Chapter 6 Short Reports, Proposals, And Technical Exam Prep

Chapter 6

Short Reports, Proposals, and Technical Documents

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is true about reports?
   1. They tend to be very personal.
   2. They are distributed to just one or two people.
   3. They express a personal relationship.
   4. They employ a more formal tone than emails.
2. You should add a title page and table of contents if your report exceeds ________ pages.
   1. 2
   2. 7–8
   3. 10–15
   4. 20
3. Which of the following is NOT true about summaries?
   1. They are generally written first.
   2. They are condensed versions of your report.
   3. Writing them is like submitting a report twice.
   4. They contain the main ideas of the report.
4. Which of the following is NOT true about the context section of a report?
   1. It is sometimes referred to as the introduction.
   2. It provides the “meat” of the report.
   3. It allows the report to make sense to people years down the road.
   4. It establishes the purpose of the report and how it fits into a project or business.
5. Inspection reports, trip reports, and incident reports describe events that ________.
   1. happened in the past
   2. are happening right now
   3. are being proposed for the future
   4. are controversial and may never happen
6. The questions “What was your overall impression?” and “What deficiencies did you find?” should be answered in which section of an inspection report?
   1. Summary
   2. Context
   3. Inspection
   4. Next Step
7. The question “What unforeseen work were you required/asked to do?” should be answered in which section of a trip report?
   1. Summary
   2. Context
   3. Work Done
   4. Next Step
8. Which of the following does NOT require a trip report?
   1. an overnight trip
   2. a trip to another city
   3. a trip to another country
   4. a commute to a site within your normal reach of business
9. The question “To what project or work task does this accident relate?” should be answered in which section of an incident report?
   1. Summary
   2. Context
   3. Incident
   4. Next Step
10. A report that is written monthly for several years is most likely a(n) ________.
    1. periodic progress report
    2. long-term progress report
    3. task report
    4. incident report
11. The question “What are you doing right now to deal with the problems?” should be answered in which section of a progress report?
    1. Summary
    2. Context
    3. Progress
    4. Next Step
12. An internal proposal is likely to be presented in ________ format.
    1. standard report
    2. long report
    3. email
    4. memo
13. When writing an internal proposal, the ________ section is likely to be shorter than for an external proposal.
    1. Summary
    2. Details
    3. Context
    4. Next Step
14. Which of the following is NOT a document intended to recommend future action (though it may recommend follow-up in the Next Step section)?
    1. internal proposal
    2. investigative report
    3. feasibility study
    4. inspection report
15. A proposal attempts to ________.
    1. identify and define a problem
    2. seek approval to make a change or pursue a project
    3. compare several options and recommend one
    4. assess a previously proposed solution, project, or idea
16. Which of the following is NOT a typical subsection in a proposal?
    1. Costs
    2. Schedule
    3. References
    4. Procedure and Equipment
17. An investigation report attempts to ________.
    1. assess a previously proposed solution, project, or idea
    2. identify and define a problem
    3. compare several options and recommend one
    4. seek approval to make a change or pursue a project
18. Which of the following is NOT true about a feasibility study?
    1. It assesses multiple competing projects.
    2. It makes a yes-or-no recommendation.
    3. It justifies a course of action.
    4. It provides due diligence.
19. Investigation reports often precede ________.
    1. recommendation reports
    2. feasibility studies
    3. proposals
    4. inspection reports
20. A specifications document does NOT contain which of the following?
    1. a summary
    2. a general description
    3. a part-by-part description
    4. headings and subheadings
21. An abstract is the equivalent of a(n) ________.
    1. introduction
    2. summary
    3. context section
    4. index
22. Procedure and Equipment is a standard section in a ________.
    1. proposal
    2. lab report
    3. recommendation report
    4. feasibility study
23. The most important part of a lab report is the ________.
    1. results
    2. discussion
    3. conclusion
    4. appendix
24. Which of the following functions can a project log NOT fulfill?
    1. record ideas during meetings and brainstorming sessions
    2. provide a time log for individual days or whole projects
    3. be submitted as a project proposal
    4. act as a source for debriefing after completion of a project
25. What is the best reason to fill consecutive pages in a project log and not leave blank spots on pages?
    1. to conserve paper
    2. to prove that you have not gone back to fill in some blank spaces in order to alter your time line
    3. to provide a dense, professional look to the document
    4. to ensure you can fit the entire project into a single logbook

True or False Questions

1. There is no real difference between correspondence and reports.
2. Trip reports describe only what an employee actually accomplished—not what the employee was sent to do.
3. An investigation report typically seeks to define a problem.
4. Closed specifications are more restrictive than open specifications.
5. It is general practice to use “must” to denote requirements in a specifications document.
6. Open specifications are also known as “functional specifications.”
7. Abstracts function much like introductions.
8. To make readers of a solicited proposal receptive to a solution, the writer must first convince them that they have a problem.
9. In a lab report, the appendix always comes before the references section.
10. A recommendation report assesses a previously proposed solution, project, or idea to see if it can be pursued.
11. Unsolicited proposals are always preceded by an RFP.
12. Summaries are generally written first but read last.
13. A next-step discussion should never appear in a transmittal document.
14. Project logs are only useful in engineering design projects.
15. Properly recorded, a project log can provide legal proof for patent dispute resolutions.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is an inspection report and what sections should it contain?
2. What are the two different types of progress reports?
3. Describe the differences between an internal proposal and an external proposal.
4. Describe the difference between a solicited proposal and an unsolicited proposal.
5. Describe the difference between a proposal and an investigation report.
6. Describe the subsections that should be included in the “proposal” section of a proposal.
7. What is a recommendation report?
8. What is a feasibility study?
9. Why do specifications documents not require a summary or next steps section?
10. What are the differences between open specifications and closed specifications?

Long Answer Questions

1. Describe the similarities and differences between trip reports and progress reports. Why are these two types of reports vital to business operations?
2. In Figure 6.9 we are shown two different examples of specifications formats for a Blackberry phone. What are these differences and why are they significant?
3. Take a look at the standard structure of a lab report. How does this structure compare to the standard document structure used by most of the other documents discussed in this chapter?