Answer the following questions about formatting formal business documents.
1. Your manager wants you to give her a paper copy of your first draft of a proposal for her to review. What spacing would you use, and why?
2. Which of the following fonts is most legible for a block of text? What font size and color would you choose if you were writing a block of text in a formal business document?
- Arial
- Playbill
- Freestyle Script
3. Copy the following text into a word processing document:
"We conducted a survey of 50 employees last week to determine what activity the majority would want to do for the next company outing. The survey found that 27 employees wanted to go bowling, 13 employees wanted to have a cookout, six employees wanted to watch a movie, and four employees wanted to volunteer at a local charity event. Based on the survey results, we are scheduling a bowling night for next month."
Format your paragraph so it uses 1.5 line spacing and is justified. Submit your sample to your teacher along with this worksheet.
4. Explain why you would typically create a header or footer.
a. Add a footer with a centered "1" to the document you created in question 3 to show pagination. Also add a left justified header to this document to indicate this page is a part of the "Activities Committee Report." Submit your sample to your teacher along with this worksheet.
5. What is the purpose of a text box in a formal business document?
Analyze - Analyze different formats and page layouts.
1. Answer the questions below about text formatting. If needed, refer to the MLA style guide.
a. Which of these paragraphs show the correct way to format quotations in MLA style? Explain why your choice is correct.
According to the National Gardening Association, weeding bean plants is careful work: If you're working around young bean plants with a hoe or other weeding tool, or if you're cultivating between rows, remember to stay near the surface. Weed seeds are tiny and must be very close to the surface to germinate - not like beans, which are planted at least one inch deep. A gentle stirring of the top 1/4 inch of soil every 4 to 5 days pulls the germinating weeds out of the soil and exposes their roots to the sun, which kills them.
OR
According to the National Gardening Association, weeding bean plants is careful work. "If you're working around young bean plants with a hoe or other weeding tool, or if you're cultivating between rows, remember to stay near the surface. Weed seeds are tiny and must be very close to the surface to germinate -- not like beans, which are planted at least one inch deep. A gentle stirring of the top 1/4 inch of soil every 4 to 5 days pulls the germinating weeds out of the soil and exposes their roots to the sun, which kills them."
Source: "Caring For & Harvesting Beans." The National Gardening Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2014.
b. Which footnote would be correct if the quote was written by National Gardening Association Editors?
1National Gardening Association Editors
OR
1. National Gardening Association Editors
2. Look at the following title page:
a. Explain why this is not a good example of what a title page should look like.
b. Create a more professional title page using the same information. Submit your sample to your teacher along with this worksheet.
3. Look at the following text:
Exercise initiatives improve employee performance.
Employee health can be improved with 30 minutes of walking per day. Research shows that 30 minutes of walking lowers a person's risk of health issues.
Problem: Unfit employees do not perform well
Employees who do not exercise are at risk for health issues such as heart disease. They are also more likely to feel tired throughout the workday and experience a decrease in productivity.
a. Why is this text not clear?
b. Show how you would change this text to make it more readable. Submit your sample to your teacher along with this worksheet.
Synthesize - Format documents effectively, and use a template to create a formal business document. You will need to think about how formatting and page layout affect the reader.
1. Read the following points:
- Customers are impressed by the quality of work our repair technicians perform.
- More than 70% of our work comes from repeat customers.
- One customer responded to a survey with, "Once your repair technicians fix something, it stays fixed! That saves me time and money."
- 90% of customers who responded to the survey reported our repair technicians arrive on time and are very customer-service oriented.
a. What would be a good heading to introduce all this information? Would a sans serif font be suitable for this heading?
b. In a report, what information could you pull out to put in a text box? Explain how to create a text box.
c. Pull everything you've worked on together now. Format the bulleted points into a paragraph with single spacing, and include your heading and text box. Make sure the formatting makes it easy to read and the main text wraps around the text box. Also include page numbers centered at the bottom of this document. Submit your sample to your teacher along with this worksheet.
2. You need to submit an activity report to your manager at the end of each week. Here you will go through the steps to create your report for this week using a template. Fill in the parts of the template as directed.
a. Before you create your activity report, explain why using a template is the most effective way to create this document.
b. Now create your activity report by filling in the template provided below. (Note: You can copy and paste the template into a new document or recreate the template in a new document that you will submit to your teacher with this worksheet.) Imagine this week you finished setting up a spreadsheet to track current projects and compared prices from two different office supply companies.
Activity Report for the Week of [x/x - x/x]
Overview: [One sentence summarizing what you accomplished this week.]
I. Projects
A. [List the tasks you completed this week.]
B.
II. Problems
A. [Explain any problems you had accomplishing your tasks.]
B.
III. Plans
A. [Explain how you plan to fix any problems you had.]
B. [List what you will work on next week.]
c. This week you were also supposed to re-order coffee and snacks for the break room; however, the distributor's website was down and you were unable to place the order. While the company says the site should be up Monday, this is not the first time this has happened. Add these details to the appropriate section of the template.
d. Next week you will work on entering all the projects into your tracker. You will also try again to place the coffee/snack order and research new coffee/snack companies whose websites are more reliable. Add these details into the appropriate section of the template.
e. Now that you have the different sections of your activity report completed, fill in the rest of the template. Don't forget to fill in the overview and dates of this work week. Submit your sample activity report to your teacher along with this worksheet.
Just 1 or 2 words or sentences for each answer.