As Joon Pahk understands, but not everyone seems to, the exact placement of power marks, at least as practised by NAQT, has reference to what immediately _follows_ the mark, not what comes before. What comes before is important in that a power mark must come after there has been some sort of clue that makes the question at least conceivably answerable, but once you are past such a clue the decision as to where exactly to place a mark has to do with the word after the mark, not words before it. Locating a power mark in a specific place is a warrant that the question will become markedly easier once the very next word is read. NAQT power marks are never placed in front of insignificant words, but only (at least if the particular editor on that project understands what they're doing) in front of a word that is itself a significant clue that will make the question easier to answer. In other words, if you have determined to place the mark in between clue A and clue B, it must go as far as possible after clue A -- immediately before the key word of clue B that means that clue has been voiced. The only exception is that since the mark must come before the words "for 10 points," there are questions where the mark is delayed until that phrase. In all other situations, an NAQT power mark is supposed to appear immediately in front of some key word that we believe constitutes a new "trigger point" for the question. Eric Hillemann NAQT Chief Editor
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:43 AM EST EST