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?
Position

Problem

Promise

Program
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Because "narrative design" is an old and outdated term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 has features that are different and unique from other forms of writing

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

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 Boys in the Boat

Seabiscuit and Hidden Figures

Seabiscuit and The Audacity of Hope

Seabiscuit and The White Album
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 require consultation from subject matter experts

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

Merit

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

Envoi

Preface

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

Vasco da Gama

Lewis and Clark

Sir Edmund Hillary
8 Which of the following is typically true of a foreword?
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

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

It is typically 2 pages or less in length
9 From what language is "Appendix" etymologically derived?
Greek

Old French

High German

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

Military History

The Watergate scandal

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

Ron Chernow

Michael Pollan

Margot Lee Shetterley
12 Foster references an article written by Hannah Arendt, focusing on which poet?
Ezra Pound

T.S. Eliot

William Butler Yeats

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

Gustave Flaubert

Virginia Woolf

Victor Hugo
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

Henry David Thoreau

George Washington

Cardinal Newman
16 Whom does Foster cite as the greatest living writer?
John McPhee

Stephen King

Cormac McCarthy

Jonathan Franzen
17 According to Foster, Malcolm Gladwell typically begins his book with what device?
A definition

A provocative statistic

A flashforward

An anecdote
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?
Duke University

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

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?
Silent Spring

All the President's Men

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?
Mailer's The Armies of the Night

Capote's In Cold Blood

The White Paper

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

As an MFA thesis

As a magazine assignment

As an essay in a collection of travelogues
24 Foster draws a stylistic parallel between Joan Didion and which other author?
Mark Twain

Hemingway

Balzac

F. Scott Fitzgerald
25 What subject is the focus of the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men?
the lives of Catholic saints

American vice-presidents

The 1939 Yankees team

Impoverished farmers

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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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