Gibson assembly - Revision history

Matt Weiner: /* Theory */

2022-04-26T15:27:29Z

Theory

Kevin Wang at 15:16, 26 April 2022

2022-04-26T15:16:06Z

Ethan Ashbrook: my science might be a bit iffy on the explanation of the real gibson assembly if anybody wants to edit it, but i don't think it needs to go into too much detail for a qbwiki article

2022-04-25T22:28:30Z

my science might be a bit iffy on the explanation of the real gibson assembly if anybody wants to edit it, but i don't think it needs to go into too much detail for a qbwiki article

New page

<onlyinclude>In quizbowl, '''Gibson assembly''' is a question writing technique that consists of pulling sentences almost word-for-word from [[clue]] sources and using them as clues in [[tossup|tossups]]. A tossup written in such a manner is called "Gibson-assembled." Gibson assembly is widely frowned upon for writing questions, as it constitutes plagiarism of informational sources and past questions.</onlyinclude>

Writing tossups via Gibson assembly is a common mistake for newer writers trying to find clues. The existence of large databases of clues and questions like [[QuizDB]] makes Gibson assembly very easy, as one can pull one clue each from five or six different questions to make a new question that functionally works as a tossup, despite having little to no new creative input. Experienced writers and editors are able to detect when questions are Gibson-assembled and throw out such questions from their [[set|sets]].

In a non-quizbowl context, Gibson assembly refers to a molecular cloning technique that uses a series of enzymes to assemble DNA fragments into a single strand. As such, the taking of sentences from past tossups and combining them into a new tossup can be thought of analogously to the Gibson assembly of DNA.

{{c|Quizbowl Lingo}}

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 ==Theory==
 Gibson assembly is the lowest-effort method of creating questions and is frowned upon as a result. At best, a Gibson-assembled question is serviceable but unornamented; at its worst, it may involve literal plagiarism of informational sources and past questions. It is generally accepted that questions at lower difficulties involve less "art" and are mechanically simpler to write, especially for sets with length constraints like those of [[NAQT]]; thus, there is little utility to referring to them as "Gibson-assembled". The term is thus almost exclusively reserved as a criticism of higher difficulty questions, for which there are expectations of quality and novelty.
 Writing tossups via Gibson assembly is a common mistake for newer writers, who may pull clues from question from the [[archive]] to the exclusion of all other sources. Such questions are functional but involve little to no new creative input and their close resemblance to past questions makes it easy for experienced writers and editors to notice them (and remove them from their [[set]]s if desired).

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-<onlyinclude>In quizbowl, '''Gibson assembly''' is a question writing technique that consists of pulling sentences almost word-for-word from [[clue]] sources and using them as clues in [[tossup|tossups]]. A tossup written in such a manner is called "Gibson-assembled." Gibson assembly is widely frowned upon for writing questions, as it constitutes plagiarism of informational sources and past questions.</onlyinclude>
+<onlyinclude>'''Gibson-assembled''' (and its noun form '''Gibson assembly''') is a phrase coined by [[Eric Mukherjee]] to describe questions [[written]] by haphazardly joining together [[clues]] from lists on Wikipedia, analogously to the molecular cloning method of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_assembly Gibson assembly]. It is now used more broadly to describe [[tossup]]s which have been created by joining together clues from previous questions without significant alteration.</onlyinclude>
-Writing tossups via Gibson assembly is a common mistake for newer writers trying to find clues. The existence of large databases of clues and questions like [[QuizDB]] makes Gibson assembly very easy, as one can pull one clue each from five or six different questions to make a new question that functionally works as a tossup, despite having little to no new creative input. Experienced writers and editors are able to detect when questions are Gibson-assembled and throw out such questions from their [[set|sets]].
+==Context==
-In a non-quizbowl context, Gibson assembly refers to a molecular cloning technique that uses a series of enzymes to assemble DNA fragments into a single strand. As such, the taking of sentences from past tossups and combining them into a new tossup can be thought of analogously to the Gibson assembly of DNA.
+Gibson assembly is a molecular cloning technique which joins fragments of DNA together into a single strand. Crucially to this analogy, the pieces are joined together without modification and in a single step (i.e. with little effort from the assembler).
-{{c|Quizbowl Lingo}}
+==Theory==