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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 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) Artist.
(b) Poet.
(c) Critic.
(d) Compiler.

2. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," what aspect of Renaissance scholarship does Foster say the essay rebels against?
(a) Obedience to the Christian God.
(b) The veneration of classical Greece and Rome.
(c) Respect for accurate history.
(d) The importance of institutional authority.

3. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," Foster discusses primary and secondary sources. Which of the following would be a secondary source about World War Two?
(a) A 1942 letter from an overseas American soldier to his parents.
(b) A collection of English WWII military maps and charts discovered many years after the war.
(c) A historical account in a 2020 textbook about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
(d) An editorial in the New York Times opposing American involvement in the war.

4. In Chapter 14, "The Universe of Ideas/Ideas of the Universe," what does Foster say is true about contemporary America?
(a) America is the most scientifically advanced nation on earth.
(b) Many Americans are antiscientific.
(c) Americans are educated to read science critically.
(d) There is not much great science writing going on in America today.

5. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," what does Foster say the contemporary world lacks?
(a) Critical thinking.
(b) Education.
(c) Sources of information.
(d) Moral judgement.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," which claim does Foster make about thesis statements?

2. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," Foster cites Wikipedia as the source of his information about the development of the internet. What might we reasonably call his use of Wikipedia as a source?

3. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," why does Foster think Ambrose chose Merriwether Lewis's perspective for his history Undaunted Courage?

4. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," what advantage does Foster say elapsed time gives to historical accounts?

5. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," what does Foster call the "fatal flaw" of the internet?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," what are the three categories that Foster says outsider exposés fall into, and why does he say that they are more reliable than insider's writings?

2. In Chapter 12, "That Is So Last Year," what difference does Foster explain between primary and secondary sources?

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

4. 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?

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

6. In "Interrogating the Text," what does Foster say the purpose of interrogating text is?

7. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," what concern does Foster say that other journalists have about Wolff's work?

8. Explain why, in Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," Foster says that the narrators of nonfiction can be just as unreliable as the narrators of fiction.

9. In Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," what does Foster propose as a solution to inaccuracies on the web?

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

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