Deck 17: Writing Informational Reports

Question 1

Identify three of the issues you should be sure to address in a field report.

Answer 1

not answered

Question 2

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?

Answer 2

not answered

Question 3

The primary purpose of a directive is to direct the reader to additional sources of information.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

According to Chapter 17, what is the common goal of all informational reports?

Question 5

What is another name for a status report?

Question 6

A directive is an informational document, not a persuasive one.

Question 7

Whether you have good news or bad news to share, it is important to use a professional, measured tone in an informational report.

Question 8

A directive should include the reasoning behind a new policy or procedure so that readers will be persuaded that the new policy or procedure is desirable or at least necessary.

Question 9

It is not appropriate to add appendixes to informational reports.

Question 10

If an argument arises during a meeting, the person taking minutes should record both the argument and its outcome in order to ensure comprehensiveness.

Question 11

According to Chapter 17, what are the two organizational patterns frequently used in progress reports?

Question 12

What are the five basic formats for informational reports discussed in Chapter 17?

Question 13

According to Chapter 17, what does an incident report describe?

Question 14

For routine reports, you can sometimes use sections of previous reports or boilerplate.

Question 15

A status report is usually organized according to task.

Question 16

How can you ensure that readers can easily find any appendixes you create for a report?

Question 17

It is appropriate to use a defensive tone in an informational report if something has not happened according to plan.

Question 18

According to Chapter 17, what is the primary purpose of a directive?

Question 19

In writing a set of meeting minutes, you should interpret the events of the meeting for your readers.

Question 20

According to Chapter 17, what is the primary purpose of a field report?

Question 21

According to Chapter 17, field reports "explain problems, methods, results, and conclusions, but they deemphasize methods and can include recommendations." What does it mean to deemphasize methods?

A) Spend less effort describing how you did the field study and more effort reporting what you learned from it.
B) Write fewer words describing how you did the field study and what you learned from it.
C) Always make sure that your methods section is not the first section.
D) Describe the methods but explain that they are not important.

Question 22

Chapter 17 notes that, in writing meeting minutes, you should be comprehensive and clear. According to the chapter, what else should you do?

A) Be objective and diplomatic.
B) Record emotional exchanges between participants.
C) Record the details of any disagreements.
D) Create a planning document for use in preparing for the group's next meeting.

Question 23

Which of these is NOT a typical field report as described by Chapter 17?

A) a report on a visit to a potential building site for a client's office
B) a report on maintenance performed on a broken piece of machinery in a shop
C) a report on an inspection conducted at a customer's site
D) a report on an experiment conducted in your company's laboratory

Question 24

If you are writing an informational report for a nontechnical audience, which of the following options is a good strategy?

A) Leave out difficult concepts.
B) Keep the number of pages in the report to a minimum.
C) Define any important terms that might be unfamiliar to the audience.
D) Incorporate many graphics to entertain the audience.

Question 25

Which of these is NOT an important question to answer when writing an incident report?

A) What happened?
B) Whose camera recorded the incident?
C) Why did the incident happen?
D) What should be done in response to this incident?

Question 26

You are writing a progress report about a project that is going poorly. According to Chapter 17, what should you do?

A) Report on the positive aspects of your progress and save the bad news for the completion report at the end of the project.
B) Ask for more time to complete the project.
C) Explain objectively what has happened and how the overall project will be affected.
D) Defend your work on the project and explain who is to blame for the problems.

Question 27

According to Chapter 17, which of the options below is NOT an advantage of using a commercial template to record meeting minutes?

A) The note taker can enter the notes directly into his or her computer rather than typing up written notes afterward.
B) The template prompts the note taker to enter information he or she might otherwise overlook.
C) The template automatically distributes the minutes to all meeting attendees.
D) Because the template is a table, readers quickly become accustomed to reading it and locating the information they need.

Question 28

A writer in the research division of Radworth Pharmaceutical, Inc. is preparing a monthly progress report on the development of a new drug. What is the best way to organize the body of the report?

A) by time
B) from most important to least important accomplishments
C) by task
D) based on the budget allocated for the project

Question 29

You are an independent contractor. The due date for your current project falls right after your vacation, which means you are going to miss a deadline to deliver some of the work to your client. Which of the following statements in a progress report sent before your deadline is most ethical?

A) I anticipate meeting the deadline.
B) Against my protestations, the project manager pressured me to accept an overly aggressive schedule.
C) I did not realize how much my vacation would affect my final tasks on this project. I might need 1-2 extra days to complete everything.
D) I have never missed a deadline with a client.

Question 30

What is the difference between a progress report and a status report?

A) There is no difference.
B) A progress report communicates the current status of an ongoing project, whereas a status report is an update on the entire range of operations of a department or division of an organization.
C) A status report communicates the current status of an ongoing project, whereas a progress report is an update on the entire range of operations of a department or division of an organization.
D) A progress report is written for readers outside of the originating organization, whereas a status report is written for readers within the organization.

Question 31

After a minor accident at the laboratory where you work, your manager has decided to institute some new safety procedures. She asks you to write a memo to employees explaining the new procedures. What kind of informational report is she asking you to write?

A) a directive
B) a lab report
C) an incident report
D) a field report

Question 32

You are a floor supervisor at a manufacturing company. Yesterday, an important piece of equipment failed, stopping production for a full day. You need to explain to the company owners what happened. What kind of report will you write?

A) a directive
B) a field report
C) a status report
D) an incident report

Question 33

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.

Question 34

In which of the following kinds of reports are you most likely to use graphics extensively?

A) a status report
B) meeting minutes
C) an incident report
D) a directive

Question 35

According to Chapter 17, you should be "clear, comprehensive, objective, and diplomatic" when writing meeting minutes. Which two of these ideal 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

Question 36

According to Chapter 17, which two of the following organizational patterns are frequently used in progress reports?

A) spatial pattern and cause-and-effect pattern
B) time pattern and task pattern
C) cause-and-effect pattern and progression pattern
D) progression pattern and time pattern

Question 37

In general, why would someone need to write an incident report?

A) Readers have followed the guidelines established in a recent directive.
B) Something unexpected happened, and the results are good news.
C) Work on a project has been completed.
D) Something unexpected happened, and the results are bad news.

Question 38

Chapter 17 discusses three common problems that you might need to explain in a progress report. Which of the following is NOT one of those common problems?

A) You won't meet the budget.
B) You won't meet your schedule.
C) The deliverable won't be what you thought it would be.
D) Key personnel have left the project.

Question 39

You have been sent by your employer, Madison Construction Company, to a regional conference dealing with ways to improve communication between management and workers in the field. Which of the following would NOT be an acceptable way to submit an informational report on your trip?

A) discussing the trip in your next status report
B) issuing a directive
C) writing a one-page memo reporting on your trip
D) filling out the company's standardized trip form

Question 40

According to Chapter 17, which of the following is NOT a typical informational report?

A) an incident report about the response of your company's security team to an unauthorized visitor on your property
B) a proposal to study why a piece of your company's machinery failed at a customer's site
C) a directive about where employees should park while a construction crew will be blocking some parking spaces
D) meeting minutes recording decisions reached during a committee meeting