Home

Interhall Tourney

Hosted Tournaments

Schedule

Trip Details

Announcements

Moderating Tips

Packet-Writing

History

Tournament History

External Links

Woo quizbowl!

 

Upcoming Events:

Practices on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9:00

 

Packet Writing

Regulation packet:

Basics:

4/4 Lit
4/4 Science
3/3 History
3/2 or 2/3 Art
2/3 or 3/2 RMP
1/1 Trash
1/1 Current Events
1/1 Soc Science
1/1 Geo

20/20 Total -- Note that there should be extras included in the packet, that stuff is noted below.

The packet should be in Times New Roman font at size 10.

Don't number things, don't use tabs, autoformatting, or page breaks, they mess things up.

Make sure that the ANSWER: starts a new line, and that the required part of the answer is underlined/bold.

Prompt instructions can be included.

The last sentence in the question reads "FTP, blah blah blah giveaway."

Use a comma and space, not colons or dashes or something.

Plagiarism is bad, don't do it.

If you use Wikipedia, check any facts you find in there with other sources. Don't write questions solely using Wikipedia, it makes people mad and the packet will end up not counting as submitted, etc.

Pronunciation guides are probably unnecessary unless mispronouncing the word makes it unrecognizable. Common examples of where pronunciation guides might be needed include some transliterated Chinese words.

Submit packets in .doc or .rtf formats; do NOT use .docx, they're vile and no one likes them (and aren't compatible with any but the newest Word programs or the Windows compatibility pack.) Use "Save as..." to ensure you don't pick this evil file format!



A more detailed break-down of questions:


Distribution: Each submitted packet should have 24 tossups and 24 bonuses according to the following distribution:

Literature 5/5
History 5/5
Science 5/5
Religion, Mythology and Philosophy 3/3
Fine Arts 3/3
Social Science 1/1
Geography 1/1
Trash, current events, or your choice 1/1


Literature 5/5

•American literature: 1/1
•British literature: 1/1
•European literature from 500 CE onwards: 1/1
•World (anything not covered above and not originally written in English): 1/0 or 0/1
•Anything you want, including ancient European literature, more of any category above, or combinations of categories above: 1/2 or 2/1 Vary lit questions across time periods. Include several questions on forms other than novels, and include both several questions on authors and several questions on works.


History 5/5

•American history: 1/1 (two different time periods or two different historical approaches)
•European, Canadian, and Australian history: 3/3 (out of these six questions, 1 should be on classical history, 1 on British history, and 3 on continental Europe from three different post-classical time periods. The remaining question can be another British or European question, or a question on Canada or Australia.)
•World history: 1/1 (from two different large areas of the world besides those covered above) No more than 4 of your 10 total history questions should be predominately about battles, wars, or people known primarily for their military accomplishments. Please do not write any tossups on Chinese dynasties. Questions on interesting, unique, and accessible things from East Asian history are appreciated and encouraged as replacements for such dynasty questions.


Science 5/5

•Biology 1/1
•Chemistry 1/1
•Physics 1/1
•Math or computer science: 1 question
•Astronomy, earth science/geology, or other science not covered above: 1 question
•Any science: 1/1 (you can write a math question here if you wrote computer science above, or earth science here if you wrote astronomy above, but don’t write a second question on any of the “minor” fields. You can also just write more biology, chemistry, or physics here.) Questions on chemical elements, programming languages, and subatomic particles are prohibited unless you are an experienced writer who has come up with the best-ever question on one of those things.

Within “any science,” a maximum of 1 question on the history of science is allowed. Good areas to explore here include the various scientific achievements of important scientists, important discredited theories from the past, or items and places important to past scientific discoveries. Questions on famous experiments which focus on the scientific principles at work are considered straight science rather than science history, so you should feel free to write such questions for the relevant category. Questions which straddle the line between biology and chemistry, or chemistry and physics, should be reserved for the “any science” section of the science distribution, so that clear-cut answers can be used in the parts formally marked for the three large branches.


Religion, Mythology and Philosophy (RMP) 3/3

•Religion: 1/1 (different religions)
•Mythology: 1/1 (different myth systems)
•Philosophy: 1/1 (different parts of philosophical history) Questions on pre-Socratic Greek philosophers are prohibited unless you are an experienced writer who has come up with the best-ever question on pre-Socratic philosophy.

Please write between 1 and 2 total questions on distinctly non-Western things for the overall RMP category. You may write about events which straddle the line between history and religion (e.g., the Council of Chalcedon) for either history or religion, but don’t write about religious history for both categories. A question which could be considered either religion or myth (e.g., Brahma) can be counted as one of your religion questions.


Fine Arts 3/3

•Painting: 1/1
•Classical music excluding opera: 1/1
•Everything else: 1/1 (opera, sculpture, architecture, dance, jazz, photography, or other arts not covered under painting or classical music)

Please pick one largely visual category and one largely auditory category for your “everything else” subjects—e.g, pick jazz and photography, or opera and architecture, but not opera and jazz.


Social Science 1/1

Possible topics for this category include economics, psychology, sociology, linguistics, anthropology, political science, and social criticism. The two questions should not come from the same field of study. Questions on Supreme Court cases go under history; other law questions should go under “your choice” if written at all.


Geography 1/1

Do not write both questions on the same kind of political or physical feature, such as rivers, bodies of water, mountains, cities etc. Also, please do not write both questions on the same area of the world. Ethnic groups can be geography; languages are more likely social science.


Trash, current events, or your choice 1/1

You can write anything you wish here except for topics included in the other broad categories above, or you can write questions which mix categories here. If you write two trash questions then they should not be from the same general category (e.g. one should be on sports and one on TV, or one on music and one on video games; don't write both on visual media or both on sports).