Week 15 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Impromptu & Adapting on the Fly / Handling Q&A

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective tested: Objective 8 — impromptu speaking; the PREP framework; Q&A best practices; adapting when things go wrong.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 15.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-15-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 15 misconceptions named in the lecture outline.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). A student is asked to "say a few words" about their summer internship at a company meeting — with no warning and no preparation time. This is an example of which delivery method?
- A. extemporaneous
- B. impromptu ✅
- C. manuscript
- D. memorized
Feedback: Impromptu = delivering a message with little or no advance preparation. Extemporaneous (A) = carefully prepared and practiced, delivered from a keyword outline — very different. (Manuscript = word-for-word reading; memorized = recited from memory.)

Q2 (T/F). "Extemporaneous and impromptu mean the same thing — both describe speaking without a written script."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. Extemporaneous = prepared and practiced, delivered conversationally from brief notes. Impromptu = little or no advance preparation. The word "extemporaneous" is often confused with "impromptu" in everyday English, but in public speaking, they describe two very different amounts of preparation.

Q3 (MC). In the PREP framework, what does the FIRST "P" stand for, and when does it appear?
- A. Preview — it appears after the example
- B. Pause — it appears at the very start, before anything else
- C. Point — the speaker's main idea, stated immediately at the start ✅
- D. Proof — the speaker's strongest piece of evidence
Feedback: The first P in PREP = Point — your main idea, stated first. PREP fails when speakers bury the point at the end. Say it first, every time.

Q4 (Matching). Match each PREP step to what it does in the impromptu response.

Feedback: The classic mix-ups: Reason (the why) vs. Example (the how it looks in real life); and the second Point is not a summary of everything — it's a restatement of the main idea to give the response a clean landing.

Q5 (MC). A student answers an impromptu prompt: "I think sleep matters a lot for studying. For example, a friend of mine pulled an all-nighter before an exam and bombed it. Sleep is important." Which part of the PREP structure is missing from this response?
- A. Point
- B. Reason ✅
- C. Example
- D. Nothing is missing — this is a complete PREP response
Feedback: The response has a Point ("sleep matters for studying"), an Example (the friend's all-nighter), and a second Point (restatement). What's missing is the Reason — the why that connects the point to the example. ("Because sleep consolidates memory and restores focus" would complete the PREP structure.)

Q6 (MC). During a Q&A session, a speaker starts formulating her answer before the audience member has finished asking the question. What best practice is she violating?
- A. repeating/reframing the question
- B. listening to the whole question before responding ✅
- C. bridging to her main message
- D. keeping her answer concise
Feedback: Q&A best practice #1: listen to the whole question. Interrupting or planning while the questioner is still talking risks missing the actual question — and answering the wrong thing looks worse than a pause.

Q7 (MC). A speaker is asked a detailed question about economic policy during a Q&A and genuinely doesn't know the answer. Which response is MOST professional?
- A. make up a plausible-sounding answer to avoid looking uninformed
- B. change the subject immediately without acknowledging the question
- C. say "I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find out and follow up" ✅
- D. repeat the question slowly, then say "That's complicated" and stop
Feedback: "I don't know, but I can find out" is the credibility move — it shows intellectual honesty, which audiences trust. Bluffing (A) is far more damaging when the audience catches it (and they often do). Changing the subject (B) is evasive. Option (D) is not a complete answer.

Q8 (MC). After answering a Q&A question about campus transportation, a speaker says: "That actually connects to the main point I made earlier — that small infrastructure changes have outsized effects on daily campus life." This is an example of —
- A. repeating the question
- B. bridging ✅
- C. saying "I don't know"
- D. manuscript delivery
Feedback: A bridge is a deliberate move from the question back to the speaker's main message or strongest ground. Used sparingly (once or twice per Q&A), it keeps the speaker on solid footing. Overusing it looks evasive.

Q9 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following are recognized Q&A best practices? Select all that apply.
- A. Listen to the complete question before you begin to respond ✅
- B. Repeat or reframe the question so the full audience hears it ✅
- C. Answer concisely with a point and brief support, then stop ✅
- D. Always say "That's a great question!" to buy thinking time
- E. Say "I don't know, but I can find out" when you genuinely don't know the answer ✅
Feedback: A, B, C, and E are all recognized Q&A best practices. (D) is NOT — "That's a great question!" is hollow filler and sounds insincere when repeated. The better buy-time move is a genuine reframe: "So you're asking whether..."

Q10 (MC). A speaker's slides won't load at the start of a presentation. What is the BEST response?
- A. apologize repeatedly and spend several minutes troubleshooting in front of the audience
- B. stop the presentation and say you'll reschedule once the tech is fixed
- C. say once "My slides aren't loading — I'll talk you through it," then proceed ✅
- D. read the entire speech word-for-word from a printed script
Feedback: The best response acknowledges the problem briefly (once), keeps composure, and continues. The audience watches how the speaker handles adversity — one calm sentence and a pivot signals control. Prolonged troubleshooting (A) wastes audience attention on the problem rather than the message.

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q10) has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q9) marks four correct options (A, B, C, E) and requires D to be left unselected; the matching item (Q4) pairs four PREP steps to four distinct definitions; no item asserts a fact outside the Week 15 course definitions; no quotation or external statistic is used — the content is conceptual (PREP framework, Q&A practices) with no source to misattribute. No computation in this course.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the final exam)

All ten items are tagged course=COMM1 · week=15 · objective=8 · topic=impromptu-QA-adapting and deposited in Item Bank: Week 15 — Impromptu & Q&A. The final exam (Week 16) and per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 impromptu-definition, q2 extemp-vs-impromptu, q3 PREP-first-P, q4 PREP-match, q5 PREP-scenario, q6 QA-listen, q7 QA-i-dont-know, q8 QA-bridge, q9 QA-best-practices, q10 adapt-tech-fail.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 15 Quiz — Impromptu Speaking & Q&A"
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"