Giveaway

The giveaway is the last clue of a tossup. Per the rules of pyramidality, it is the easiest clue to buzz on in the tossup. The giveaway almost always comes after the words "For 10 points." Most tournaments hold that 85-90% of teams in the tournament's target skill level should be able to answer the tossup after the giveaway.

Common types of giveaways

In literature, giveaways are often the name of the author (when the answerline is a book) or the name of the most well-known book by an author (when the answerline is an author). In geography, a giveaway is often the capital city of a state or country (when the answerline is such). Even after the "For 10 points" is read though, the final sentence of a tossup's giveaway should still be internally pyramidal--in other words, in a TU on Panama, one would write "For 10 points, name this Central American country located on a namesake isthmus and host to a namesake canal." rather than "For 10 points, a canal over an isthmus crosses what Central American country?" (assuming that "canal" here is the word likeliest to be directly associated with Panama and thus the easiest part of the question).

Pop culture in giveaways

Pop culture clues are often discouraged in giveaways to academic questions. A tossup on Jethro Tull (the inventor) might contain the giveaway "For 10 points, name this man who invented the seed drill." It would not mention anything about a progressive rock band or flutes. Some writers believe that giving teams points off a pop culture giveaway in an academic portion of the distribution for buzzing on pop culture knowledge is unfair. Others, however, believing that question conversion is more important or who support mixed academic and pop culture questions, might disagree.

Other non-ideal giveaways

Giveaways can be non-academic while not necessarily being pop culture. For example, a tossup on BF Skinner should not end with a giveaway about how his last name can refer to one who `sheds the coats off of animals'.