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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is an example of a hit book that was rejected several times?
(a) Pride and Prejudice.
(b) Jurassic Park.
(c) Harry Potter.
(d) Eleven on Top.

2. What are the two components of the original Roget's Thesaurus?
(a) A dictionary of antonyms, and one of synonyms.
(b) Antonyms with very in depth definitions.
(c) A list of synonyms and their definitions with pictures on one side.
(d) A dictionary listing of words, and a numberd section with synonyms arranged in broad concepts.

3. When can ornamental writing be used as an exception?
(a) When the wrting needs extra fluff.
(b) When writing evaluations and resumes.
(c) To follow solid writing.
(d) When the author needs to abide by editors remarks.

4. What should the lead in the first sentence do for a reader?
(a) It should capture the reader and force him or her to keep reading.
(b) It should introduce the article informatively and let the reader know it will be a good read.
(c) It should be very basic to hook in all types of readers.
(d) It should tell the reader very little about the article, so he or she will continue reading.

5. What is another example of when a person HAS to read bad writing?
(a) Television captions.
(b) Political Journals.
(c) Instruction manuals.
(d) Literature anthologies.

6. What is one task that a good writer constantly does?
(a) Participates in writing workshops.
(b) Takes writing classes often.
(c) Sends manuscripts out like crazy.
(d) Reads contemporary and classic works of other writers.

7. What is the main thing required to being a good writer?
(a) Hard work.
(b) All answers are correct.
(c) Good editing.
(d) Passion.

8. Can a writer's style be affected to the reader?
(a) No, it has to be genuine.
(b) No, it has to be manipulated.
(c) Yes, so long as the writing is filled with rich prose.
(d) Yes, so long as the writing is really dense.

9. Literature was once considered solely as what?
(a) Writing by only certain authors.
(b) Historical pieces.
(c) Great novels.
(d) Fiction only.

10. Do good writers decorate their writing?
(a) No, good writers dont need ornamentation.
(b) Yes, with good punctuation.
(c) Yes, always with lots of extra words.
(d) No, only bad writers do this to sell more copies.

11. How much research does Zinsser recommend for an article?
(a) He recommends finding much more information than is needed for the article.
(b) He recommends using at least three full length books for a one page article.
(c) He recommends finding just enough to make a word count.
(d) He recommends finding the bare minimum and bulking an article up with adjectives.

12. Has the period of political euphemisms improved since the Vietnam War?
(a) No, it has gotten worse.
(b) Yes, politicians know how to unclutter their writing now.
(c) No, it is the same.
(d) Yes, politicians hire better speech writers.

13. What is the response previous students have to his style of edits?
(a) They say then can still see the brackets.
(b) They say they never liked the highlighting.
(c) They like it much better than red pen all over a paper.
(d) They hated it, and have nightmares about his style.

14. Who is the real audience in a piece of writing?
(a) The reader.
(b) The author.
(c) The editor.
(d) Both the editor and author.

15. What is a strange but effective way of proofreading to check for errors?
(a) Reading a story upside down.
(b) Reading under a blacklight.
(c) Reading through a window.
(d) Reading a piece backwards.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the problem with American writing?

2. Should exclamation points be used in serious writing?

3. What is a common problem with nonfiction writers?

4. What does Zissner use to highlight clutter in his students' writing?

5. What group of people does the author think has the worst type of writing?

(see the answer keys)

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