View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Foster in Chapter 9, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is an example of what type of nonfiction?
(a) Reportage.
(b) New Journalism.
(c) Immersive journalism.
(d) Creative nonfiction.

2. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," Foster refers to White House staff as "denizens" (190). What is the best definition of this word in this context?
(a) Occupants.
(b) Horrors.
(c) Children.
(d) Caretakers.

3. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," what form does Foster say takes its name from the French term for reminiscence?
(a) Confessions.
(b) Biography.
(c) Autobiography.
(d) Memoir.

4. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," what does Foster tell us begins Ben Franklin's autobiography?
(a) Excerpts from a speech Franklin gave while serving as Ambassador to France.
(b) A description of Franklin's childhood.
(c) The dramatic moment when the Declaration is signed.
(d) A letter to his son.

5. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," Foster says that an author of a history about long-ago events is not really so much a reporter as a what?
(a) Poet.
(b) Compiler.
(c) Artist.
(d) Critic.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Foster in Chapter 9, "Living the News," what is McPhee's purpose in comparing geological change over time to a road trip?

2. Whom does Foster name, in Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," as the "inheritors" (164) of the legacy of Apologia Pro Vita Sua?

3. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what are two reasons Foster points to for disbelief in science?

4. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," what important characteristic of the essay does Foster point out?

5. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," what does Foster call works that people write about their own experiences with illness and dying?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," what does Foster say is the difference between autobiography and memoir?

2. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what qualities does Foster say a genuine expert will have?

3. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what does Foster say motivates antiscientific beliefs?

4. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," why does Foster say that the process newspapers follow to assure balanced treatment in opinion pieces creates a false dichotomy?

5. Which of the three writers that Foster discusses in Chapter 13, "On the Stump," does Foster find to be least reliable, and which does he find to be most reliable? Why is this?

6. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," why does Foster spend time describing the contents of Cardinal Newman's autobiography?

7. In "Interrogating the Text," where does Foster suggest that readers focus their interrogative effort, and why?

8. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," what does Foster say is problematic about the internet and web?

9. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," why does Foster say that Woodward and Bernstein do not belong in the category of New Journalism?

10. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," what criticism does Foster level at Fox News?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 952 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample