Week 6 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Outlining

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective tested: Objective 4 — preparation vs. speaking outline; coordination; subordination; division rule; parallelism; connective devices (transitions, signposts, internal previews, internal summaries); oral citations in the outline.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 6.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-06-qti.xml (generated by the shared validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). The reusable item-bank entries and the Canvas placement block are at the bottom of this file.

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 6 classic confusions named in the lecture outline.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). A speaker has two documents: a preparation outline (full sentences, every point and transition written out) and a speaking outline (keywords and short phrases on note cards). Which should the speaker bring to the lectern for delivery?
- A. The preparation outline, because it contains everything and prevents forgetting
- B. The speaking outline, because keywords allow extemporaneous delivery without reading ✅
- C. Either one is fine — they serve the same purpose
- D. Neither; a speaker should have everything memorized before the speech
Feedback: The preparation outline is for planning; the speaking outline is for delivery. Bringing full sentences to the lectern almost always results in reading rather than speaking — the audience notices immediately. Keyword note cards allow a speaker to stay conversational and make eye contact.

Q2 (MC). A student's outline has this structure:

I.  First aid training is valuable in emergencies.
    A.  First aid skills let bystanders stabilize injury victims before paramedics arrive.

There is no sub-point "B" under Roman numeral I. Which outlining rule is violated?
- A. Coordination — both main points must be parallel
- B. Division — if you divide a point into sub-points, you must have at least two ✅
- C. Subordination — sub-point A does not support main point I
- D. Parallelism — A and I are worded differently
Feedback: The division rule states that dividing a point requires at least two parts: if there is an "A," there must be a "B." The fix is to either fold A back into main point I (the sub-point is simply part of the main point) or identify a genuine second sub-point.

Q3 (True/False). In a well-formed preparation outline, the Roman numeral main points (I, II, III) must all be of equal importance and directly related to the thesis statement.
- True ✅
- False
Feedback: True. This is the coordination rule: items at the same level of the outline must have equal weight and all relate to the same central idea. A main point that is off-topic or at a different level of importance violates coordination.

Q4 (MC). Under main point I ("Sleep deprivation harms academic performance"), a student has placed sub-point A: "Many students enjoy late-night socializing on weekends." Which rule is violated, and why?
- A. Division — there is only one sub-point
- B. Subordination — sub-point A does not support, explain, or prove main point I ✅
- C. Parallelism — the sub-point and the main point are worded differently
- D. Coordination — the sub-point is at the wrong Roman-numeral level
Feedback: Subordination requires that a sub-point prove, explain, or illustrate the point directly above it. A quick test: "I is true BECAUSE A." Does "sleep deprivation harms academic performance" hold because "students enjoy late-night socializing"? No — that's a cause, not support for the claim. Sub-point A needs to be evidence or explanation of the harm.

Q5 (Matching). Match each connective device to its primary job.

Feedback: The classic mix-up is transition vs. signpost — a transition is a full bridge that names both the section just finished and the next one; a signpost is a quick, one-word or one-phrase marker. They often appear together but are different devices. Internal previews and summaries are a matched pair: preview = what's coming inside; summary = what you just covered inside.

Q6 (MC). A speaker says, mid-speech: "Now that we've seen how the problem developed, let's turn to what the research says about solutions." This is an example of —
- A. a signpost
- B. a transition ✅
- C. an internal preview
- D. an internal summary
Feedback: A transition bridges from one main point to the next: it references the section just finished ("how the problem developed") and points to the next ("what the research says about solutions"). Signposts are shorter and don't typically reference both sides.

Q7 (MC). A speaker opens a section of their speech with: "Second, let's look at the economic impact." The word "second" in this context is —
- A. a transition
- B. a signpost ✅
- C. an internal preview
- D. a thesis statement
Feedback: Signposts are brief markers — "first," "second," "my final point," "most importantly" — that quickly orient the audience without providing a full bridge. They are shorter than transitions and typically don't reference the previous section.

Q8 (MC). A student writes a speech about the history of urban farming. Her main points are:

I.   Urban farming originated in community victory gardens during World War II.
II.  Urban farming has expanded significantly since the 1990s.
III. My neighbor grows tomatoes on her balcony.

Which rule is most clearly violated?
- A. Coordination — main point III is not at the same level of importance as I and II, and does not fit the thesis ✅
- B. Subordination — main point III does not support main point II
- C. Division — there are only three main points
- D. Parallelism — the main points are not worded the same way
Feedback: Coordination requires that all main points have equal weight and directly relate to the thesis. Points I and II are factual historical claims about urban farming; point III is a personal anecdote about a neighbor — a different level and type of content. It might work as a hook or an example inside a main point, but not as a stand-alone main point in a historical overview.

Q9 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following statements about oral citations in the preparation outline are TRUE? Select all that apply.
- A. The full oral citation (source, author/qualification, date, finding) should appear in the preparation outline at the exact point where the evidence is used. ✅
- B. If a factual claim in the outline has no citation noted, it is a red flag — you haven't found a verified source for it yet. ✅
- C. Oral citations only need to appear at the end of the outline in a references section, not at the point of use.
- D. In the speaking outline, the oral citation is stripped to a brief keyword cue (e.g., "CDC 2024 → statistic") to trigger the full spoken citation from memory. ✅
- E. A statistic found through a chatbot can be used in an outline without verifying it at the original source, as long as the chatbot seemed confident.
Feedback: A, B, and D are true. The preparation outline embeds citations at the point of use so the speaker and reviewer can immediately see whether each claim is sourced. E is false — chatbots fabricate plausible-sounding statistics and citations regularly; any number or attribution going into an outline must be verified at the original source. C is false — the end-of-document references list is helpful but does not replace in-line citations at the point of use.

Q10 (MC). A student's main points are:

I.   The history of urban farming (noun phrase)
II.  Benefits to urban communities are significant (full sentence)
III. Steps that you can take to start urban farming (noun phrase with clause)

Which rule is most clearly violated?
- A. Coordination — the main points are not all related to the same topic
- B. Subordination — the main points don't support each other
- C. Parallelism — the main points are not phrased in grammatically similar form ✅
- D. Division — there are not enough sub-points
Feedback: Parallelism requires items at the same level to be phrased in grammatically similar form. Point I is a simple noun phrase; point II is a declarative sentence; point III is a noun phrase with a relative clause. A parallel set would use the same grammatical form throughout — for example, all simple noun phrases: "I. The history of urban farming / II. The benefits of urban farming / III. The steps for starting urban farming."

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item (Q1, Q2, Q4, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q10) has exactly one correct option; the true/false item (Q3) is True; the matching item (Q5) pairs four connective types to four distinct definitions one-to-one; the multiple-answer item (Q9) has three correct options (A, B, D) and two incorrect (C, E). No item asserts an external statistic or quotation — all items are based on course-defined concepts and illustrative outline examples. No arithmetic involved; this is a conceptual quiz. Rubric + citation-integrity gate: all examples are constructed/illustrative; no real statistics or attributed quotations are used, so there is nothing to misattribute.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=COMM1 · week=6 · objective=4 · topic=outlining-connectives and deposited in Item Bank: Week 6 — Outlining. The midterm (Week 8) draws from this bank. (Tags: q1 prep-vs-speaking-outline, q2 division-rule, q3 coordination-tf, q4 subordination, q5 connectives-match, q6 transition-example, q7 signpost-example, q8 coordination-scenario, q9 oral-citations-ma, q10 parallelism.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 6 Quiz — Outlining"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
provenance      = "~ Prof. Marchetti's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"