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

2. In "Interrogating the Text," what does Foster say most authors will do?

3. In Chapter 12, "Life from the Inside," what advantage does Foster say contemporaneous accounts have?

4. In Chapter 9, "Living the News," Foster calls Fear and Loathing a roman à clef. What is he saying about this book?

5. According to Foster in Chapter 15, "Reading Internet Sources," what two errors in thinking prevent people from embracing gatekeeping?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose a piece of nonfiction--a book or longform article--and write a foreward for the work. Your foreward should offer context and key ideas that will guide readers more successfully through the work. Cite in MLA format any sources you use in creating your foreward.

Essay Topic 2

What are the "four Ps" that Foster discusses in Chapter 1, "The Structure of Nonfiction Information," and what is the function of each?

Essay Topic 3

Choose a passage of one of Hunter S. Thompson's essays to analyze. Explain the techniques Thompson uses that are more commonly associated with fiction than with nonfiction, and explain the relationship between your observations and Foster's remarks about Thompson's writing in Chapter 9, "Living the News."

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