juhr."
B) When you get nervous, you say, "And, um. . . ."
C) You pronounce the word nuclear as "nuke-you-lar."
D) The speech that took 10 minutes when you practiced it is over in 5 minutes.
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 1: Introduction to Technical Communication
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40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Technical communication is carried out primarily by those whose main job is to produce documents such as reports and manuals.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) When you are communicating technical information on the job, your audience tends to be the same every time.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Generosity and honesty are characteristics of effective technical communicators. A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) As used in Chapter 1, what does correctness mean?
Answer: Correctness refers to a document's adherence to conventions of grammar, punctuation, spelling, mechanics, and usage.
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Chapter 2: Understanding Ethical and Legal Obligations
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Sample Questions
Q1) using social media ethically entails avoiding false endorsements. What are three other guidelines for the ethical use of social media?
Answer: Other guidelines for using social media ethically include separating personal social-media accounts from company-sponsored accounts, reading the terms of service of every service to which you post, avoiding revealing unauthorized news about your company, avoiding self-plagiarism, avoiding defamation, not streaming or quoting from others without permission, avoiding impersonating others, and avoiding trademark infringement.
Q2) When you post messages to social media, you lose control over them.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Plagiarism is a legal issue and not an ethical issue.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) The standard of utility is concerned with what?
Answer: The standard of utility is concerned with the positive and negative effects that an action or a policy has, will have, or might have on others.
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Chapter 3: Writing Collaboratively
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Sample Questions
Q1) When critiquing the work of a team member, save a big compliment for the last comment in order to end on a positive note.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) one of the disadvantages of collaboration is that it is likely to lead to charges of sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, or both.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Differences between the ways men and women work in teams are hard to notice. A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) one advantage of collaboration is that it can yield a more coherent document. A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 6
Chapter 4: Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
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Sample Questions
Q1) The point of learning about your audience is to use that information to tailor a document to fit the audience's needs.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following mistakes did McDonald's make when it printed takeout bags decorated with flags from around the world?
A) The bags showed a pair of hands holding a flag in a way that customers in some cultures would interpret as an obscene gesture.
B) The bags showed a Saudi flag, which depicts holy scripture from the Koran. The Saudis were offended because these bags would be thrown out.
C) The writing on the bags was in English, which offended numerous nonnative speakers.
D) All responses are correct.
Q3) Social-media searches can provide an organization with significant information about members of their target audiences.
A)True
B)False
Q4) how do public agencies use social-media data?
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7
Chapter 5: Researching Your Subject
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Sample Questions
Q1) When obtaining information on products and services from websites, discussion boards, and blogs, it is important NOT to assume that vendors' claims are accurate.
A)True
B)False
Q2) One stage of conducting an experiment is to establish a hypothesis. What is the next stage?
Q3) Which of the following types of research is least like field research?
A) observations
B) inquiries
C) experiments
D) inspections
Q4) Chapter 5 suggests that you do three things when concluding an interview. What is one of them?
Q5) Chapter 5 identifies three common problems that occur when you use questionnaires to gather information. What are two of them?
Q6) Chapter 5 advises researchers to look for information that is current. List two other characteristics of reliable information, according to the chapter.
Q7) What is the function of an RSS feed?
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Chapter 6: Writing for Your Readers
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Sample Questions
Q1) A local bank uses this slogan in its advertising: "Integrity. Experience. Trust. Local." What about this slogan violates readers' expectations?
A) The items in the list are not parallel.
B) The list does not follow the general-to-specific pattern.
C) The hierarchy of the list is confusing.
D) None of the responses are correct.
Q2) Of the options listed below, which is the most effective way to organize a document describing the events that led to an Internet company's bankruptcy?
A) classification
B) comparison and contrast
C) problem-methods-solution
D) chronological
Q3) What is a euphemism?
Q4) Whenever possible, you should combine two or more ideas into one paragraph to create a paragraph of 75 to 125 words-the ideal paragraph length.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Identify two coherence devices discussed in Chapter 6.
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Chapter 7: Designing Print and Online Documents
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these is NOT a resource to consider when planning the design of a document?
A) accessibility
B) time
C) equipment
D) money
Q2) What is the difference between a serif typeface and a sans-serif typeface?
Q3) Chapter 7 discusses four basic principles for designing effective documents. One is proximity. What are two other basic principles discussed in the chapter?
A) alignment
B) consistency
C) variety
D) contrast
Q4) A page grid is a kind of map that shows how white space and text in a document are arranged.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which design principle states that the human eye is drawn to-and the brain interprets-differences in appearance between two items?
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Chapter 8: Creating Graphics
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Sample Questions
Q1) You are writing a report on the two candidates competing to represent your district in the U.S. House of Representatives. You create a pie chart for each candidate to show where the candidate's campaign money comes from. You use purple for small individual donations, orange for large individual donations, blue for corporate donations, yellow for political action committee (PAC) contributions, red for political-party donations, and gray for other money. Which principle of using color effectively have you followed?
A) using color to create contrast between the text and the background
B) using color to emphasize particular items
C) using symbolic meanings of colors
D) using color to create patterns
Q2) Which of the following is structured to emphasize the person or group with responsibility for certain tasks?
A) deployment flowchart
B) deployment organization chart
C) logic tree
D) diagram
Q3) In a table, the stub is the right-hand column.
A)True
B)False
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Page 11
Chapter 9: Writing Correspondence
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Sample Questions
Q1) What types of incidents and developments related to your organization should be the subject of posts on a company-sponsored microblog?
Q2) Email is usually archived digitally (stored permanently).
A)True
B)False
Q3) What do you call a letter in which you respond to a claim and tell the customer how you plan to handle the situation described in the letter?
Q4) A writer working for the state department of agriculture wishes to educate farmers statewide about upcoming changes in irrigation policies. Which of the following types of communication would be most effective?
A) memo
B) email
C) letter
D) fax
Q5) Chapter 9 offers several guidelines for writing inquiry letters. One is to explain who you are and why you are writing. What is another guideline?
Q6) Provide an example of a salutation.
Q7) Provide an example of a correspondence cliché.
Page 12
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Chapter 10: Writing Job-Application Materials
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Sample Questions
Q1) At 23, Becky has just received her B.S. in horticulture from a state college. She has been interested in flowers and gardening since grade school. While in high school, she won several state-fair ribbons for her flowers, which she grew in her spare time while working part-time at a fast-food restaurant and going to school. She continued working at the restaurant while in college. What advice would you give Becky as she prepares her résumé for a full-time position as a horticulturist for the local county extension service?
A) Write a skills résumé.
B) Write a chronological résumé.
C) Write either style of résumé, but leave out the employment section.
D) Write either style of résumé, but add to the professional information section a detailed paragraph describing in professional terms her love of flowers.
Q2) Chapter 10 lists six guidelines for building the foundation of your professional brand. One is to research what others have done. Name two other guidelines.
Q3) A job-application letter should expand on all the information contained in your résumé.
A)True
B)False
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Page 13
Chapter 11: Writing Proposals
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Sample Questions
Q1) which of these is an example of an indirect cost associated with a proposal?
A) travel costs for personnel going to a remote work site
B) cost of insurance benefits for personnel going to a remote work site
C) cost of supplies used at a remote work site
D) cost of operating a company's telephone system
Q2) What are indirect costs?
Q3) what is the best way to describe the problem or opportunity behind a proposal?
A) in terms as general as possible
B) using economic principles of supply, demand, and opportunity cost
C) in general financial terms
D) in specific monetary terms
Q4) Proposals have two kinds of deliverables. What are they?
Q5) A solicited proposal is one that you send to a customer who has not requested it.
A)True
B)False
Q6) both internal proposals and external proposals are arguments that an organization needs to do something.
A)True
B)False
Page 14
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Chapter 12: Writing Informational Reports
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Sample Questions
Q1) What course of action should you take if you find that you will not be able to meet your original deadline for delivery of a report?
Q2) you should be "clear, comprehensive, objective, and diplomatic" when writing meeting minutes. Which two of these goals have the greatest potential to conflict with each other?
A) clarity and comprehensiveness
B) comprehensiveness and objectivity
C) objectivity and diplomacy
D) comprehensiveness and diplomacy
Q3) Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A) Progress reports are similar to, but not identical to, status reports.
B) Correctly written meeting minutes record everything that occurs at the meeting.
C) Field reports may conclude with suggestions for future action.
D) Incident reports are appropriate for describing accidents that occur in the workplace.
Q4) what is the primary purpose of a field report?
Q5) A status report is usually organized according to task.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Writing Recommendation Reports
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Sample Questions
Q1) You should always avoid recommending a course of action that is inconsistent with the conclusions you derived.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What fundamental question does the conclusions section of a recommendation report answer?
Q3) The results section of a recommendation report is most likely to contain which of the following kinds of information?
A) analyses
B) data
C) suggestions
D) summaries
Q4) Which of these questions does NOT need to be answered in the footnotes or discussion following a decision matrix?
A) Why did you assign that particular weight to each criterion?
B) What are the most significant findings?
C) Why did you choose each criterion-or omit one the reader might have expected to see?
D) Why did you assign that particular rating to each option?
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Chapter 14: Writing Definitions, Descriptions, and Instructions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Placing definitions directly in the text is a common practice. According to Chapter 14, what are two other acceptable locations for definitions?
Q2) A conventions section explains to readers how a manual uses typography to signify different kinds of information. One example is using the typeface Courier to represent text the reader is supposed to type.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following is the most effective title for part of a set of instructions on bicycle repair?
A) Caliper Brake Shoe Yaw Angle Adjustment
B) Adjusting the Yaw Angle of Caliper Brake Shoes
C) Fixing Caliper Brake Shoes
D) How-to Adjusting Brake Shoes Yaw Angle
Q4) Descriptions are rarely incorporated into longer documents; instead, they usually appear as separate documents.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How long should an instructional video be?
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