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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is jargon, or corporate speak, so prevalent in business writing?
(a) It is the industry standard.
(b) It is prevalent because subordinates think that the executives want jargon-filled writing in order to sound more professional.
(c) There is a lack of writing skills learned in college because all the focus is on business.
(d) People lose their ability to write when they take a job since they stop writing.

2. What is a general rule for writing about sports?
(a) Writing only about one sports.
(b) Overeducating the reader about sports facts.
(c) Being as creative as possible to retain readership.
(d) Using industry standards instead of creative terms when referencing sports topics.

3. Cliche words should be avoided at all costs. What else should be avoided?
(a) Assuming the writer has already been to a place.
(b) Not describing a place enough.
(c) Cliched details.
(d) Overly describing a single place.

4. What approach to a place should writers take?
(a) To go within a place and see how it impacts the writer.
(b) Reading other travel pieces and compare them.
(c) Just writing ambiguously.
(d) To go around asking the locals questions.

5. What do sports writers forget to do when writing about sports for so long?
(a) They forget to research the athletes personal lives.
(b) They get into the lives of their athletes in too much depth.
(c) They use too many stats and not enough writing.
(d) They forget who their readers are and what they are writing about.

6. Did Zinsser always want to write?
(a) He always wanted to write for a newspaper.
(b) No, it was a random interest.
(c) Yes, ever since he was a little boy.
(d) No, his love of writing came after being deployed.

7. What did his parents teach him that made him a fantastic writer?
(a) His mother taught him to spell, and his father taught him to write.
(b) HIs father took him to a field trip to a newspaper office.
(c) His mother was a writer and went to career day at his school.
(d) His mother instilled in him a love and respect for good writing, and his father taught him to have a strong work ethic.

8. How are writers like painters?
(a) Writers and painters will destory their work if it is not to their expectations.
(b) They both have the freedom of creativity with no rules that bind them.
(c) Writing isn't like painting at all. Neither has anything in common with the other.
(d) Painters start with models and then learn to create in they own way. Writers use formulas then find their own voice.

9. Is there room for opinion when writing a sports article?
(a) There is always room for commentary.
(b) Absolutely not.
(c) Writers should limit commentary and stick to the stats.
(d) Yes. Readers trust sports writers to make sports predictions about their favorite teams.

10. How is humor used in writing nonfiction?
(a) It is never used. Nonfiction should always be serious.
(b) It is used to bring out points that cannot be made in a straight forward manner.
(c) It is used to practice jokes for stand up comedians.
(d) It is used to make fun of people without them every knowing.

11. What is a misconception about writers and scientists?
(a) Writers are more creative that scientists.
(b) Writers are better than scientists.
(c) It is that writers cannot do science and scientists cannot write.
(d) Scientists are smarter than writers.

12. What is a requirement for good literary criticism?
(a) Having a comparitive literature degress.
(b) Knowing the subject that the writer wants to write about.
(c) Subscribing to arts magazines.
(d) Frequenting the theatre often.

13. What occurs when business writing is bad?
(a) Customers will go elsewhere to buy their goods and services.
(b) Executives get fired for pawning off simple writing tasks.
(c) Investors will agree to terms they do not understand.
(d) People will get fired for bad writing.

14. Do criticism writers need to take a stance on a show?
(a) Yes, but they should mind their wording to not offend those in the show.
(b) No, that should be left up to the audience.
(c) Opinions should always be left out of writing.
(d) Absolutely. They have the power to make or break a show.

15. What is a major problem of business writing?
(a) Not using proper wording to appeal to the business world.
(b) Using jargon that only other business people can understand.
(c) Using long sentences.
(d) Using graphs and not labeling them.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does a writer need to start to get his or her voice discovered?

2. What does Zinsser think about writing memoirs?

3. What advice does Zinsser give to employees who want to change business writing?

4. Why do criticism writers have to be at a higher level than other writers?

5. What do writers focus on most?

(see the answer keys)

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