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We live in a world where information is thrown at us daily, yet this information isn't always true. Whether it's through a book, social media, or the news, this information is twisted in some way, shape, or form. Not to mention, the world we live in today is full of so much political bias, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's all a lie. It is important to recognize the source, and how much you should trust that source, so you can interpret the information the best way possible.

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A fair share of the information we see is through some form of media. This is specifically true for politics nowadays. Politics have become more and more of an issue in America especially, all because there is so much heavy bias. This has turned people against one another, and it's only because the media makes it seem like that is what we should do. However, what we should really be doing is trying to find the truth from information, rather than only paying attention to one side of the story and not accepting the fact that other people can be right.

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There is no limit to the information put out. Books, for example, have series for a reason because stories and information told can be spread out into more than just one copy. There is so much to say, and all of this information we see in "Nonfiction" is assumed to always be the truth. This is why trusting our sources is difficult, yet so important. You never see the full truth, because you can never really trust the source it comes from. However, there is still good within the nonfiction we read. This includes information that we can still find useful and interesting. Therefore, we can't distinguish nonfiction as a "bad" source, but we can infer that as this book states, "There’s a solution here: we can learn to read past the surface."

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I believe the author is trying to use the preface to give the reader a little insight in what nonfiction is about, but also how the sources we see in our world today can be misleading/untrustworthy.

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"–we can’t always trust what nonfiction itself offers.
The same form that can unmask a hoax can also perpetrate one. And has, with some regularity. If it can illuminate the workings of disease and its treatment, it can also be used to promote quackery and distract sufferers from legitimate information. It has equal facility to expose the sins of industry and to hide them or recast them as virtues. And here’s the real problem: if we only read surfaces, we won’t be able to tell the difference between the righteous and the right-around-the-bend."

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I believe in the introduction, Foster is trying to give the reader an even better idea of what reading nonfiction entails. This specifically surrounds the ideas of how nonfiction can still be untrue, yet that doesn't mean it's necessarily "bad". It can both present twisted and bias information, but also important information that people need to hear, such as the example Foster provides: "–the horrific stories of Dr. Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of girls and young women, mostly athletes, under the guise of treatment as a team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University."

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The four P's: Problem, Promise, Program, and Platform.
Problem: Establishing something to write about, and why it's important for readers to know.
Promise: That there is importance to what the reader is reading, and it's not just random information that you are spewing at them.
Program: As Foster states, "How you will achieve the promise." Plus demonstrating further how the information you are giving is relevant to the reader.
Platform: Showing how your information is important and why you have the right to be sharing it. Anyone can give out information, as stated before, there are no limits. However, it is about justifying why one person/story/information is more important than others.

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it is important to notice how a writer designs their information, and how it is achieved in doing so. Breaking down how a writer organizes their information can help us better understand the point of the information they are sharing and why they're sharing it.

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Writers have a message and a reason for why they write about something and share certain information. There are levels and importance to this information, and writers organize their information the way they do for a reason. They may focus on a character or specific message. Foster states however, "Authors for the most part do not wish for readers to be confused or to feel lost, so if we read with just a little bit of care, we generally understand where the book is headed by the end of the introduction and completely by the conclusion of the first chapter."

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I believe in this first chapter that Foster is trying to clarify why nonfiction writers go through a specific process in their work. They organize and portray their information a certain way for a reason, and as readers, it is important that we break this down to get the best of what we are reading and digest what the author is trying to get across to us. Foster tells us, "The point of these examples is that every writer has a plan for his or her book, and we will understand the book—and often something about the writer—better by noting that plan, by observing the strategy by which the information is delivered to readers." The overall message of chapter one is that writers have a plan, and it's the readers job to understand that plan to the best if their ability.

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Information we see comes from a variety of sources. This again is about trusting where information comes from, and how reliable a source is. Or not necessarily how reliable a source is, but specifically where/who it comes from and how much expertise the source has of the information. Foster gives the simple example, "There is not a person alive today,
for instance, with an entirely reliable personal memory of baseball great Ty Cobb’s playing days. He had a long career, but it ended in 1928, so the youngest person to have seen Cobb slide into second base with his sharpened spikes aimed at his opponent’s knee, assuming that ten years old is about the earliest that such memories are remotely solid, would be a hundred years old as I write this. And for information we can take to the bank, I would prefer someone a bit older than ten." He shows that if you are getting information from someone with little knowledge or not as much knowledge as another person, then it's not the best source you could be using. However, it's also about how the writer uses this information to capture the reader. For example, Foster mentions how Hamilton was a historic figure known by many. But, Lin-Manual Miranda's way of telling his story and displaying this nforamtion was what made it what it is otday. His expertise in telling his story and entertainment was why Hamilton was such a success. Therefore, this shows how its not always the information that is what captures a reader, but how it's presented.

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The internet and media are where we see the majority of information. And this has progressively become an issue. As stated previously, information has zero limits. SO, it can be thrown around anywhere and everywhere, and it isn't exactly reliable and from a source with "expertise" like we would hope. Not to mention, it can be biased depending on where it comes from and it's on the internet. This means that it has the biggest outreach possible. This has, as Foster states, created "a loss of respect for expertise and with even greater difficulty in recognizing it when we encounter it." Therefore, it is becoming more and more difficult to recognize legitimate information we can trust, because there is so much out there for anyone to believe and see as 'the truth'.

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There are different forms of sources. This includes,

-Eye Witness Testimonies: This is "information
from persons who experienced the events or figures in the story."
-Writer as a Witness: This includes on the scene reporters of sports games, and the keyword is 'report'. These are reports that encompass important information. Foster comments how in these reports, "Detail drives the story. Detail alone is not enough—we need context, background, explanation as well—but it is essential." There are elements to these reports that make them successful and a good piece of nonfiction writing, or just a simple summary of what a witness saw/experienced.

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Having legitimate data is very useful, yet evidence can still be skewed. Foster states, "Bottom line: unless you know the source, its motivations, and its methodology, statistics alone can be pretty unreliable. So yes, you can lie with numbers. Like other evidence, they can be misrepresented, taken out of context, subjected to all manner of falsification." He also adds, "–falsehoods insinuate themselves into our social conversation and how attractive they prove to be for adherents to a cause more interested in the cause than the truth." These statements he makes reflect on how again, trusting the source of information is difficult because it can always be twisted.

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I again believe the author is trying to make the point of how information we see today can always be skewed due to bias or information can simply be wrong. Not to mention, trusting sources is becoming more and more difficult, and I believe Foster is trying to get the point across more and more throughout the chapter.

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The structure of a piece of writing affects its meaning.

The way a piece of writing is structured affects how the information gets across to the readers. If the structure is poor for the genre or type of information being shared, then the author's message and points may not be as effective as they intended.

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Fake news is extremely prevalent through media, specifically within politics. Foster also makes the statement regarding the media we see today,  "A newspaper or magazine or television program is only as good as its reputation. Without that, audience trust is utterly lost."

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I again think Foster is just trying to make the point of how we need to be aware of he structure of the information we take in. Moreover, how fake news is prevalent in society today, and that we need to learn to understand that it is part of nonfiction writing, especially the news/media.

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A form of nonfiction to pay attention to is essays. Essays are different, and their structure is what stands out. However, paying attention to this you notice, as Foster mentions, "One thing that great essayists never do is leave you in doubt as to what they think. The “thesis” may not reside where your English classes taught you to put one, but it will be in there somewhere that makes sense, early or late, and it will have several components:
- It will be firm and clear.
- It will be original—profound, unique, or, if revisiting older truths, imparting a new spin to them.
- It will drive the rest of the essay. If arising early, it will inform
what follows; if coming toward the end, everything will have been building toward it. Yes, even the digressions."

Foster also notes we should pay attention to Ezra Pound's triple criteria of criticism to better understand essays we read. These include:
1. What was the author trying to do?
2. Did he or she succeed in doing it?
3. Was it worth doing?

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Opinion is something we really only see in nonfiction writing. However, when reading opinion, Foster points out that we should pay attention to a few things and ask questions. He states,

"FIRST, DO THE “FACTS” SQUARE WITH WHAT WE ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD?"

"SECOND, IS THE SOURCE OF THAT ASSERTION RELIABLE?"

"ARE THE FACTS BEING USED FAIRLY OR MISAPPLIED?"

"ARE FRIENDS AND ENEMIES (THE LATTER ESPECIALLY) BEING QUOTED ACCURATELY?"

"DO THE ARGUMENTS ACTUALLY SUPPORT THE CLAIMS THAT ARE MADE, OR DO THEY REQUIRE A PREEXISTING BIAS IN LINE WITH THE WRITER’S?"

In conclusion, opinion and essay writing are two important forms of nonfiction. Foster concludes by stating, "Whether they deal with the writer’s life, the essay and the opinion are two of the most revealing personal forms of writing. They reveal innermost thoughts, long-held beliefs, habits of mind, loves and hates. They reveal who the writer is. And they bring us into contact with the minds of others."

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The internet is full of way too much information. In todays world, it feels as though life revolves around the internet and media. Foster states, "In cyberspace, no one can hear you lie." I think that this statement is very important. It reminds you that behind a screen, anyone can say or doing anything, and as a viewer, you never really know the truth. This connects back to recognizing trustworthy sources, and how "fake news" is almost everywhere in today's world.

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There are so many forms of communication, especially on the web. These include:
-Reviews
-Lists
-News
-Videos
-Photos
-Websites
-Blogs
-Social Media
-Personal opnion
-Help and how-to
-Discussion boards
-E-commerce
-Memes

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Wikipedia has proven to be one of the most frequently used sources on the internet. It has almost any fact or piece of information you could be looking for, yet majority of the time what you see is actually false. This is because Wikipedia allows for anyone and everyone to edit articles, which allows for information to be twisted and falsified, making Wikipedia extremely unreliable.

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Within media, money and the algorithm used to manipulate is what makes the platform so toxic. Media works in the way Foster describes, "Every social media platform that I know of lives and dies with popularity and traffic volume. Since they charge no user fees, and since making money is entirely the point of business, these businesses make their money via advertising. And how much money changes hands depends entirely on how many eyeballs the platform can attract."

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One thing that is scary about media is how much outreach it has, as well as how much information it truly knows about us and records. Again however, we are talking about media, and it is hard to know the truth when platforms today barely have to do anything to deceive their viewers. Foster exclaims, "A few keystrokes in a browser search often suffice to establish or demolish authenticity. Sometimes, a bit more labor and time must be invested. Occasionally, only technology experts can ferret out the truth."

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I think in this chapter Foster is just trying to make his readers more aware of where information comes from, and how certain platforms are more untrustworthy than others. Not to mention how the world today is using these platforms more and more, and we need to be extra careful in how we go about social media.