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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. What is the best way to add humor into writing?
(a) Adding asterisks to funny lines.
(b) Making a funny sentence sneak up on a reader to get an unexpected laugh.
(c) Making all funny lines italicized.
(d) Making seperate paragraphs that only have the funny line in them.

2. What is a memoir?
(a) They are fiction peices about real people.
(b) They can be about any life experience.
(c) They are stories about immigrants.
(d) They are books about other people written by ghostwriters.

3. Do writers need to write all the time?
(a) No, writers should only write when they are in the zone.
(b) Yes, even if they have to force it out.
(c) No, if they are not in the mood, it will come out in their writing.
(d) Yes, because writers are always able to write.

4. What freedom does he give his students?
(a) The power to decide what to write about, what angle to take, what perspective, and what to cut out.
(b) He doesn't give deadlines, the gives very little guidance, and just lets people write and turn in first drafts.
(c) He lets everyone out early on Fridays.
(d) He doesn't give freedom. He is very demanding of his students.

5. Why do criticism writers have to be at a higher level than other writers?
(a) Only those able to understand the arts can write about them, and very little people can.
(b) Criticism writers are no different. They still need to use the same basic rules of writing.
(c) Criticism is harder to write about because it tends to be less attractive than other writing.
(d) Criticism need to be stronger at literary elements because they need to recreate a scene or a song in the imagination of their readers with words only.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do writers need to stick to rules?

2. How is humor used in writing nonfiction?

3. What approach to a place should writers take?

4. What was the best advice Zinsser ever received about having opinions in writing?

5. What is a major problem of business writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why should exact details be avoided in memoirs? What approach should writers take instead?

2. Explain some of the choices that writers have to take when editing?

3. What is a strategy to making sure the above choices fit?

4. How does Zinsser react when editors want to change too much of his work?

5. Why do writers need to develop their own voice? How does writing compare to other art forms?

6. Why is corporate speak the norm in business writing?

7. Why should writers forget about the final product when they are writing?

8. Does Zinsser think that scientists can write?

9. Why do critics need to be well versed in the art they are writing about?

10. Why is there an attitude that certain people are only meant to learn certain subjects and skills like writing or science?

(see the answer keys)

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