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?
Program

Position

Promise

Problem
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Because "narrative design" is an old and outdated term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 not all nonfiction is narrative in nature

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
3 Which two books does Foster use to introduce his discussion of structural design?
Seabiscuit and The Boys in the Boat

Seabiscuit and The White Album

Seabiscuit and Hidden Figures

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 longer and softer in terms of subject matter

Features can only be written by a journalist with specific credentials

Features are typically shorter and involve a topic being researched over a long period of time
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?
Author's Note

Preface

Prologue

Envoi
7 Which explorer(s) is the focus of Stephen Ambrose's book Undaunted Courage?
Vasco da Gama

Christopher Columbus

Lewis and Clark

Sir Edmund Hillary
8 Which of the following is typically true of a foreword?
It is typically 2 pages or less in length

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

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
9 From what language is "Appendix" etymologically derived?
High German

Old French

Latin

Greek
10 Before his 2018 book, Michael Pollan was best known for writing on what topic?
The Watergate scandal

Food

Military History

Evolutionary Biology
11 Lin Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton was inspired by a biography written by which author?
Margot Lee Shetterley

Michael Pollan

Daniel James Brown

Ron Chernow
12 Foster references an article written by Hannah Arendt, focusing on which poet?
William Butler Yeats

T.S. Eliot

Ezra Pound

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

Virginia Woolf

Jane Austen

Victor Hugo
14 What was Foster's first job related to writing?
Writing for the Yale Law Review

Covering high school sports for a local newspaper

Writing book reviews for The New Yorker

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

George Washington

Henry David Thoreau

Cardinal Newman
16 Whom does Foster cite as the greatest living writer?
Jonathan Franzen

John McPhee

Stephen King

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

A definition

A provocative statistic

A flashforward
18 News journalism is usually written at what reading level?
A level that someone new to learning English can comprehend

First-year college

9th-11th grade

3rd-5th grade
19 Which university experienced a scandal centering on their gymnastic team?
Howard University

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Duke University

Michigan State University
20 The Boston Globe story Spotlight focused on what events?
Rising tuition costs and increasing student debt loads

Sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church

Suppression of medical evidence by tobacco companies

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

Between the World and Me

Silent Spring

All the President's Men
22 Which of the following does Foster NOT list as one of the four key books of New Journalism?
The White Paper

Capote's In Cold Blood

Mailer's The Armies of the Night

Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels
23 Where did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas get its start?
As an essay in a collection of travelogues

As an entry in a contest

As an MFA thesis

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

Hemingway

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

Impoverished farmers

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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