Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3) Use the concept of ________ to help you design visuals that are consistent from one page of a
document to the next.
A) data visualization
B) visual parallelism
C) graphical enrichment
D) visual enhancement
Answer: B
Explanation: B) Consistency is fundamental to effective visual design. Visual parallelism
promotes consistent design elements throughout a document.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept/Application
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
4) Consider the statements below. Which one of them is true?
A) Contemporary audiences don't expect messages to contain visual elements.
B) Today's video and graphic technology is so complex that only professionals can use it.
C) Visuals can help you communicate your messages to audiences with lower reading skills.
D) Your ability to create and interpret visuals will have little to do with your success in business.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Research shows that only 50% of adults in the USA have the literacy skills
required for success in today's workplace. Visuals could play a vital role in communicating your
messages to audience members with lower literacy skills.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities, Multicultural and Diversity Understanding
Learning Outcome: Describe the opportunities and challenges of communicating in a diverse
world
5) Clip art cluttering a bar chart is an example of
A) a pictogram.
B) chartjunk.
C) a good way to grab reader interest.
D) all of the above.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) Chartjunk is defined as any visual element that is added to an image for
decorative (or other) purposes that does contribute any value or meaning to the image. Chartjunk
clutters visuals and makes them hard to interpret.
Diff: 2
Skill: Application
Objective: 1
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
2
6) Examples of ethical lapses to avoid in business visuals include all of the following except
A) including photos that play on racial or gender stereotypes.
B) expanding the detail of a graphic in order to make it more readable.
C) altering photos or graphs to hide information that could make you look bad.
D) distorting the axes on a line chart to make sales look like they have increased significantly
over previous years.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) Most lapses come from hiding or distorting information. Rather than hide or
distort, making a graphic more readable is likely to reduce the chance of misinterpretation.
Diff: 2
Skill: Application
Objective: 1
AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
7) If you have a great deal of detailed, specific information to present to allow users to find
specific data point values in decimal form, the best visual to use would be a
A) table.
B) pie chart.
C) diagram.
D) Gantt chart.
Answer: A
Explanation: A) Tables are best for presenting detailed, specific information in large quantities.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
8) Use a ________ to show frequency or distribution of parts in a whole.
A) bar chart
B) histogram
C) flowchart
D) pie chart
Answer: D
Explanation: D) Use a pie chart when you need to show frequency or distribution of parts in a
whole.
Diff: 1
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
3
9) When you need to show processes, transformations, and other activities, the most effective
visual choice would be
A) infographics.
B) flowcharts and diagrams.
C) animations and videos.
D) data visualizations.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Use animation and video to show processes, transformations, and other
activities.
Diff: 2
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
10) When you're creating a table for online use, ________ to make sure that the table is easy to
read.
A) reduce the number of columns and rows
B) remove lines and spaces between columns and rows
C) display data items in unrounded, multiple units
D) present large amounts of data and information
Answer: A
Explanation: A) Printed tables can display extensive amounts of information, but tables intended
for online display and electronic presentations must be simpler.
Diff: 2
Skill: Critical Thinking
Objective: 3
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
Mileage
26.4 miles per
gallon
Miles per
gallon
26.4
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
12) The best type of visual for showing that annual consumer spending has decreased over the
past ten years would be
A) a table.
B) a pie chart.
C) a line chart.
D) an organization chart.
Answer: C
Explanation: C) A line chart is best for showing how a variable changes over time or showing
the relationship of two or more variables. These features can be shown on bar charts as well, but
bar charts cannot show time as a continuous variable.
Diff: 3
Skill: Critical Thinking
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytical Skills
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
13) When preparing a line chart, keep in mind that you should
A) never leave out increments from the vertical axis.
B) be especially careful to avoid distorting the data.
C) never include negative numbers on the vertical axis.
D) all of the above.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) You can distort your data if you choose the range for your axes as too great or
too small. Distortions also occur when an axis shows only part of an entire range, such as
percentages from 90 percent to 100 percent, rather than showing a range from 0 percent to 100
percent.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
14) The best visual for illustrating a manufacturer's quality control process would be a
A) line chart.
B) flowchart.
C) scatter diagram.
D) pie chart.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) Flowcharts are best for showing conceptual rather than numeric relationships.
Flowcharts are ideal for showing a complicated, multi-step manufacturing process, allowing
sequential steps and relationships to be shown visually.
Diff: 1
Skill: Critical Thinking
Objective: 4
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
21) The best way to illustrate what percentage of your firm's annual budget is spent on what
would be a
A) pie chart.
B) line chart.
C) organizational chart.
D) flowchart.
Answer: A
Explanation: A) Pie charts are best for showing how parts of a larger whole are distributed. For
this reason, pie charts are perfect for budgets, as each slice of the pie shows the relative
contribution of that item to the whole.
Diff: 2
Skill: Critical Thinking
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
22) For determining numerical values, pie charts are generally ________ than bar charts or line
charts.
A) much better
B) worse
C) about the same
D) slightly better
Answer: B
Explanation: B) It is very difficult to determine a numerical value using a pie chart. In contrast,
it is quite easy to read off a value from a well-made bar chart or line chart.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
10
11
12
13
14
15
34) The ideal balance between the visual and the verbal depends on
A) the nature of your audience.
B) the length of the report/presentation.
C) the amount of money available for underwriting the costs of graphics.
D) internal company guidelines.
Answer: A
Explanation: A) Each audience responds best to a particular balance and emphasis. A nonEnglish speaking audience, for example, may require extra visuals to get around language
barriers. A largely academic audience, in contrast, might respond better to a text-heavy
presentation.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities, Multicultural and Diversity Understanding
Learning Outcome: Describe the opportunities and challenges of communicating in a diverse
world
35) The reference to a bar chart in your report on advertising costs should
A) come directly after the chart itself appears.
B) precede the chart.
C) come on the page following the chart, and refer to it as "the abovementioned pie chart."
D) include copyright information.
Answer: B
Explanation: B) Readers find it less confusing when an explanation of the visual comes before
the visual itself rather than after the visual. Make a concerted effort to avoid having your readers
need to flip back and forth between visuals and text, or scroll down awkwardly on a computer
screen. Try to place the visual as closely as possible to the text that supports it.
Diff: 2
Skill: Application
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
16
18
41) A special class of diagrams called ________ can feature stylized versions of charts and
graphs or offer structured narratives.
A) informatics
B) pictograms
C) infographics
D) monograms
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Infographics come in two types: those that are stylized collections of charts and
graphs and those that have a structured narrative.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
42) The process for producing business videos includes the following three stages:
A) planning, writing, and completing.
B) casting, filming, and broadcasting.
C) visualization, production, and dissemination.
D) preproduction, production, and postproduction.
Answer: D
Explanation: D) By following a methodical process in the preproduction, production, and
postproduction stages, any business communicator with basic equipment can create effective
videos.
Diff: 2
Skill: Synthesis
Objective: 6
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
43) The term ________ refers to secondary video clips and still images that can add visual
interest to or improve the flow of a business video.
A) B-roll material
B) A-list material
C) shot-list material
D) back-up material
Answer: A
Explanation: A) B-roll is film terminology for extra scenes and images that can enhance the
finished product.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept/Application
Objective: 6
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
19
44) Best practices during the production stage of a business video do not include
A) keeping your camera still.
B) capturing B-roll footage.
C) framing each shot carefully.
D) using special effects on your camera.
Answer: D
Explanation: D) Export "clean" footage to your editing software and add special effects as
needed in postproduction.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept/Application
Objective: 6
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
45) During the post-production stage of a business video, you can
A) add transitions between video segments.
B) identify the shots you want to keep and those you want to delete.
C) synchronize the main audio track with the video and record narration.
D) all of the above.
Answer: D
Explanation: D) During the postproduction stage, you can remove clumsy bits of footage, record
narration, replace sections of dialogue, and make other fixes.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept/Application
Objective: 6
AACSB: Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
46) Unlike words, visual images have connotative meanings that are consistent across cultures.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: Visual images evolve over time and have different meanings in different cultures.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Multicultural and Diversity Understanding
Learning Outcome: Describe the opportunities and challenges of communicating in a diverse
world
20
21
50) In business presentations, maintaining consistency among your visuals is less important than
impressing the audience with a wide range of special effects.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: Too many visual effects tend to clutter the page and cancel one another out.
Balance, proportion, and consistency are much more important for visual success than visual
effects.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
51) The more decorative elements you can add to a graphic, the more interesting and useful it
will be to the audience.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: Adding decorative elements is a form of chartjunk that needlessly clutters visuals
and gets in the way of effective design. Good design never includes elements that are purely
decorative.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
52) Altering the horizontal or vertical scale on a line graph can profoundly influence your
audience's perception of the data you present.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: For example, changing a vertical percentage scale to show only the top twenty
percent of the scale instead of the entire range from 0 percent to 100 percent can make fairly
minor fluctuations in data look enormous. This strategy would be used by an artist who wanted
to dramatize the element of change in the data. In many cases, this kind of manipulation is
unethical, because it distorts the meaning of the data.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
22
53) Use a table to summarize information that would be difficult or tedious to handle in the main
text.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: Tables are the best choice when the actual values of the data are important for users
to obtain. For example, in a federal tax table, users need to be able to look up the exact amount
they must pay according to their taxable income. So they just find their taxable income in one
column of the table, then read off the taxable amount in a second column.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
54) Infographics are limited to showing stylized versions of charts and graphs.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: Infographics can offer not only stylized graphics but also structured narratives.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
55) When preparing numerical tables, you should express all items in a column in the same unit.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: Changing units within a single column could be confusing or even misleading to
the reader.
Diff: 3
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
56) In line charts showing trends, the vertical axis indicates time or quantity, and the horizontal
axis indicates amount.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: The convention in line charts is for the horizontal axis always to show a unit of
time, such as years, days, or minutes. Some line charts don't include a time element; in that case,
either variable can be located on the horizontal axis.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
23
57) Generally speaking, a line chart should not contain more than 2-3 lines for comparison.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: One of the best features of a line graph is its ability to show how different variables
change over time. However, the graphs become confusing and hard to read if more than two or
three variables are graphed on the same axes.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
58) The edge of the bottom section of a surface chart shows the cumulative total for all of the
categories.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: The top edge of the top section shows the cumulative total for all categories.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
59) Bar charts can be used to compare more than one set of data.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: For example, in comparing yearly sales of three different brands of cereal, each
brand can be represented by a separate bar.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
60) The deviation bar chart shows variation for a variable over time.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: For example, a deviation bar chart for daily weather might show a bar that extends
from the high to the low temperature for the day. Between that high and low, a single bar would
mark the average temperature for the day.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
24
25
64) Data visualization is focused on extracting broad meaning from data (rather than on
clarifying individual data points).
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: The point of data visualization isn't so much representing individual data points as
it is conveying the "meaning" of the data. When data visualization is done well, you are able to
draw an instant conclusion from viewing the graphic, such as, "Too much money is being spent
on overhead," or "Sales doubled over the last three months."
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
65) If you want to illustrate a process or procedure, the best type of visual to use is a flowchart.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: A flowchart works best in showing relationships between steps in a complex
process, such as a manufacturing process, that are not necessarily in a sequential linear order.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
66) On a flowchart, diamonds indicate decision points.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: In a flowchart, diamonds represent decision points, while rectangles show process
steps.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
67) Drawings, diagrams, and photographs are generally not helpful in business documents.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: Visuals of all types, when chosen well and implemented skillfully, can enhance the
effectiveness of a business document immensely.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
26
68) Because of the costs of reproduction, photographs are usually not used in business reports.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: Costs to reproduce photographs are virtually zero in today's all-digital world.
Companies can include photographs that they have taken themselves with almost no cost.
Permissions can be costly, so business reports tend to use in-house photos more than purchased
photos.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
69) Using an informative title for a visual, such as "Demand Grows Exponentially," will make it
easier for your audience to understand the main idea depicted in that visual.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: If a visual has an informative title, the audience won't have to interpret the visual to
extract its main idea.
Diff: 2
Skill: Application
Objective: 4
AACSB: Analytical Skills
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
70) In the text of a report, only the most important visuals should be referred to by number.
Answer: FALSE
Explanation: If one visual in the document is referred to by number, all of the visuals should be
included in the number scheme, whether they are considered "important" or not.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
27
71) The best place to put a visual is right next to or immediately following the paragraph it
illustrates.
Answer: TRUE
Explanation: The worst place to put a visual is a page or more before or after it is referred to in
the text. This causes the reader to need to flip back and forth between the text and the visual,
something that most people find irritating.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
72) A basic principle of design is to maintain ________ or visual parallelism among all the
visuals in a document.
Answer: consistency
Explanation: An example of visual parallelism is to put the main text of a document to one side
of the page, and leave a small column on the outside of the page empty for comments, graphs, or
other visual elements.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
73) ________ refers to decorative elements that clutter documents without adding any relevant
information.
Answer: Chartjunk
Explanation: Any visual element that is purely decorative is considered chartjunk and should be
left out of the graphic.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
28
74) A(n) ________ chart specializes in showing how a variable changes over time.
Answer: line
Explanation: Typically, the horizontal axis for a line chart is a unit of timeyears, days, hours,
and so on. Line charts can also plot a non-time variable on the horizontal axis.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
75) A(n) ________ is a poor choice for noticing mathematical trends.
Answer: table
Explanation: It is very difficult to see trends in a table that is filled with data points that are
represented either by number values or words. To see relationships in a table that contains
numbers, you need to estimate relationships between values.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
76) ________ charts are a form of line chart with a cumulative effect; all the lines add up to the
top line.
Answer: Surface
Explanation: At any point on the top edge of a surface chart you can get a measure of the
cumulative total of the variable on the vertical axis.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
77) A(n) ________ chart can take several forms including grouped, deviation, segmented,
combination, or paired.
Answer: bar
Explanation: Bar charts are the most versatile form of chart. Bar charts can be constructed in
dozens of different ways to emphasize different aspects of a data set.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
29
78) A(n) ________ is a type of chart that uses symbols instead of words or numbers to portray
data.
Answer: pictogram
Explanation: The symbols in a pictogram represent data. The larger the symbol, the greater the
value of the data point.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
79) A(n) ________ ________ chart shows how much time is needed to complete each task in a
given project.
Answer: time line
Explanation: A time line chart shows time needed to complete a single task.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
80) A(n) ________ chart is a type of time line chart used to track progress toward completing a
project.
Answer: Gantt
Explanation: A Gantt chart is essentially a series of time line charts all expressed in the same
graph with a single horizontal axis expressing time.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
81) The most difficult chart to use to collect numerical data from is the ________ chart.
Answer: pie
Explanation: It is almost impossible to collect numerical values from a pie chart. If the pie is
split in half, you can tell that half of the circle represents 50 percent of the total. Any other value
can only be guessed at.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
30
82) To illustrate the positions, units, or functions of an organization and the way they interrelate,
use a(n) ________ chart.
Answer: organization
Explanation: An organization chart works like a flowchart to depict relationships between
individuals and levels in a company or organization. For example, an organization chart for the
United States government would start with three boxes on top showing the president, Congress,
and Supreme Court.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
83) A(n) ________ title on a graphic simply identifies the topic.
Answer: descriptive
Explanation: An example of a descriptive title is: "Supply Versus Cost for Oil, 2009." The title
identifies the topic, but it doesn't make a comment on the topic.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
84) A(n) ________ title calls attention to the conclusion that ought to be drawn from the data.
Answer: informative
Explanation: An example of an informative title is: "Cost of Oil Rises as Supply Decreases,
2009." The title not only identifies the topic, it also tells comments on trends that seem evident in
graph.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
31
85) Along with the title of a visual, the ________ offers additional discussion of the visual's
content and can be several sentences long.
Answer: caption
Explanation: Captions may point out some special feature in the visual. For example, the caption
for a photograph of a chemical plant might say: "The container on the right is used as a
fermentation tank."
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
86) What is "chartjunk"?
Answer: "Chartjunk" refers to any decorative elements that clutter documents (and confuse
readers) without adding any relevant information.
Diff: 1
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
87) Briefly describe one way that visuals can be designed to emphasize or deemphasize certain
aspects of the data they present.
Answer: You can emphasize or deemphasize certain aspects of data in visual aids by altering the
horizontal or vertical scale on a chart or graph or by manipulating the perspective a photograph
provides on an object.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
88) List at least five types of visuals commonly used to present data in business documents.
Provide an example of a specific task for which one type would be especially useful.
Answer: (1) Tables, (2) line charts, (3) surface charts, (4) bar charts, (5) pictograms, (6) Gantt
charts, (7) Scatter and bubble diagrams, and (8) pie charts. A bar chart would be helpful for
comparing the retail cost of several hybrid automobiles.
Diff: 2
Skill: Critical Thinking
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
32
89) In a line chart, what do the vertical and horizontal axes normally illustrate?
Answer: The vertical axis normally shows the amount, and the horizontal axis illustrates the
time or other quantity against which the amount is being measured.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
90) In designing visuals for business reports, what tasks are best suited for bar charts? List at
least two.
Answer: Bar charts are particularly useful for comparing the size of several items at one time,
showing changes in one item over time, indicating the composition of several items over time,
and showing the relative size of components of a whole.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
91) How are Gantt charts used in business documents?
Answer: Gantt charts are used to track progress toward completing a project.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
92) In preparing a presentation for a local community group, you need to describe the process
your plant uses to manufacture home appliances. What type of visual should you use to describe
the process, and why?
Answer: A flowchart would be best in this case, since it is the visual aid designed to illustrate a
sequence of events from start to finish.
Diff: 2
Skill: Critical Thinking
Objective: 4
AACSB: Analytical Skills
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
33
93) List two ways that including too many visuals can distract your audience from the main
points of your message.
Answer: (1) Along with constantly referring to tables, drawings, and other visual elements,
switching back and forth from words to visuals can make it difficult for readers to follow your
message. (2) The space occupied by visuals can disrupt the flow of text on the page or screen,
which also creates additional work for the reader.
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
94) Briefly explain the difference between descriptive titles and informative titles for visuals, and
provide an example of each.
Answer: Informative titles do more than simply identify the topic of the illustration. "Annual
Spending" would be a descriptive title, whereas "Annual Spending Increases Despite Flagging
Economy" would be an informative title. (Answers will vary.)
Diff: 2
Skill: Application
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
95) What three questions should you ask in verifying the quality of the visuals you include in
business messages?
Answer: (1) Is the visual accurate? (2) Is the visual properly documented? and (3) Is the visual
honest?
Diff: 2
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
34
35
98) What are the "five Cs" to consider when you're deciding which points to illustrate with
visuals?
Answer: (1) Clear: The human mind is extremely adept at processing visual information, so if
you're having difficultly conveying an idea in words, take a minute to brainstorm some visual
possibilities. (2) Complete: Visuals, particularly tables, often serve to provide the supporting
details for your main idea or recommendation. (3) Concise: If a particular section of your
message seems to require extensive description or explanation, see whether there's a way to
convey this information visually. (4) Connected: Whenever you want readers to see key
connections, see whether a chart, diagram, or other illustration can help. (5) Compelling: Even if
a particular point can be expressed equally well via text or visuals, consider adding the visual in
order to make your report or presentation more compelling.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
99) Identify and discuss the four elements of the production stage for business videos.
Answer: These four tips will help you collect great footage during the production stage: (1)
Frame each shot carefully. Framing refers to the decisions you make about what the camera sees
and doesn't see when you aim it. Remember this: even though the viewer sees everything the
camera sees, he or she sees only what the camera sees. (2) Keep the camera still. Shaky video
from a handheld camera is uncomfortable to watch, so whenever possible, use a tripod or other
stabilizing arrangement. (3) Take B-roll footage. In addition to the B-roll shots you planned in
preproduction, keep an eye out for other interesting scenes and images that might enhance the
finished video. (4) Don't use the special effects in your camera when filming. Doing so will alter
the video permanently. Instead, export "clean" footage to your editing software and add effects in
postproduction.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
36
100) Explain "data visualization" and give at least one example to support your explanation.
Answer: Data visualization refers to a diverse class of display capabilities designed to overcome
the drawbacks of conventional charts and graphs. It is less about clarifying individual data points
and more about extracting broad meaning from large masses of data or putting the data in
context. Most types of conventional visuals can show only a limited number of data points,
cannot illustrate complex relationships among those data points, and can represent numeric data
only. Data visualization tools are not limited by these constraints. For example, "friend wheels"
on Facebook offer a visual sense of a user's network by showing which of his or her friends are
friends of each other and thereby indicating "clustering" within the network. Another example of
data visualization is the "tag cloud," which shows the relative frequency of terms, or tags, in an
article, a blog, a website, survey data, or another collection of text.
Diff: 3
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3
AACSB: Communication Abilities, Use of IT
Learning Outcome: Summarize the steps involved in planning, selecting, and producing a visual
business communication
37