Business Communication Today 11th Edition By Bovee – Test Bank

Chapter 11 Finding, Evaluating, and Processing Information

1) At the beginning of a research project, you need to
A) develop a formal outline that you plan to stick to throughout your researching and writing.
B) familiarize yourself with the subject.
C) just jump in by finding resources on the Internet and taking notes from them.
D) develop the conclusion you want to reach and start looking for evidence that supports that conclusion.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) As you begin a research project, the most important thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the subject. Read general, rather than specialized sources to get a broad, non-detailed view of the subject and identify critical gaps in your knowledge.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 315
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities

2) A problem statement
A) outlines all the potential drawbacks of your research.
B) defines the purpose of your research.
C) is an unsupportable claim or assertion.
D) should be long and complex.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) A problem statement expresses the main idea that your research is pursuing. You may find it convenient to express your problem statement as a question, such as, “How likely is it that nuclear fusion will be an important energy source in the future?”
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 316
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities

3) Sources of secondary information include
A) first-hand observation.
B) in-person interviews.
C) newspapers and periodicals.
D) experiments.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Secondary research uses already existing sources of data and evidence and compiles them to draw conclusions. An example of a secondary research source is a published research paper that measures the effectiveness of a new drug for migraine headaches.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 317
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Communication Abilities

4) Primary research refers to
A) new research done specifically for your current project.
B) the evidence that stands out in your report.
C) the research you conduct first.
D) research that is fairly easy to conduct.
Answer: A
Explanation: A) Primary research is research that is done specifically for the project you are working on. For example, primary research for a childhood obesity project might collect data on how often kids eat and watch TV at the same time.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 317
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities

5) Which of these documents would not qualify as primary research?
A) A recent survey of your company’s top clients
B) The most recent issue of a trade magazine in your industry
C) Notes from a conversation you recently had with a local government official
D) Your company’s latest balance sheet
Answer: B
Explanation: B) If a data source is published it does not qualify as primary research. Primary research involves data that you or people working on your project collect themselves. Data from published sources is secondary research.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 317
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities

6) In evaluating material you have gathered for a report, you should
A) assume that any information taken from a webpage will be credible and reliable.
B) throw out any information whose source is an organization that might be biased.
C) check to make sure the material is current.
D) ignore government documents.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) The data you have found might be relevant and convincing, but it might not be the latest data out there. Before completing your report, search for data that is more recent than the data you are using.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 317-318
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Communication Abilities

7) Bing is an example of a
A) metacrawler.
B) web directory.
C) search engine.
D) none of the above.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Search engines like Google and Bing use a special protocol that looks at people who were searching for the same or similar information that you are searching for and ranks them according to how frequently they were clicked on. This ranking process allows the search engines to find the “most popular answer” that often turns out to be the answer that is useful to you.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 320
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Use of IT

8) Which of the following is not true of conventional search engines?
A) They travel the web automatically, identifying new websites.
B) They access the deep Internet or hidden Internet.
C) They return to previously identified websites to look for changes.
D) Not all search engines operate in the same way.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) Search engines don’t have access to all web pages on the Internet. The most obscure pages in the “deep” Internet cannot be accessed by conventional search engines.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 321
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Use of IT

9) A web directory differs from a search engine in that
A) it doesn’t include Usenet newsgroups.
B) it doesn’t provide as precise results as a search engine.
C) human editors find and index the websites to include.
D) it usually locates more sites than a search engine.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Search engines get results from computer algorithms that rank web pages. Web directories have human editors who find and evaluate useful websites.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 321
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Use of IT

10) A metacrawler is
A) a highly specialized directory that focuses on a specific subject matter area.
B) a search engine that examines only newsgroup messages.
C) a type of aggregator that offers subscribers all-day information on their desktops.
D) a special type of engine that searches several search engines at once.
Answer: D
Explanation: D) To account for the particular biases of search engines, metacrawlers aggregate results from multiple search engines and rank their websites. The result is a search that is not biased by any one particular method of ranking and evaluating web pages.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 321
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Use of IT