Susan, I would feel that, to some extent, even the most original question will be the paraphrasing or rewording of information out of reference sources. I know i'm guilty. How much it resembles the source will probably depend on how much effort the writer is willing to put into making the question original or borrow from several sources instead of one. I have had experiences where I've been somewhat of an expert on the question I was writing that I did not have to go to another source and if so only to double check my facts. If someone gave me a question to write that wasn't in my strongest area I wouldn't hesitate to find some external source. Given that such quasi-plagiarism, as one might call it, is so prevalent, I would be of the opinion that, it's not necessarily right, but given that the nature of quiz bowl is such that money gets recycled around clubs (your entry fee today is my travel money for next weekend, for example) and companies whose efforts go to putting together packets and hosting events (NAQT comes to mind) we're not exactly profiting off this material (Beall excluded). Certainly proactive Tournament Editors could threaten to return packets if they read like encyclopedia entries, one might state "it's annoying, so don't do it." Forgive me if I've not said anything new - I realize people do talk about this at length but I hope this was a tiny bit insightful. Ross Ritterman Ex-Berkeley Quiz Bowl President
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