Quick Recall Writing Guidelines.

Quick Recall
Question Writing Guidelines
For Governor's Cup, JV Challenge and Sixth Grade Showcase
Kentucky Association for Academic Competition
113 Consumer Lane
Frankfort, KY 40601
Phone: 502.223.0088
Fax: 502.223.0430
kaac@kaac.com
Writing Quality Questions
Your goal is to write a competition question that:
q Strictly adheres to KAAC content guidelines
q Has multiple clues in descending order of difficulty (is pyramidal)
q Moves clearly and efficiently toward one specific answer from start to finish
q Reduces as much as possible the element of buzzer speed as a determining factor
q Has ONLY one accurate, correct answer, or provides alternate answers when this is not possible
q Has a good chance of being answered by either team
q Is free from "hooks" or "traps", which frustrate students
q Flows well when read by the moderator
Before You Write
Step 1: Read this entire manual.
Step 2: Receive your assignment from John. John will send you an Excel file on which you will write
your questions.
Step 3: Know your deadlines
League questions: July 1
Sixth Grade and JV Challenge questions: August 1
Governor’s Cup Questions: August 1
Please help us meet our commitments to our students and
coaches by meeting these deadlines. When our questions are
not as polished as we’d like them to be, it is almost always
because a writer has failed to meet an agreed-upon deadline.
Step 1: Write Your Lead-in
Your first sentence is called your “lead-in” sentence. A lead-in sentence (1) tells the student what type of
answer you’re looking for, and (2) provides your most in-depth clues.
•
•
•
A good lead-in contains a designation of what type of answer you are looking for—a book, a title,
a word, a name, or something else. Sometimes, a simple “he” or “she” works.
A good lead-in provides facts that are more obscure than subsequent facts.
o Poor: This Polish astronomer developed his heliocentric theory
§ Once you state “Polish astronomer”, 99% of students are going to buzz in with
“COPERNICUS”. Nationality clues should almost always be near the end of a
question.
o Good: His work On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres has been hailed as the genesis
of modern astronomy.
A good lead-in points to one answer, and one answer only.
o Poor: The groundbreaking nature of his work was never recognized by the scholars of his
time.
1
o
•
§ There are hundreds of “correct” answers to this lead-in.
Good: He presented his paper Experiments on Plant Hybridization at two meetings of his
country’s Natural History Society.
§ Notice how this version says “his country” instead of giving the name of the
country, to avoid a giveaway nationality clue.
Good lead-ins offer the possibility of an early buzz-in. Although your lead-in should be the most
obscure part of your question, why ask it if no one can answer it?
o Poor: This artist’s fame and influence reached far beyond his national borders.
o
Good: After leaving Nuremberg for Italy, he abandoned wood-block printing and produced
a series of works by tempera-painting on linen, including religious portraits and altarpieces,
notably the Paumgartner altarpiece and the oil painting The Adoration of the Magi.
Step 2: Provide multiple unique, useful clues
A useful clue is one that could possibly lead to an answer. Here are examples of clues that are NOT
useful: “This concept is very important in the field of physics,” or “Many writers use this literary technique
in their works.” Your goal is to provide useful clues that are unique to your answer.
Minimum number of useful clues
Elementary
Middle
Grades,
Grade
JV and High School
2-3
6th 3-4
4-5
Computational math and spelling questions are exceptions to the chart above.
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For artists, musicians, scientists, etc., avoid ALL biographical clues unless they have a significant tie-in
to the person’s body of work. The fact that an artist studied in Paris is NOT useful; the fact that an artist
studied in Paris where he visited cafes he is known for painting may indeed be useful. Make ALL clues
point to the person’s body of work, not to his or her life story, unless there is something about that life
story that provides a direct connection to the body of work.
When writing questions that have a work of art, literature or music as an answer, focus on the work
itself. If you use them at all, historical clues such as “it was painted in 1832” or “it hangs in the Reina
Sofia” should be used in the last line with the artist’s name.
Poor:
This painting was painted in 1872. It is located in the Musee Marmottan in Paris, France. It
depicts a seen from La Havre, France in the early hours of the day. What painting by Monet is
credited with starting the Impressionist movement?
Good:
Two boats can be seen in the foreground of this painting and the top half features orange
overtones. Directly in the middle is an orange dot, which shows the sun. What painting by Claude
Monet is also used to identify the name of the art movement he helped found?
Clues pertaining to <Year> and <Award> should be used sparingly. When used, they should always be
paired with a description of the work recognized by the award. This is because <Year> + <Award> clues
tend to reward rote memorization of lists rather than actual knowledge of subject matter. In many cases,
the description or title of the work is enough that <Year> + <Award> can be entirely removed from the
question. <Year> + <Award> should NEVER be used as a giveaway clue in and of itself.
Poor:
Name this 1988 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
Good:
What novel about Sethe won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Literature for Toni Morrison?
Best:
Name this novel in which Sethe confronts her guilt over her title murdered child, by Toni Morrison.
Step 3: Arrange your clues in descending order of difficulty
Questions with clues arranged in this manner are known as “pyramidal.” The more in-depth a clue is, the
earlier it must appear in your question. Follow up your lead-in clue with more clues in descending order of
difficulty. End your question by providing a “payoff” clue that will allow most teams to answer correctly.
Poor:
When he published his Theory of Relativity, E equals MC squared, this physicist changed the way
we look at space and time. Who is this German scientist, a former patent clerk, who won the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect?
Almost any student would buzz in with “Einstein” after “Theory of Relativity” clue, rendering the rest of
the question moot.
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Good:
After he graduated secondary school, what he called “thought experiments” led him to radical
conclusions about the nature of light and space-time. Name this physicist who won the 1921 Nobel
Prize for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, and presented his Theories of General
and Special Relativity.
When a question includes a description of a work’s plot, characters, and/or contents, AND the work’s title,
pyramidal clue ordering is almost always DESCRIPTION—NAME(S)—TITLE, because a description of the
work is always more difficult to buzz-in on than simply the title.
Poor:
This playwright’s The Dumb Waiter centers on the characters Ben and Gus, who are hit-men.
Good:
This playwright created hit-men Ben and Gus in The Dumb Waiter.
A word about payoff clues: avoid what is known as a “difficulty cliff”. At the High School level, for
example, a question with (CHRISTOPHER) COLUMBUS as an answer line should not have several difficult
clues followed by “sailed in 1492” as a payoff clue. Along the same vein, avoid “stock clues.” It is okay to
write a question about Isadora Duncan that doesn’t mention the way she died, about Einstein without
mentioning Relativity, and about Tycho Brahe without mentioning his nose.
Step 4: Place a prompt at the beginning of the last sentence
All questions must include a prompt at the BEGINNING of the final sentence that indicates to the student
that the final bit of information is forthcoming. Examples of such prompts are "Identify the", "Name the",
"Give the", or simple interrogatives such as what, which, where, or who.
When your prompt begins with an interrogative like “What is” or “Who was”, you are asking a question-punctuate your sentence with a question mark. When your prompt begins with an imperative like “Name
the” or “Identify the,” you are giving a command—punctuate that sentence with a period.
Never tack on an additional sentence after your prompt sentence. Example:
Poor:
He experimented with electricity and magnetism. Name this inventor who fought a "war of currents"
with Thomas Edison. His name is attached to the SI unit of magnetic flux density as well as a highvoltage electrical coil.
Good:
He experimented with electricity and magnetism, and later fought a "war of currents" with Thomas
Edison. Whose name is attached to the SI unit of magnetic flux density, as well as a high-voltage
electrical coil?
Step 5: Provide a unique answer
Although we want our questions to have only ONE answer if possible, some answers may be given in
more than one way. If there are alternate answers to your question, use the Accept:_______ format in
the appropriate Excel column. Example:
In which two quadrants is the secant function positive?
(QUADRANTS) 1 (AND) 4
EXACTLY!
Accept:
4
FIRST
(AND)
FOURTH
ßUSE
THIS
FORMAT
Notice how the writer above distinguishes between optional, clarifying information and alternate answers.
Optional information (QUADRANTS, AND) is in parentheses. Alternate answers (FIRST AND FOURTH) are
preceded by the word “Accept”.
Step 6: Follow difficulty guidelines
We want to challenge students, but not discourage them by writing questions that may be too difficult,
obscure or time-consuming to answer. If you have to err, err on the side of "too easy" rather than "too
hard". Matches that have extremely low scores demoralize students.
About 80% of the questions you write should be answerable by both teams. The best way to separate the
“great” teams from the “good” teams is not to write questions with obscure answers, but to write
pyramidal questions on well-known topics. On those questions, a “great” team will answer first on the
more obscure clues.
Use this Difficulty Rating Scale:
1 = confidence builder (40%)
2 = appropriate for most students (40%)
3 = challenging (20%)
Using this scale, if you are writing 25 questions in one particular category, 10 questions would be a “1”,
10 questions would be a “2”, and 5 questions would be a “3”.
Step 7: Follow content guidelines
All questions MUST adhere to the published description for each subject area sub-category. If you have
any questions, contact John. Where the sub-category description provides “emphasis” areas, 75-80% of
the questions you write for that category should come from those areas.
Step 8: Edit and revise your questions
Before you send your question set to KAAC, edit and revise each question multiple times.
We have increased our payment rate because we expect to receive a clean set of questions that adhere to
these guidelines.
Begin with a spelling and grammar check. Then check for:
• Hooks or traps
• Overall difficulty level *of your complete submission set* - see Step 6 above
• Required number of clues
• Clues in descending order of difficulty
• Accurate pronunciations provided when needed
• Answer type designation in first sentence
• Prompt at beginning of final sentence
• One of John’s quirks: I hate the word “authored.” Please use “wrote.”
• Have you over-punctuated your longer sentences? Extra commas help the moderator.
Step 9: Please re-read Step 8.
Step 10: Email your Excel files
Send in your sets in roughly 50-question batches. Email your file to jbennett@kaac.com and begin
work on your next batch. See the instructions on page 2.
Step 11: Request payment
When you’ve submitted your final question set for your event, you may complete a W-9 and request
payment. http://www.kaac.com/question-writing/question-writers-home-page/. The password is
kaac2013. All questions, once written, become the property of KAAC.
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Content and Format Guidelines
1. Question Length
a. Be more concerned about the number of useful clues you are providing than question length. If
you write a three-sentence question, make sure all sentences contain useful clues.
2. Mathematics
a. Remember that students only have five seconds (MG/HS) or 10 seconds (EL) to answer a tossup.
Write questions that require multi-step calculations sparingly, as a rule. Write all math questions as
tossups.
b. Write out symbolic form for the moderator. Do not use superscript or subscript, as they do not
translate to our word processing software. Example:
Give the value of X when X squared equals 144.
(X EQUALS) 12
c. In Elementary mathematics questions, do not simply ask, "What is six times four"? Instead, use a
real world example or story problem, being careful to avoid excessive length.
d. In probability questions, state in your question that a fractional response is required and express
your answer accordingly. State, “As a fraction, give the…”
e. Fractions and decimals do not have to be written out and can be expressed thusly: .22 or 1/8.
f.
Whenever possible, use the generic “units” instead of a specific measure. Also, whenever possible,
include the unit in the prompt of your answer, so that it is an optional part of the student
response. Example: David has a garden that is 12 units long by 8 units wide. In square units, what
is the area of his garden?
96 (SQUARE UNITS)
3. Answers
a. Answers are written IN ALL CAPS. Optional parts of an answer are in parentheses.
Example: (PRESIDENT GEORGE) WASHINGTON
4. Full Name Answers
Full name answers are not required unless more than one individual with the same surname is
pertinent to the time period or subject area in question. Don’t ask for a full name answer just because
it might be well known. Questions with the answers Mary Baker Eddy, John Wilkes Booth, and John
Paul Jones should not require a full name answer.
5. Writing for Moderators
a. Pronunciations, even those only moderately difficult, should be written out in BRACKETS, NOT
PARENTHESES. Write the stressed syllable in all caps. Do not use the schwa or other phonetic
symbols; they are meaningless to many moderators.
EXAMPLE: …the emperor Nebuchadnezzar [neb-e-ke-NEZZ-er] was the first…
b.
Provide pronunciation for ALL foreign words or phrases. Look up difficult pronunciations. There
are links to pronunciation guides in the back of these guidelines. Do NOT simply guess at
pronunciations.
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c.
Over-punctuate with commas to indicate appropriate places for moderator pauses. We don’t care
as much about exactly matching writing conventions as we do about making a question easy to
read for the moderator.
d.
Write your questions for the most inexperienced moderator you can imagine. Try to foresee
trouble spots by picturing yourself as a coach looking for areas of inquiry.
e.
A question that looks good on paper may not read well. READ YOUR QUESTION ALOUD--NOT
SILENTLY--TO YOURSELF BEFORE SUBMITTING IT. This is the only way you will catch some
grammar mistakes, repeated words and awkward combinations of pronunciations.
f.
Always write out Roman numerals, as in “Pope John the Twenty-Third.”
g.
Do not use dashes to designate a span of time. Instead of “from 1973-75”, write “from 1973 to
1975.”
6. Content Appropriateness
a. Governor's Cup is not a "Trivial Pursuit." Can your question pass the "so what" test?
b.
There are no yes/no, either/or, or multiple choice questions in Quick Recall.
c.
Remember your target audience. A question that is acceptable for High School is going to be
inappropriate for Elementary or Middle Grades, and vice versa.
d.
A short word on the use of Wikipedia: No. One more word: No. Don’t use it to write from, don’t
use it to verify from. A final word on Wikipedia: No. Did we mention don’t use Wikipedia?
e.
Your work is plagiarized if you lift entire phrases from an uncredited source. Don’t do it.
7. Duplicate Questions
a. Avoid excessive duplication. If you are writing in the category that includes Broadway musicals, for
example, your questions should cover more than South Pacific and Grease. Be diverse in your
subject matter, but do not stray into obscurity.
b. If you are writing both League and Governor’s Cup questions, it is acceptable to have a few
duplicate answers within one particular category. Some categories are so narrow this is
unavoidable.
c. Be more concerned about avoiding obscure questions than about duplicating an answer from a
previous year. Theoretically, the same answer could be used year after year, as long as the clues
vary somewhat.
8. Spelling
a. Designate a spelling question, give the sentence, then give a clue to the word you are looking for
the student to spell. Example:
Spelling required. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in 2004, unilaterally declared that the
conflict in Darfur, Sudan should be classified as genocide. Spell the word in the previous sentence
that is defined as “acting alone”.
U-N-I-L-A-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y
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b. Include two or more polysyllabics word in your example sentence, to minimize the buzzer race
aspect.
9. Articles in Titles
a. Articles that begin a title are always optional. Place them in parentheses like this:
(THE) WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ; (THE) TWIST; (A) WRINKLE IN TIME
10. Participles and Adjectival Forms
a. As a rule, list participles and adjectival forms as acceptable alternate answers. Example:
PASTEURIZATION
ROMANTIC
(Accept: PASTEURIZING, PASTEURIZE)
(Accept: ROMANTICISM)
11. Wordiness
a. Write simple, short, precise sentences. It is better to have two sentences that are short and
precise than one long, convoluted sentence. If you can’t diagram it, don’t write it.
b. Wordiness—is there a more concise way to say the same thing? Examples:
i.Never use “which is”.
1. Poor: Name this document which is the basis of…
2. Better: Name this document, the basis of…
ii.Never use “is this _____ that.”
1. Poor: What is this type of molecule that bonds with…
2. Better: What type of molecule bonds with…
iii.Never use “Name this man who…”
1. Poor: “Name this man who invented the light bulb.”
2. Better: “Who invented the light bulb?”
12. Other Common Pitfalls and Some Suggestions
a. Never use passive voice.
i. Poor: “This legislation was designed by the Radical Republicans…”
ii. Good: “The Radical Republicans designed this legislation…”
b. Never use the descriptors “famous”, “popular, or “well-known”. If your topic isn’t, you shouldn’t be
writing on it.
c. Never “boilerplate” your questions or follow predictable patterns. Occasionally we will have writers
that will copy/paste the same lead-in in math, for example, and then simply change the variables.
Do not do this. Vary your lead-ins, clues and prompts.
d. Never write questions that begin in one direction, then lead in another direction. These are called
“hooks,” “hoses,” or “traps”.
i. Poor: Written in 1851, this novel tells the story of the Pyncheon House, and was based
on a real home in Salem Massachusetts. Who wrote “The House of the Seven Gables”?
ii. Good: Written in 1851, this novel tells the story of the Pyncheon House, and was based
on a real home in Salem Massachusetts. What is this Gothic work by Nathaniel
Hawthorne?
e. Never use the demonstrative “this” by itself.
i. Poor: Some historians refer to this as the turning point of the Civil War.
ii. Good: Some historians refer to this battle as the turning point in the Civil War.
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Web Resources (these links are on KAAC’s website)
This is by no means a complete list. If you have additions to this list email John.
Multiple Subject Areas:
Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/
User jbennett@kaac.com
Password kaac2010
This is for KAAC question writers only; do not share this password with others.
MIT’s OpenCourseWare: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
Dwight Kidder’s Reference Desk: http://www.fraughtmachine.com/refdesk/
College Bowl’s Reference Links: http://www.collegebowl.com/games/resources.asp
Google Books: http://books.google.com/
Educational Resources: http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~tbushey/educ.html
http://www.webref.org
ALA’s
great
websites
for
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsiteskids.cfm
NAQT’s "You Gotta Know": http://www.naqt.com/YouGottaKnow/
Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/ - great collection of tutorial videos, especially math
Social Studies
Profiles of economists, philosophers and other thinkers:
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/
Timeline of Recent History:
www.dudeman.net/history.html/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
http://plato.stanford.edu/
Constitutional Classics
http://www.constitution.org/liberlib.htm
Arts & Humanities
Music - Complete list of composers and their Naxos recordings:
http://www.naxos.com/SharedFiles/pdf/NaxosCat2008May.pdf
Virginia Tech Music Dictionary: http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/
Stanford’s Music Theory: http://ai.stanford.edu/~csewell/culture/music.htm
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kids:
Stanford’s Musicians: http://ai.stanford.edu/~csewell/culture/musicians.htm
Classic composers and theory: http://www.classical.net/
Religion/Mythology - Sacred Texts Archive: http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm
Greek Mythology: http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/greek-gods.html
Encyclopedia of Religion: http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/
Web Gallery of Art: http://www.wga.hu/
Philosophy and Religion: http://ai.stanford.edu/~csewell/culture/philosophy.htm
Christian religion: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
Science
http://www.organic-chemistry.org/
Periodic Table of Elements: http://www.ptable.com/
Science World: http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/
Education World’s Great Scientists: http://www.education-world.com/science/scientists.shtml
Language Arts
Common Core Language Arts Maps: http://commoncore.org/maps/index.php/maps/
Luminarium – Anthology of English Literature: http://www.luminarium.org/
Grammar: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ and http://www.iscribe.org/english/
Bartleby: http://www.bartleby.com/
Literary Encyclopedia: http://www.litencyc.com/index.php
user kaac
password kaac2012
This is for KAAC question writers only; do not share this password with others.
Mathematics
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
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Pronunciation Guides and other helpful sites
http://www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/SayHow/
http://www.pronunciationguide.info/thebiglist.html
http://names.voa.gov/
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/pronouncingnames.html
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/characters/charactermain.html
http://www.macroevolution.net/biology-dictionary-papn.html
http://medical.yourdictionary.com/
http://www.betterdaysarecoming.com/bible/pronunciation.html#eli
http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/gdumler/English%205A/Beowulf/beowulf_pronunciation_guide.htm
http://quark.physics.uwo.ca/science_olympics/events/grades_11_to_12/taxonomy_spelling_bee.html
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/
http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_junglebook_names.htm
http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/gdumler/English%205A/Beowulf/beowulf_pronunciation_guide.htm
http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html (American Ballet Theatre)
http://pantheon.org/miscellaneous/pronunciations.html (Encyclopedia Mythica)
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/pronunciation?lang=eng (Book of Mormon)
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KAAC Question Writing
Payment Scale
Quick Recall and Written Assessment
• High School: $2.00/question
• JV Challenge: $1.75/question
• Middle Grades: $1.50/question
• Sixth Grade Showcase: $1.25/question
• Elementary: $1.00/question
*Please note: High School and Middle Grades payment rates have been increased. This
reflects our expectation that you will submit a clean set that conforms to these writing
guidelines. Please see #2 below.
Caveats:
1. Submissions that fail to conform to KAAC Writing Guidelines shall be returned to the
writer for corrections.
2. Payment shall be reduced for questions that require extensive editing or that are
submitted past an agreed upon deadline.
3. Question writers must submit a request for payment and should expect payment on or
about the competition date for which they have submitted questions.
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15
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Common Mistake #1: Lack of Pyramidality
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Common Mistake #2: Non-Useful Clues
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Common Mistake #3: Failure to Over-Punctuate
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