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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is being discussed in Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," when Foster says that the "form and tone of the essay must fit the writer like a suit" (144)?

2. In Chapter 13, "On the Stump," Foster alludes to Peyton Place because he is implying that Fire and Fury is essentially what?

3. In Chapter 11, "Life from the Inside," Foster discusses the use of parallelism. He is discussing what technique?

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

5. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," what historical era does Foster tie New Journalism to?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," what does Foster list as the three criteria of Ezra Pound's criticism?

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

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

4. 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.

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

6. 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?

7. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," what two main types of subjective nonfiction does Foster define, and what four categories does he break these main types into?

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

9. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," what does Foster admire about the writing of John McPhee?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 10, "From the Inside Out," Foster argues that the essay began with the Enlightenment. Many of the works that he cites were called "treatises" by their authors, however. Look up the similarities and differences between an "essay" and a "treatise." Then look up the writings of Ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle. Write an argument of definition in which you take a stand about whether the essay and the treatise are the same or different types of writing; in your essay, take a stand about when the "essay" becomes a distinct type of writing.

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 16, "Social (Media) Disease," Foster discusses clickbait and its tendency to inflate reader expectations. Consider how titles and subtitles used in print books and magazines are similar to and different from the use of titles as online clickbait. Write an essay that compares and contrasts these two uses of titles.

Essay Topic 3

On page 89 of Chapter 7, "All in How You Look at Things," Foster makes the claim that "there are comparatively few books written that own nothing to the passage of time" (89). Explain his meaning here and then use factual evidence to evaluate the strength of his claim.

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