How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor Quizzes

How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor Quiz 1

By Danielle Barkley · Edited by Aaron Suduiko · Last reviewed July 16, 2021

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

Position

Program

Problem

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

Because "narrative design" is an old and outdated term

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

Because nonfiction has features that are different and unique from other forms of writing

Because not all nonfiction is narrative in nature
3 Which two books does Foster use to introduce his discussion of structural design?

Seabiscuit and The White Album

Seabiscuit and Hidden Figures

Seabiscuit and The Audacity of Hope

Seabiscuit and The Boys in the Boat
4 What qualities distinguish a feature story from a hard news story?

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

Features require consultation from subject matter experts
5 Which of the following is NOT one of the three central terms Foster mentions related to argument?

Warrant

Claims

Merit

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

Envoi

Preface

Prologue

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

Vasco da Gama

Sir Edmund Hillary

Christopher Columbus

Lewis and Clark
8 Which of the following is typically true of a foreword?

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

It is typically 2 pages or less in length

It is usually written at the same time as the main work

It is almost exclusively written by a scholar with expertise in the subject matter
9 From what language is "Appendix" etymologically derived?

High German

Old French

Greek

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

Food

The Watergate scandal

Evolutionary Biology

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

Michael Pollan

Margot Lee Shetterley

Ron Chernow

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

W.H. Auden

Ezra Pound

William Butler Yeats

T.S. Eliot
13 Foster attributes the invention of "free indirect speech" to which author?

Virginia Woolf

Victor Hugo

Gustave Flaubert

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

Editing college admissions essays

Writing for the Yale Law Review

Covering high school sports for a local newspaper

Writing book reviews for The New Yorker
15 To whom does Mark Twain attribute the quotation about lies, damned lies, and statistics?

Benjamin Disraeli

Cardinal Newman

Henry David Thoreau

George Washington
16 Whom does Foster cite as the greatest living writer?

Stephen King

John McPhee

Jonathan Franzen

Cormac McCarthy
17 According to Foster, Malcolm Gladwell typically begins his book with what device?

A flashforward

A definition

A provocative statistic

An anecdote
18 News journalism is usually written at what reading level?

First-year college

9th-11th grade

3rd-5th grade

A level that someone new to learning English can comprehend
19 Which university experienced a scandal centering on their gymnastic team?

Michigan State University

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Duke University

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

Sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church

Suppression of medical evidence by tobacco companies

Rising tuition costs and increasing student debt loads

Systematic abuse within the Indian Residential school system
21 What does Foster cite as arguably the most important nonfiction book of the twentieth century?

All the President's Men

Silent Spring

Between the World and Me

In Cold Blood
22 Which of the following does Foster NOT list as one of the four key books of New Journalism?

The White Paper

Mailer's The Armies of the Night

Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels

Capote's In Cold Blood
23 Where did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas get its start?

As an entry in a contest

As an MFA thesis

As an essay in a collection of travelogues

As a magazine assignment
24 Foster draws a stylistic parallel between Joan Didion and which other author?

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hemingway

Mark Twain

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

American vice-presidents

the lives of Catholic saints

The 1939 Yankees team

Impoverished farmers

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