Writing and Communication Skills

Which of the following could replace 'resolution' as used in the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable option according to the corresponding number in the passage.

Scientists want their work represented as science – but journalists want to communicate with the public, and the main tool they have at their disposal is the story. Science, on the other hand, is less concerned with narrative than with results. Scientists speak to other scientists through their work.  Reputations are based on careful accumulation of facts, and a professional reluctance to speculate. Out here among the populace, where, as the Jimmy Stewart character says in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, people “do most of the working and paying and living and dying,” we communicate in the language of story. Stories need beginnings, middles, and endings.  They need tension and drama and resolution. All of these are anathema to any particular bit of science. Science only proceeds as a story in the big historical sweep of things.

Which of the following could replace 'populace' as used in the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable option according to the corresponding number in the passage.

Scientists want their work represented as science – but journalists want to communicate with the public, and the main tool they have at their disposal is the story. Science, on the other hand, is less concerned with narrative than with results. Scientists speak to other scientists through their work.  Reputations are based on careful accumulation of facts, and a professional reluctance to speculate. Out here among the populace, where, as the Jimmy Stewart character says in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, people “do most of the working and paying and living and dying,” we communicate in the language of story. Stories need beginnings, middles, and endings.  They need tension and drama and resolution. All of these are anathema to any particular bit of science. Science only proceeds as a story in the big historical sweep of things.

Which of the following could replace 'narrative' as used in the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable option according to the corresponding number in the passage.

Scientists want their work represented as science – but journalists want to communicate with the public, and the main tool they have at their disposal is the story. Science, on the other hand, is less concerned with narrative than with results. Scientists speak to other scientists through their work.  Reputations are based on careful accumulation of facts, and a professional reluctance to speculate. Out here among the populace, where, as the Jimmy Stewart character says in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, people “do most of the working and paying and living and dying,” we communicate in the language of story. Stories need beginnings, middles, and endings.  They need tension and drama and resolution. All of these are anathema to any particular bit of science. Science only proceeds as a story in the big historical sweep of things.

Which of the following could replace 'disposal' as used in the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable option according to the corresponding number in the passage.

Scientists want their work represented as science – but journalists want to communicate with the public, and the main tool they have at their disposal is the story. Science, on the other hand, is less concerned with narrative than with results. Scientists speak to other scientists through their work.  Reputations are based on careful accumulation of facts, and a professional reluctance to speculate. Out here among the populace, where, as the Jimmy Stewart character says in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, people “do most of the working and paying and living and dying,” we communicate in the language of story. Stories need beginnings, middles, and endings.  They need tension and drama and resolution. All of these are anathema to any particular bit of science. Science only proceeds as a story in the big historical sweep of things.

What is the best summary of the last paragraph of the passage?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

There is considerable evidence that time is a factor in learning. There seems to be something going on during periods of rest, particularly immediately following practice, that influence the consolidation and retention of that which has been practised. We do not know just what goes on or how it operates, but the evidence is quite clear that some type of spacing of repetitions facilitates learning and has an even more favourable effect on retention. 
One experimenter set out to discover whether the method of spaced repetitions was more effective than that of massed repetitions for the purpose of learning ordinary meaningful material. Thirty short selections in history and the same number in economics represented the material to be studied. Each assignment was read through five times, either at one sitting, one right after the other (massed reading), or once a day for five successive days (spaced readings).  Subjects and conditions were so rotated as to cancel out practice and fatigue effects for the two conditions. At varying intervals after the original readings, the subjects wrote all that could be recalled of the selections read. The amounts retained after varying time intervals were also determined.
The results show some interesting differences. When tested immediately after the original readings, 66 per cent of the material read five times in one day was recalled as compared with 64 per cent of the material read once daily for five successive days. This difference is not significant. When tested two weeks later, only 13 per cent of the material read five times in succession was recalled, whereas 47 per cent of that read daily for five days was reproduced. After one month, 11 per cent and 33 per cent respectively, were recalled (Austin 1921). In this particular experiment, for immediate recall, massed repetitions were as effective as spaced, but for retention over a period of time a different story is told. The material learned by the massing of repetitions is forgotten much more rapidly. Two weeks or a month after the original readings almost three times as much of the material read daily for five days is recalled as of that which was read five times in succession.
Not all the experimental studies on this topic have shown differences as marked as those cited, but the overwhelming majority has shown an advantage of some form of distributed practice as compared with the massing of repetitions. There is some evidence that the advantages of spaced repetitions are greater for the learning of more difficult than for that of very easy material and that they are greater for relatively meaningless as compared with more meaningful material. While it is hard to make any blanket recommendations, it would seem that for most forms of motor learning the spacing of repetitions is better than massing them. In most rote ideational learning, spacing probably has an advantage over massing. In the development of concepts and in problem solving involving common mental sets, the massing of practice is best, but where a shift in mental set is required spacing has an advantage. (Sawrey and Telford in Education Psychology)

Directions: Select the option that fills in the blanks most suitably (in the same order).

The impact of recently published collection of essays, written during and about the last presidential campaign is lessened by its timing, it comes too late to affect us with its _______ and too soon for us to read it out of historical ________.

Which of the following cannot be said to have emanated from the passage?

1. There is an exaggerated emphasis on the reportorial function.
2. Headlines are a very important ingredient of a newspaper.
3. Copy desk role being anonymous is the least important function in a newspaper.

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Journalism students and perhaps the public in general, have a tendency to emphasize the reportorial function. That is entirely understandable when it is considered that the reporter is the newspaper representative the public sees. In mythology, if not in fact, he is the movie character with the fearless approach, the loud voice and manner, the porkpie hat, the dangling cigarette. Furthermore, his work is frequently recognized with bylines. The reporter has a chance, at least, to become a public personality.
The copy desk role is an anonymous one. “The man in the green eyeshade” is not only virtually unknown to the public, his job is often underestimated in the newspaper office itself. A volunteer escort taking some visitors through the New York Herald Tribunehesitated at the copy desk. “This is where they write headlines, and—fix things,” he said.
This, as a matter of fact, was not a bad description, if lacking in detail.
There is no intention here to underestimate the importance of the reporter. A great newspaper is an impossibility without great reporters. No newspaper, no matter how brilliantly presented, can  rise above the solid core of fact, astutely gathered, carefully checked, and clearly written, that is the most important single ingredient of the press.
But bad editing can nullify good reporting. And bad copy desk management can take the edge off brilliant news gathering by constricting its presentation, both in the way it is written and in its typographical presentation. Copy editing and make up, most would say, are the basic principles of newspaper work, though it could be added that copy editing is basic to communications in general. Wherever language is employed to communicate to a mass audience, some sort of copyreader is essential. The basic skills in newspaper editing are valuable assets to the communications technician in the fields of advertising, radio, television, magazines, trade journals, public relations, books, movies, etc.
In all these areas, competence to improve the flow and meaningfulness of language, to safeguard accuracy, and to present the finished product in an attractive package is at a high premium. A good newspaper copy editor with sufficient flexibility in his makeup can carry his skill into any of these fields.
The student, therefore, who is required to pursue a course in news editing, should not let the fact that the course has a newspaper orientation discourage him. If he makes the most of the opportunity to acquire real skill, that skill will pay off in any branch of journalism.

Which of the following best describes the approach of the author?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Journalism students and perhaps the public in general, have a tendency to emphasize the reportorial function. That is entirely understandable when it is considered that the reporter is the newspaper representative the public sees. In mythology, if not in fact, he is the movie character with the fearless approach, the loud voice and manner, the porkpie hat, the dangling cigarette. Furthermore, his work is frequently recognized with bylines. The reporter has a chance, at least, to become a public personality.
The copy desk role is an anonymous one. “The man in the green eyeshade” is not only virtually unknown to the public, his job is often underestimated in the newspaper office itself. A volunteer escort taking some visitors through the New York Herald Tribunehesitated at the copy desk. “This is where they write headlines, and—fix things,” he said.
This, as a matter of fact, was not a bad description, if lacking in detail.
There is no intention here to underestimate the importance of the reporter. A great newspaper is an impossibility without great reporters. No newspaper, no matter how brilliantly presented, can  rise above the solid core of fact, astutely gathered, carefully checked, and clearly written, that is the most important single ingredient of the press.
But bad editing can nullify good reporting. And bad copy desk management can take the edge off brilliant news gathering by constricting its presentation, both in the way it is written and in its typographical presentation. Copy editing and make up, most would say, are the basic principles of newspaper work, though it could be added that copy editing is basic to communications in general. Wherever language is employed to communicate to a mass audience, some sort of copyreader is essential. The basic skills in newspaper editing are valuable assets to the communications technician in the fields of advertising, radio, television, magazines, trade journals, public relations, books, movies, etc.
In all these areas, competence to improve the flow and meaningfulness of language, to safeguard accuracy, and to present the finished product in an attractive package is at a high premium. A good newspaper copy editor with sufficient flexibility in his makeup can carry his skill into any of these fields.
The student, therefore, who is required to pursue a course in news editing, should not let the fact that the course has a newspaper orientation discourage him. If he makes the most of the opportunity to acquire real skill, that skill will pay off in any branch of journalism.