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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. A musician must practice scales, and a writer must practice ______________.
(a) Sentences.
(b) The marketplace.
(c) Spelling.
(d) Grammar.

2. What is a major job of a nonfiction writer?
(a) Taking on a project with a clean slate. Just like a jury in a legal battle.
(b) Learning as much as possible about a subject before taking on a project.
(c) Majoring in the subject they will write about.
(d) Conducting interviews with people who know about the writing project subject.

3. What is the mood or voice in a piece?
(a) Mood or voice is the way a piece sounds to the reader in the imaginations inner ear.
(b) The voice is the authority figure in a nonfiction piece.
(c) The mood is the way the characters feel in a piece.
(d) Mood or voice is the way the characters speak to one another.

4. What gives nonfiction books life?
(a) White lies that sell certain facts.
(b) Pure hard facts.
(c) The cover of the book.
(d) Humanity and warmth.

5. What happens when a product of writing is never read?
(a) It becomes worthless and a waste of good time.
(b) It gets burned.
(c) The author's reputation is harmed.
(d) It gets categorized under the bad books section.

6. How can uncluttered writing help fiction?
(a) It keeps people's attention longer.
(b) It highlights the impotant parts of the story.
(c) It keeps the meaning of the story clear and the prose worth the reader's time.
(d) It keeps books smaller and people like smaller books.

7. Why do Americans have trouble writing?
(a) They are bad at fact checking.
(b) They are not complex enough.
(c) Their minds are too cluttered.
(d) They do too much and slack on their writing.

8. Should exclamation points be used in serious writing?
(a) They should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.
(b) They should be used sparingly. One per paragraph is fine.
(c) Only serious writing has serious exclamation points. How else would people understand astonishment?
(d) They should be sprinkled into paragraphs like salt and pepper. The more the better.

9. Why doesn't Zissner provide examples of these writers he admires?
(a) Because of copyright law.
(b) Because he has a word count limit to abide to.
(c) So that people will go to the library to discover the writers themselves.
(d) He didn't want their writing to prove better than his.

10. Why should interview questions be written before the interview?
(a) To focus the interview around a certain theme.
(b) To avoid having to do it at the interview.
(c) To avoid drawing a blank in the middle of an interview.
(d) To keep the person being interviewed on track.

11. What is an example of a time when bad writing HAS to be read?
(a) Corporate memos or technical writing.
(b) In the newspaper.
(c) In English class.
(d) Online writing.

12. What does Zissner use to highlight clutter in his students' writing?
(a) Highlighter.
(b) Brackets
(c) Underlines.
(d) Stars.

13. What is the problem with American writing?
(a) It isn't complex enough.
(b) The writing is too sloppy.
(c) Americans are bad at fact checking.
(d) It is too complex.

14. What is the biggest mistake a writer can make when creating sentences?
(a) Overediting sentences.
(b) Not creating sentences that readers want to read.
(c) Not reading their sentences aloud.
(d) Packing in too much information into one sentence.

15. Good writing is ______________.
(a) Easy.
(b) Easy to teach.
(c) Seen often.
(d) Very difficult.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is nonfiction more popular than fiction?

2. Where should the writer find his or her words?

3. What could cause a writer to write unclear?

4. What is one of Zissner's biggest pet peeves?

5. What does Zissner say is a common desire of every writer?

(see the answer keys)

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