8) What makes a question "good"? (See also Question 11a.) (College Bowl)
Description
This article is from the College Bowl FAQ, by George Atendido aten0001@tc.umn.edu with numerous contributions by others.
8) What makes a question "good"? (See also Question 11a.) (College Bowl)
A good question is one that is both fair and moves from obscurity to clarity.
A question is "fair" if it is not intentionally misleading. An example of
a misleading question is: "Giants Stadium is the only stadium home to two
NFL teams, but for ten points, name the only state home to two Federal
Reserve Banks." This question is unfair because the two pieces of
information, Giants Stadium and the Federal Reserve, are totally
unrelated. This question would have been "fair", however, if it had asked
which teams played in Giants Stadium or asked which city Giants Stadium is in.
A CB tossup question should have 2 or 3 pieces of information, and they
should be presented in such a manner as to take the question from
obscurity to clarity. (ACF tossups may have additional clues. CB tossups
should be limited to three clues because long questions are incompatible
with timed rounds.) For example, if a question has 3 clues then after the
first clue only the exceptional player should be able to answer it, after
the second a good player should be able to make an educated guess, and
after the third clue only one possible answer should remain.
There are exceptions to this rule. The first is the spelling question. In
these questions, the answer is to spell a word. In these, the word to be
spelled *must* be one of the first 4-5 words of the question in order to
be fair. Another exception is the "quickie" question. An example would be
"For a quick ten points, what is the capital of Kansas." These questions
reward speed and players who can adjust their tempo quickly. However,
"quickie" questions should not be overused: in CB packets, there should be
no more than 3, and ACF discourages the use of any quickies.
Both formats "officially" (through their most-often cited question
writing guidelines) call for "giveaway clues" at the end of a tossup.
Continue to:
My Books
