How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor Quizzes

How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor Quiz 1

1 Which of the following is NOT one of the 4 Ps mentioned by Foster?

Problem

Program

Promise

Position
2 Why does Foster use the term structural (rather than narrative) design when discussing nonfiction?

Because nonfiction is the only type of literature that possesses clear structural patterns

Because "narrative design" is an old and outdated term

Because not all nonfiction is narrative in nature

Because nonfiction has features that are different and unique from other forms of writing
3 Which two books does Foster use to introduce his discussion of structural design?

Seabiscuit and The Boys in the Boat

Seabiscuit and Hidden Figures

Seabiscuit and The White Album

Seabiscuit and The Audacity of Hope
4 What qualities distinguish a feature story from a hard news story?

Features require consultation from subject matter experts

Features are typically shorter and involve a topic being researched over a long period of time

Features can only be written by a journalist with specific credentials

Features are typically longer and softer in terms of subject matter
5 Which of the following is NOT one of the three central terms Foster mentions related to argument?

Warrant

Ground

Claims

Merit
6 In A Higher Loyalty, what does James Comey title his introductory material?

Envoi

Prologue

Preface

Author's Note
7 Which explorer(s) is the focus of Stephen Ambrose's book Undaunted Courage?

Lewis and Clark

Sir Edmund Hillary

Christopher Columbus

Vasco da Gama
8 Which of the following is typically true of a foreword?

It is typically 2 pages or less in length

It is usually not written by the author of the main work

It is almost exclusively written by a scholar with expertise in the subject matter

It is usually written at the same time as the main work
9 From what language is "Appendix" etymologically derived?

Greek

Latin

Old French

High German
10 Before his 2018 book, Michael Pollan was best known for writing on what topic?

The Watergate scandal

Evolutionary Biology

Military History

Food
11 Lin Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton was inspired by a biography written by which author?

Margot Lee Shetterley

Ron Chernow

Michael Pollan

Daniel James Brown
12 Foster references an article written by Hannah Arendt, focusing on which poet?

Ezra Pound

William Butler Yeats

T.S. Eliot

W.H. Auden
13 Foster attributes the invention of "free indirect speech" to which author?

Virginia Woolf

Gustave Flaubert

Victor Hugo

Jane Austen
14 What was Foster's first job related to writing?

Writing book reviews for The New Yorker

Writing for the Yale Law Review

Covering high school sports for a local newspaper

Editing college admissions essays
15 To whom does Mark Twain attribute the quotation about lies, damned lies, and statistics?

Benjamin Disraeli

George Washington

Cardinal Newman

Henry David Thoreau
16 Whom does Foster cite as the greatest living writer?

John McPhee

Jonathan Franzen

Cormac McCarthy

Stephen King
17 According to Foster, Malcolm Gladwell typically begins his book with what device?

An anecdote

A flashforward

A definition

A provocative statistic
18 News journalism is usually written at what reading level?

3rd-5th grade

A level that someone new to learning English can comprehend

9th-11th grade

First-year college
19 Which university experienced a scandal centering on their gymnastic team?

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Duke University

Howard University

Michigan State University
20 The Boston Globe story Spotlight focused on what events?

Sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church

Rising tuition costs and increasing student debt loads

Systematic abuse within the Indian Residential school system

Suppression of medical evidence by tobacco companies
21 What does Foster cite as arguably the most important nonfiction book of the twentieth century?

In Cold Blood

Silent Spring

All the President's Men

Between the World and Me
22 Which of the following does Foster NOT list as one of the four key books of New Journalism?

Mailer's The Armies of the Night

Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels

Capote's In Cold Blood

The White Paper
23 Where did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas get its start?

As a magazine assignment

As an entry in a contest

As an essay in a collection of travelogues

As an MFA thesis
24 Foster draws a stylistic parallel between Joan Didion and which other author?

Hemingway

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Balzac

Mark Twain
25 What subject is the focus of the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men?

Impoverished farmers

the lives of Catholic saints

American vice-presidents

The 1939 Yankees team

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How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor study guide contains a biography of Thomas C. Foster, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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