Time is money in any business environment. To be successful in the business world, you must be able to create concise and easy-to-read messages. As you revise, eliminate flabby expressions, long lead-ins, fillers, redundancies, and empty words. Your audience will appreciate your brevity. Which of the following sentences contain flabby expressions?

Complete the sentence with the most concise option. ___________ shut down all computers before leaving the office today.

Read the following paragraph, and choose the best revision for one of its sentences. Dr. Blake is retiring at the end of the month. There will be an unoccupied office upon his departure, and it is big in size. Because every other office is occupied, we should convert Dr. Blake’s office into a lounge. It is absolutely essential that this issue is discussed at the next staff meeting.

Evaluate each of the following sentences, and choose the most concise revision. It is the user who should contact the help center.

I am sending you this letter to inform you that we have experienced an unexpected surprise within our expense sheet, but we are positively certain we will solve it.

In accordance with your request, the discrepancy in the Taylor account has been corrected.

Identify the redundancy in the sentence. Plans include the addition of additional office space.

Business writers appreciate messages that are clear and understandable. Proofreading and evaluating your work will help you compose messages that are clear, concise, and direct. Revise for clarity by eliminating trite phrases, avoiding jargon and slang, and dropping cliché́s. What can you do to express, not impress?

In order to sound businesslike, many writers mistakenly use stale expressions, thinking they sound more impressive. Which of the following are fresh, vigorous, and clear phrases?

The buried verb phrase make a calculation can be revised to ________

Choose the best revision of this unclear message. The faculty has unanimously and strongly decided to go forward with the discussed initiative in order to better serve the distinguished and important school board members of the community.

To make your business messages more effective, revise for vigor and directness. You can strengthen your writing by unburying verbs, controlling exuberance, and choosing precise words. Which of the sentences contain buried verbs?

Overuse of intensifiers sounds unprofessional. Which one of the following sentences best controls exuberance?

Complete the sentence with the choices that best avoid sloppy reference. __________ won _________ handily.

Read the following selection, and answer the question. They were totally excited to be getting a new system. It would allow them to conduct a remote discussion of the budget with the group. The team reached an agreement that this was absolutely going to create an increase in productivity. Which of the following is the most direct and professional revision of the second sentence?

When you compose a message, you want your audience to find the information it needs quickly and to understand it. Your message should be easy to read and comprehend. Strategic use of white space improves document readability. Which of the following techniques employ white space?

Margins determine the reading area of a document. Complete the following sentence about margins and alignment with the best choices. Business letters and memos usually have margins of _______ and are usually __________ on the left.

Review the selection, and determine whether the following statement about typeface and font is true or false. A WIDE variety of typefaces are available for business writers. Different typefaces suggest different purposes and occasions. True or False: This selection uses a serif typeface.

Headings are important for visual impact and readability. Which of the following sentences about headings are true?

Read the following sentence, and determine which technique is most applicable to improve its readability. I want to inform you of an opportunity that you could be a part of.

Which of the following will aid in highlighting information and improve readability?

After you compose your message, you need to proofread. The proofreading process may take longer than the composition process. You don’t want to spend a lot of time composing the message and then let poor grammar or punctuation prevent your audience from comprehending it. What proofreading techniques should you use for both routine and complex documents?

Read the following selection, and identify any errors. Proofreading is an important phase of the writing process. Careful proofreaders check for errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, names, numbers, and formatting. When checking spelling, do not rely too heavily on your computer’s spell checker.

Please conduct an evaluation of our profits next week.

Everything you write takes the place of _________.

What do you want your message to convey to your audience?

How should you view critical comments on a written document?

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. Jonas expected to do _____ (good) on the statistics exam.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. I’ve asked Taneesha to give the team a _____ ( ) explanation of the mail merge procedure.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. His rise to the top of corporate America was a _____ ascent.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. The salary levels were _____ elevated after the company became more successful.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. The office in Los Angeles functions at a _____ pace than the one in Tokyo.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. Antonio is _____ with his paperwork.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. He has ____ problems with understanding HTML code.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. She is _____ prepared for the presentation this afternoon.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. We will hire 20 _____ employees by September 1.

Select the correct adjective or adverb in the following sentence. That was a _____ report.