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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. Why is it important for writers to stick to industry standards?
(a) To sell magazines.
(b) Readers likely played the sport they are reading about and want to know what happened from a standard perspective.
(c) The industry wants everything to be the same so they can catalogue writing more easily.
(d) To be good writers, since the industry sets the standard.

2. What occurs when business writing is bad?
(a) Customers will go elsewhere to buy their goods and services.
(b) Investors will agree to terms they do not understand.
(c) People will get fired for bad writing.
(d) Executives get fired for pawning off simple writing tasks.

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

4. 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.

5. How are writers like painters?
(a) They both have the freedom of creativity with no rules that bind them.
(b) Painters start with models and then learn to create in they own way. Writers use formulas then find their own voice.
(c) Writing isn't like painting at all. Neither has anything in common with the other.
(d) Writers and painters will destory their work if it is not to their expectations.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Zinsser throw away in his writing classes?

2. What are Zinsser's four articles of faith to writing well?

3. Where is there an opportunity for great creative writing?

4. What problem does a scientist have when writing about science?

5. What is a good way to edit a long story?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are Americans scared to write about themselves?

2. What is a major pitfall of sports writers?

3. What tense do business writer stend to use that hurts their writing?

4. Does he recommend this level of pride to other writers?

5. Why is bad to fall into cliches when travel writing?

6. What needs to be described in a travel article?

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

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

9. Why is humor the most powerful tool for a nonfiction writer?

10. How does Zinsser feel about writing when a writer doesn't want to? Why do writers have this luxury?

(see the answer keys)

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