Jerry wrote: "What really ticks me off, though, is when people write > questions directly out of sources that summarize literature such as > Benet's. It essentially encourages formulaic questions and allows > people who have not taken the time and effort to read the actual > work of literature to get the answer just by reading Benet's > summaries. Although I don't suppose that my saying so will > discourage anyone who uses Benet's from continuing to do so, I would > still like to encourage everyone to try their best to write > original, interesting questions that are not stale rehashes of > someone else's summary, and to actually take the time to read a work > of literature that you're going to write a question on." Overall, I do agree what you are saying -- it definitely shows a lack of creativity or care to write a question by copying out of Benet's word-for-word, and the worst part is when writers use "Benet's descriptive adjectives" (for example, _Fathers and Sons_: "the nihilist Bazarov espouses a strictly materialistic attitude toward life.") However, I think you're mixing two issues here. Players are going to get questions even though they have not read a book. Conversely, other players who read works are never _entitled_ to get questions simply because they read a work. This is quizbowl, not an essay test; the point is to find ways to win a game and demonstrate your (often superficial) knowledge within a game setting. Besides, if you want to enrich your mind, intelligence, cultural literacy, etc., then you read a book. If you want to get better at quizbowl, you do something that takes significantly less time, like write a question on that book. I would just encourage players not to write questions word-for-word from a commonly used source such as Benet's. -Adam
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