Re: On Questions

• From: fbush555 <no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com>
• Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 19:35:19 -0000
• Message-ID: <b7ce5o+9807_at_...>

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, cbijustgothosedagain <no_reply_at_y...>
wrote:

> It seems that people think that any clue in which more than one 
> person knows the answer is a poor lead-in.  Especially if it's in 
> their field; in which case, any clue in which anyone besides 
> themselves knows it is a poor lead-in.  Chill out.

I'd narrow this a little: I think any tossup with more than two people
in the same room in a buzzer race on the first clue is poorly
structured. The goal is to eliminate that sort of tossup.

I mean, consider a tossup where the leadin is the main character of an
(obscure) piece, like R.U.R. This means that the following people will
*immediately* buzz at that point:
1) Anyone who has read RUR 
2) Anyone who has written a tossup on RUR
3) Anyone who has memorized lists of main characters for works (a
hypothetical example, I hope; does anyone actually do this?)
4) Anyone who has heard a tossup on RUR (since that information is
likely going to be in the tossup somewhere)

About the only person who's not going to buzzing in on the main
character, but who has a chance of answering the question is
5) Anyone who's heard about the play through minor "real world" knowledge


In an ideal pyramidal tossup, person 1 gets the answer first, person 2
gets it a little later, and person 3 and 4 get it near the giveaway
and 5 gets it at the very end. In this tossup, 1, 2, 3, and 4 all get
it at the same time; only 5 is left out. 

I think it's definitely useful to differentiate "fraud" knowledge
(picked up solely from quizbowl) from "deep" knowledge (picked up
through thorough knowledge of the piece in question.) A tossup which
starts off with a canonical quizbowl chestnut (he was kidnapped by
gypsies/traded for a horse/lost part of a limb at Lepanto) or with a
canonical quizbowl clue (main character) rewards fraudulency as well
as or better than it rewards deep knowledge, and will provoke a buzzer
race among top teams.

BTW, this discussion has provided me with another couple "no-nos" for
an opening clue:


an anecdote that you've heard before at a quizbowl tournament

a translation or a derivation of the answer

the author's first published work


And the general rule:

Do not include any portion of the answer in the tossup.