How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor: A Smart, Irreverent Guide to Biography, History, Journalism, Blogs, and Everything in Between

Foster outlines journalism’s defining characteristics: accessibility, clarity, and efficiency. Traditional reporting typically opens with the “Five Ws” (who, what, when, where, and why) within the first paragraph and then develops context and detail in subsequent sections. Journalism, Foster emphasizes, is a craft designed for public comprehension.

To illustrate the discipline and importance of investigative journalism, Foster turns first to the Larry Nassar scandal. Nassar, a physician associated with US Olympic gymnastics and Michigan State University, sexually abused hundreds of girls and young women under the guise of medical treatment and under the protection of surrounding institutions. The investigation began when survivor Rachael Denhollander brought her story to the Indianapolis Star. The Star’s initial report prompted the Lansing State Journal to launch a parallel investigation, which published extensive features and exposés on the institutions and individuals who enabled Nassar’s crimes. Foster underscores that such sustained reporting requires the unique resources and persistence of journalism: “Only a daily paper has the journalistic firepower to cover such a parade of evils” (108).

Foster then examines Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All the President’s Men as a second model of journalistic rigor. He clarifies a popular misconception: The phrase “follow the money,” though famous from the 1976 film adaptation, does not appear in the book.