ANSWER KEY TO EXERCISES

CHAPTER 1
c. All other decisions at the planning stage depend on your sense of community with your reader(s) and your sense of the ways in which you and your reader(s) are alike and different. c. Communication requires community, and community requires communication. b. Consider the smallest possible community to which you and your audience both belong. The smaller your shared community, the more information youll have about similarities and differences with your audience. c. Both similarities and differences should be considered. b. Considering both your own personality and that of your reader(s) will allow you to make an effective adjustment for the needs of your reader(s). d. Avoiding sentimentally, supporting your opinions logically, and making your thinking process clear are all important when communicating with a thinker. a. Similarities and differences between your attitudes and those of your audience definitely should be considered at the planning stage. b. Maslows hierarchy can help you to assess how your writing can fill a need for your reader(s). c. It is most helpful to visualize your reader(s) reading and reacting to your message. a. COIK material (Clear Only If Known) will be understandable by the reader(s) only if the reader(s) already knows it.

CHAPTER 2
c. Defining purpose should be done after defining writer and reader(s) but before collecting and organizing information for your message. c. Subject lines were invented for filing purposes, and they invite generality and vagueness. c. Purpose-defining subject lines are helpful to both the writer and the reader. b. Readers always want to know Whats in it for me?

d. Ko and mei, the roots for communication and community, mean together and change. c. Most pieces of communication have both ko (community-building) and mei (change-producing) functions. c. A mission statement has a longer-term covenant purpose. a. A birthday card has a ko, conversation purpose. d. A monthly profit-and-loss statement has a shorter-term purpose. c. A corporate history, in its focus on the past, has a ko, covenant purpose.

CHAPTER 3
1. c. Gathering information should be done after defining audience and purpose but before organizing the information. 2. d. Information gathering should be done before drafting to reduce interruptions during drafting, to reduce the possibility of leaving out important information, and to give you the confidence to draft more easilyas well as to focus carefully on your information. 3. c. Who, what, where, when, why, and how questions are usually most effective. 4. c. The reporters checklist can be valuable at both the planning and revising stages. 5. b. The four pairs of questions are based on the words same/different, whole/parts, time/space, and cause/effect. 6. b. During an interview, you should listen to the responses you get, and ask followup questions. 7. c. Web-based information can be accurate or inaccurate, so it should be read and used critically. 8. c. While brainstorming, dont be concerned about whether or not youll eventually be able to use a particular idea in the piece of writing. 9. d. None of the statements about mind-mapping is true. 10. b. The writing you do at the information-gathering stage should be based on the definitions of audience and purpose youve made in steps 1 and 2, but it need not be spelled and punctuated correctly, nor carefully organized, at this point.

CHAPTER 4
Exercise A
c. Organizing information should be done after defining audience and purpose and after gathering information but before drafting. d. Organizing information should be done before drafting in order to allow you to focus on the best order for the reader, to reduce interruptions during drafting, and to turn the drafting job into a series of smaller jobs. b. Writing is difficult in part because it requires converting nonlinear thinking into linear words, sentences, and paragraphs. a. One-stage writers tend to write things down in the order in which they think of them. c. Formal outlines should be used at the planning stage only if they are useful to the writer. b. Routine requests for information generally should begin with the request itself, phrased as a question if possible. d. Claims generally should begin with a statement of the problem. b. Good-news responses generally should begin with the good news. c. Bad-news responses generally should begin with a neutral acknowledgment. a. Indirect persuasion usually does not begin with a statement of the writers position.

Exercise B
This letter has no single best organizational pattern. The following is how I probably would organize it. Compare your answers with mine, and if we disagree, see how you would defend your plan. Taking the time, at the planning stage, to think about organization is more important than coming up with a particular correct plan. 1. b 2. h (or a) 3. a (or h) 47. c, f, i, and e (or i, e, c, and f or some other combinations) 8. d

9. g

CHAPTER 6
b. Overall organization decisions should be made in step 4 in the planning stage. d. Spell-checking should be done at the revising stage. d. Decisions about words should be postponed until the revising stage. c. You should devote the drafting stage to putting sentences down on paper or computer screen. b. The purpose of your document should be determined in step 2 in the planning stage. a. At the managing stage, you allocate time for the other stages. b. Decisions about starting and ending the document should be made in step 4 in the planning stage. d. Reviewing paragraphs for transitions should be done at the revising stage. b. You should get an initial sense of your audience in step 1 in the planning stage. b. Information collecting should be done in step 3 in the planning stage.

CHAPTER 7
Exercise A
1. b. The two sentences have a but relationship, with the second qualifying the first. 2. c. The two sentences have an and relationship and can be combined effectively. 3. d. The first sentence has a colon relationship with the second and third, which have an and relationship with each other. All three can be combined effectively. 4. a. The two sentences have a but relationship, with the second qualifying the first. 5. c. The first sentence is the result of the second, so they can be combined with the word because. 6. d. The two sentences have a so relationship, with the first stating the cause of the second. 7. b. The two sentences have an and relationship and can be combined effectively. Answers c and d would work well if the word also were added. 8. d. Answers c and d both express the correct and relationship, but answer d does so more economically.

9. d. The two sentences have a because relationship, with the first sentence expressing the result of the second. 10. b. The two sentences have a colon relationship. The first sentence makes a general statement, and the second provides specifics.

Exercise B
Answers will vary, but heres one possible revision: In the past, procedures for repair and calibration of test equipment have been unsatisfactory. Too much time has been spent taking instruments to and from Instrument Services, and some equipment has been misplaced. Beginning November 10, drop zones will be used for the pickup of test equipment. Instruments that need calibration or repair may be taken to the appropriate drop zone, as shown on the attached list. Instruments will be picked up Mondays and Thursdays. Managers or their representatives will be responsible for taking equipment to drop zones; Instrument Services personnel will return them. To ensure that instruments are returned to the correct manager, mark the correct department and building number on each instrument before taking it to the drop zone. To find out whether an instrument has been repaired or calibrated, or for more information on the drop zone system, call Instrument Services, not the drop zone coordinator.

CHAPTER 8
Exercise A
1. b. This sentence is active and has a real subject (We) and a real verb (cant participate) in the subject and verb positions. 2. a. This sentence has real verbs (need and understand) in both its clauses. The other three sentences hide these verbs. 3. c. This sentence focuses on the reader instead of the writer, and it has real verbs (determine and benefit) in both its clauses. 4. c. This sentence has a real subject (expenses), not an empty subject (It or There). 5. d. This sentence has real subjects (I and issues) in both its clauses. 6. b. This sentence has a real subject (headquarters) instead of an empty subject (there). 7. b. This sentence has a real subject (I) in its main clause and a real verb (submit) in its subordinate clause.

8. a. This sentence has both a real subject (course) and a real verb (will examine). 9. d. This sentence is active, with a real verb (canceled). 10. a. This sentence has a real subject (process).

Exercise B
Answers will vary, but heres one possible revision: In recent weeks several of you have made public statements about our company, statements that I believe are harmful to C&Es public image. I referred this matter to the Board of Directors, who discussed it at some length and decided that in the future, all public statements about our company must be cleared in advance by our office, on forms available. I appreciate your cooperation.

CHAPTER 9
Exercise A
1. d 2. b 3. d 4. c 5. c 6. c 7. b 8. d 9. b 10. c

Exercise B
Answers will vary, but heres one possible revision: The following changes have been made to our vacation policy: April 1, our founders birthday, will become a company holiday. We hope this extra holiday will increase morale.

We have arranged with a travel agency to provide reduced-price vacation opportunities. Their brochure, listing all tours, is available in the Personnel Office. All managers must report employee vacation preferences quarterly. Thank you. Please call me if you have questions.

CHAPTER 10
Exercise A
1. d 2. b 3. c 4. a 5. d 6. b 7. d 8. d 9. b 10. c

Exercise B
Answers will vary, but heres one possible revision: As Ive talked with many of you over the past several months, Ive often heard you ask, Are we trying to produce too many new products? Do we really need such a large line? My first response is to stress the importance of changing our companys image. To get our market share, we must correct the faults of the past. We must be seen as a company willing to innovate. [The last sentence probably should be eliminated. Consider the effect of simplifying it into something like Im sure that if you look into the matter, you will find that I am right.]

CHAPTER 11
1. a. The possessive pronoun its (like the possessive pronouns his, hers, and yours) is spelled without an apostrophe. The word spelled its is a contraction of it is.

2. d. The phrase a lot is spelled as two words. In the United States, periods and commas always go inside closing quotation marks. 3. b. Stationery, meaning writing paper, is spelled with an e. Words ending in two consonants, such as print, dont double a consonant when adding a suffix. 4. d. Effect, as a noun, means a result. Affect, as a noun, is a fairly uncommon psychological term. Effect, as a verb, means to bring about, as in The prisoner effected an escape. Affect, as a verb, means to influence. 5. d. Capital, with an a, is a city; capitol, with an o, is a building. Principle is a fundamental concept; principal, as a noun or adjective, means chief. 6. b. The phrase all ready means everyone or everything ready. The word already means by now. Alright is an unconventional spelling of the phrase all right. 7. b. Perceived is spelled with an ie; as the verse says, I before e except after c. (And remember, there are a few exceptions even to that.) Words such as occur, ending with one vowel followed by one consonant in an accented syllable, usually double that consonant before suffixes beginning with a vowel. 8. b. Words such as retrace, ending in a silent e, usually drop that e before a suffix beginning with a vowel. Words such as worry, ending in a consonant plus a y, usually change the y to i before a suffix. Omit follows the same rule as occur in answer 7. 9. c. Book publishers generally use a comma before the conjunction in a series. Newspaper publishers generally do not. Both are conventional in their own contexts. Just be consistent. (And if you really want me to give you an answer, well, okay, use the comma.) 10. d. Question marks (and exclamation points) go inside closing quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material. If, on the other hand, they give their meaning to the entire sentence outside the quotation marks, they go outside the closing quotation marks.