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

Problem

Position

Promise
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Because "narrative design" is an old and outdated term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 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 Boys in the Boat

Seabiscuit and The Audacity of Hope

Seabiscuit and The White Album

Seabiscuit and Hidden Figures
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

Ground

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

Preface

Author's Note

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

Christopher Columbus

Sir Edmund Hillary

Lewis and Clark
8 Which of the following is typically true of a foreword?
It is typically 2 pages or less in length

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

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

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

Greek

Old French

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

Military History

The Watergate scandal

Evolutionary Biology
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?
William Butler Yeats

Ezra Pound

T.S. Eliot

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

Virginia Woolf

Gustave Flaubert

Victor Hugo
14 What was Foster's first job related to writing?
Covering high school sports for a local newspaper

Writing for the Yale Law Review

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?
Cardinal Newman

Benjamin Disraeli

George Washington

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

John McPhee

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

First-year college

9th-11th grade
19 Which university experienced a scandal centering on their gymnastic team?
Howard University

Duke University

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Michigan State 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

Systematic abuse within the Indian Residential school system

Rising tuition costs and increasing student debt loads
21 What does Foster cite as arguably the most important nonfiction book of the twentieth century?
Between the World and Me

Silent Spring

All the President's Men

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 a magazine assignment

As an essay in a collection of travelogues

As an MFA thesis

As an entry in a contest
24 Foster draws a stylistic parallel between Joan Didion and which other author?
Hemingway

Mark Twain

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

the lives of Catholic saints

The 1939 Yankees team

American vice-presidents

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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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