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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Foster discusses Pollan's How to Change Your Mind as an example of what?
(a) Why self-help books can use many non-chronological structures.
(b) Science writing that begins in media res.
(c) Why self-help books are better off using a chronological structure.
(d) Science writing that does not use chronological order.

2. In Chapter 8, "Bringing the News," Foster describes the Larry Nassar scandal as an illustration of what?
(a) How major universities sometimes engage in cover ups.
(b) The difficulties of investigative journalism.
(c) The importance of community newspapers.
(d) The ways in which trusted people can betray others.

3. In Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Foster tells us that changing the structure of a story changes its what?
(a) Topic.
(b) Meaning.
(c) Length.
(d) Genre.

4. In Chapter 2, "The Ecology of the Nonfiction Biosphere," how does Foster define "specialty journalism"?
(a) Editorial writing.
(b) Feature writing.
(c) The newspaper sports section.
(d) Forms of journalism devoted to a single subject area.

5. In Chapter 4, "The Parts You Don't Read," what is a piece of information that Foster says we can infer from the notes?
(a) Potential biases.
(b) The intended audience.
(c) The author's education.
(d) The author's purpose.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 3, "The Power of the Prologue," what does Foster say distinguishes the prologue from a preface?

2. According to "The Building Blocks of Arguments," what is the only form of nonfiction that is not argumentative?

3. In Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," what does Foster say is the purpose of the academic five-paragraph essay?

4. In Chapter 3, "The Power of the Prologue," what does Foster give as the basic meaning of "preface," "prologue," and "foreward"?

5. In Chapter 8, "Bringing the News," what reason does Foster give for journalists generally being proved correct despite public mistrust?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 3, "The Power of the Prologue," what are the two main functions of the prologue that Foster discusses?

2. In Chapter 8, "Bringing the News," what does Foster seem to admire about the Lansing State Journal's coverage of the Nassar scandal?

3. In Chapter 1, "The Structure of Nonfiction Information," what does Foster say is similar about the terms "narrative strategy" and "structural design," and what does he say is the difference?

4. Why, in Chapter 2, "The Ecology of the Nonfiction Biosphere," does Foster say that it is both good and bad news that all communication has a "grammar"?

5. On page 33 of "Building Blocks of Arguments," Foster compares claims and grounds to two people standing next to one another at a dance and says warrants are what "pins" them together so that they can "go steady." Explain his meaning.

6. In Chapter 6, "Source Code," what does Foster say that "expertise" is and is not?

7. In Chapter 4, "The Parts You Don't Read," Foster discusses tables of contents and indexes. What is similar about these two things and what is different?

8. Explain why, in Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Foster says that, even in narrative nonfiction, there is a difference between chronological order and structure.

9. At the end of "Building Blocks of Arguments," Foster discusses mistakes in claims, grounds, and warrants. He gives the example of someone born in American Samoa claiming to be a U.S. citizen. Since American Samoa is not a territory that the U.S. recognizes as conferring birthright citizenship, Foster says that this argument is mistaken in its grounds. Is it? Explain why or why not.

10. In Chapter 6, "Source Code," what relationship does Foster point out between reportorial presence and time?

(see the answer keys)

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