Rentz/Lentz, M: Business Communication, 3/e
Chapter 8
Researching and Writing Reports
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
What kinds of reports do you expect to write in you chosen profession? Why?
What will the likely purposes of these reports be? (LO1)
Generate a hypothetical situation relevant to your field in which a business
research report would be needed. Write realistic problem and purpose statements
for the report. (LO1))
What are three to five subtopics for your hypothetical research problem (Question
2)? (LO2)
Which of the following are secondary research sources and which are primary?
Why? (LO3)
a. Information from The Wall Street Journal about the unemployment rate.
b. Information from a focus group of potential customers about a new online
ordering system.
c. Information about an industry’s use of social media collected by following
a blog.
d. Information about salaries collected from members of the listserv of a
professional organization.
e. Information about the courtesy of the service staff gathered from a survey
of the customers.
Assume that you’ve been given the task of writing the report on the topic you
generated in Questions 2 and 3. What kinds of Internet research could you do to
gather relevant information? What search terms would you use? (LO4, LO5)
Find an article on the Internet that gives advice about conducting some aspect of
business operations (e.g., improving teamwork, managing employees,
communicating with potential customers). Using the advice in the book, evaluate
the credibility and usefulness of the article. (LO6)
Follow a business-related topic on Twitter. What kinds of information can you
find that might help solve a business problem? (LO7)
Which databases or other resources would be good sources of information for
each of the following subjects? (LO8)
a. A certain company’s market share
b. Whether or not a company is being sued
c. Viewpoints on the effect of deficit financing by governments
d. The top companies, by sales, in a certain industry
e. Strategies for a successful job interview
f. The job outlook in a certain industry
g. Recent trends in business-related technology
h. The potential world market for a certain product
i. Government regulations for incorporating your business
j. The qualifications of a new CEO of a company
Explain the difference between quantitative and qualitative research, and describe
a sample situation in which each would be appropriate. (LO9-LO13)
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10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Explain the difference between random sampling and convenience sampling. Give
an example of when each type of sampling would be feasible and appropriate.
(LO9)
Explain the difference between closed-ended and open-ended survey questions.
(LO10)
Point out the problems in the following sample survey questions. (LO10)
a. How often do you shower?
b. (First question in a phone survey) Which Democratic candidate do you
favor, Jean Adams or Seth Rubins?
c. Do you consider the ideal pay plan to be one based on straight commission
or straight salary?
d. What kind of gasoline did you purchase last time?
e. How much did you pay for clothing in the past 12 months?
f. How often do you eat dessert with your noon meal?
What is scaling? What is the difference between rating and ranking? (LO10)
Define observation as a research technique and give an example of a business
problem that might warrant observational research. (LO11)
Define experiment as a research technique. (LO12)
Why does the controlled before-after design give more helpful information than
the before-after design? (LO12)
When would you use a focus group or personal interview to gather information?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? (LO13)
What are the basic ethical guidelines for conducting business research? Why are
such guidelines important? (LO14)
Jim’s boss asked him to investigate why sales for the last quarter were low. Jim
interviewed one of the sales managers about the problem, and she complained that
the new people didn’t know how to sell. Jim then wrote a report in which he
identified the new people’s deficient skills as the problem and recommended that
more training be provided for them. What errors in interpretation do you see in
Jim’s report? (LO15)
Explain the concept of outlining as a division process. (LO16)
You are writing a report on the progress of your local cable company’s efforts to
increase sales of five of its products through extensive advertising in print and
online newspapers and magazines and on television, YouTube, radio, and social
media. Discuss the possibilities for major headings. Evaluate each possibility.
(LO16)
In what ways can the format of the table of contents improve reader
comprehension? Find some examples of helpfully formatted tables of contents
and explain what makes them effective. (LO17)
Explain the difference between personal and impersonal writing. Which is
“better”? Argue both sides. (LO18)
Explain the difference between the present-time viewpoint and the past-time
viewpoint. Is it incorrect to have different tenses in the same report? Give
examples to make your point. (LO18)
“Reports are written for business executives who want them. Thus, you don’t
have to be concerned about holding your reader’s interest.” Discuss. (LO18)
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26.
27.
Collaborative reports are always better than reports written by an individual
because they use many minds rather than one. Discuss. (LO19)
“Disagreements in groups are counterproductive and should be avoided.” Discuss.
(LO19)
Skills Building Exercises
1.
For each of the following problem situations, write a clear statement of the
problem and list the factors involved. When necessary, you may use your
imagination logically to supply any additional information needed. (LO1, LO2)
a. A manufacturer of breakfast cereals wants to attract a new demographic of
consumers.
b. The manufacturer of a toothpaste wants a bigger share of the toothpaste
market.
c. Wal-Mart wants to give its stockholders a summary of its operations for
the past calendar year.
d. A building contractor engaged to remodel an office for Company X
submits a report summarizing its weekly progress.
e. The supervisor of Department X must prepare a report about the need for a
new staff member.
f. Baker, Inc., is experiencing higher than normal employee turnover.
g. An executive must rank three subordinates on the basis of their suitability
for promotion to a particular job.
h. The supervisor of production must compare three competing machines
that are being considered for use in a particular production job.
i. An investment consultant must advise a client on whether to invest in the
development of a lake resort.
j. A consultant needs to help a restaurant improve its profits.
2.
Find a company whose website features a section on its role as a community or
world citizen (e.g., its principles and practices for corporate social responsibility).
How persuaded are you that the information there is complete and accurate?
Check the information there against other Internet resources to see if your
assessment was accurate. (LO6)
3.
Search the relevant research databases in your school library to gather information
about a current business topic, practice, or technology. Using the citation style
preferred by your instructor, construct an annotated bibliography that presents and
briefly describes your findings. (See Bonus Chapter E for citation formats and
advice.) (LO8)
4.
Using your imagination to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a plan
for conducting a survey to research these problems. (LO9, LO10)
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a. The American Restaurant Association wants information that will give its
members a profile of its customers. The information will serve as a guide
for a promotional campaign designed to increase restaurant eating.
Specifically it will seek such information as who eats out, how often,
where they go, how much they spend. Likewise, it will seek to determine
who does not eat out and why.
b. The editor of your local daily newspaper wants to learn just who reads
what in both the print and online editions of the paper.
c. Your boss wants to hire an experienced computer webmaster for your
company. Because the company has not ever hired anyone for such a
position, you were asked to survey experienced webmasters to gather
likely salary figures.
d. A professional organization that you belong to wants to find out how its
members are using social media in their work, what types they are using,
how much they are using each type,
e. You work in the human resources department of a company. The director
needs to make changes to the company’s healthcare plan for the coming
year and wants you to find out which of the three current plans employees
are using, why they selected it, and how satisfied they’ve been with it.
5.
Using your imagination to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a plan
for conducting an observation to help solve each of these problems. (LO11)
a. A chain of department stores wants to know what causes differences in
sales by departments within stores and by stores.
b. Your university wants to know the nature and extent of its parking
problem.
c. The management of an insurance company wants to determine the
efficiency and productivity of its data-entry division.
d. Owners of a shopping mall want a study to determine shopping patterns of
their customers. Specifically they want to know such things as what parts
of town the customers come from, how they travel, and how many stores
they visit.
e. The director of your library wants a detailed study of library use (what
facilities are used, when, by whom, and so on).
f. The management of a restaurant wants a study of its workers’ efficiency in
the kitchen.
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6.
Using your imagination to supply any missing facts you may need, develop a plan
for conducting an experiment to help solve the following problems. (LO12)
a. The Golden Glow Baking Company has for many years manufactured and
sold cookies packaged in attractive boxes. It is considering packaging the
cookies in recyclable bags and wants to conduct an experiment to
determine consumer response to this change.
b. A producer of expensive cosmetics wants to know whether using quick
response (QR) codes in its ads would significantly increase its profits.
c. The True Time Watch Company is considering the use of an electronic
sales display ($49.50 each) instead of print displays ($24.50 each) in the
2,500 retail outlets that sell True Time watches.
d. The Marvel Soap Company has developed a new cleaning agent that is
unlike current soaps and detergents. The product is well protected by
patent. The company wants to determine the optimum price for the new
product.
e. National Cereals, Inc., wants to determine the effectiveness of advertising
to children. Until now, it has been aiming its appeal at parents.
7.
Using your critical thinking skills to supply any missing facts you may need,
develop a plan for conducting focus groups to help solve these problems. (LO13)
a. The Miller Brush Company, manufacturers of a line of hair products, has
for years sold its products through conventional retail outlets. It now wants
to examine the possibility of selling through catalogs or online.
b. The International Association of Publishers wants to gauge the current
attitude toward electronic textbooks.
c. Sizemore Rental Car Company would like to add a line of hybrid cars for
its business customers, but the CEO is not sure whether such cars would
appeal to these customers.
8.
Using your critical thinking skills to supply any missing facts you may need,
develop a plan for conducting interviews to help solve these problems. (LO13)
a. Grow More Company sells children’s clothes. The company has seen an
increased rate of employee turnover this year, and your supervisor want to
know why.
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b. Jacob’s Hardware Store recently sent out a survey to get feedback on its
customer service. The management would like to follow this up with some
interviews to get a better sense of what happened on one particular
Saturday when customers said they’d received very poor service.
9.
Select a hypothetical problem with a time division possibility. What other division
possibilities does it have? Compare the two possibilities as the main bases for
organizing the report. (LO16)
10.
Assume that you are writing the results of a survey conducted to determine what
kinds of groceries are purchased by female college students in the United States.
What division possibilities exist here? Which would you recommend? (LO16)
11.
For the problem described in the preceding exercise, use your imagination to
construct topic headings for the outline. (LO17)
12.
Point out any violations of grammatical parallelism in these headings: (LO17)
a. Region I Sales Lagging
b. Moderate Increase Seen for Region II
c. Sales in Region III
13.
Point out any violations of grammatical parallelism in these headings: (LO17)
a. High Cost of Operation
b. Slight Improvement in Production Efficiency
c. Maintenance Cost Is Low
14.
Which of the following headings is logically inconsistent with the others? (LO17)
a. Agricultural Production Continues to Increase.
b. Slight Increase Is Made by Manufacturing.
c. Salaries Remain High.
d. Service Industries Show No Change.
15.
Select an editorial, feature article, book chapter, or other relatively lengthy
document that has no headings. Write headings for it. (LO17)
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16.
Assume you are writing a report that summarizes a survey you have conducted.
Write a paragraph of the report using the present-time viewpoint; then write the
paragraph using the past-time viewpoint. The paragraph will be based on the
following information: (LO18)
Answers to the question about how students view the proposed Aid to
Education Bill in this survey and in a survey taken a year earlier (last
year’s results are in parentheses):
For, 39 percent (21); Against, 17 percent (43)
No answer, undecided, etc., 44 percent (36)
17.
List the advantages and disadvantages of each of these different media for writing
collaboratively. (LO19)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Face-to-face meetings
Email
Discussion board
Online writing tool (e.g., Google Drive)
Website (e.g., blog or wiki)
Live online interaction (e.g., chat or Skype)
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