Uniqueness - Revision history

Tracy Mirkin at 21:30, 31 March 2025

2025-03-31T21:30:43Z

Kevin Wang at 20:48, 31 March 2025

2025-03-31T20:48:11Z

Kevin Wang: incorporate text from Uniquely identifying

2023-08-02T01:48:19Z

incorporate text from Uniquely identifying

Kevin Wang: Created page with "{{Studying}} '''Uniqueness''' is the property of a clue or series of clues which points to exactly one answer. The selection and proper rendering of uniq..."

2023-08-02T01:44:41Z

Created page with "{{Studying}} <onlyinclude> '''Uniqueness''' is the property of a clue or series of clues which points to exactly one answer. The selection and proper rendering of uniq..."

New page

{{Studying}}
<onlyinclude>
'''Uniqueness''' is the property of a [[clue]] or series of clues which points to exactly one [[answer]]. The selection and proper rendering of unique clues is an important step of the [[writing]] process.

Making a clue unique by adding additional information is often referred to as "pinning it" to the answer.
</onlyinclude>
==Theory==
Uniqueness is an important aspect of [[pyramidality]] - in order to distinguish players based on their relative level of knowledge, it must be possible to provide the correct answer at various points in the question. This is not possible unless each

It is not required (or even possible, in most cases) for every single word or clause of a tossup or clue to be unique. Nevertheless, it is preferable to have as many subsets of a clue be unique as possible.

Consider the following [[leadin]] from a question on {{q|{{bu|Amaterasu}}}}:
{{qq|This deity won a challenge with another god by creating three goddesses by chewing up a sword and spitting it out, after which her opponent went on a rampage.

-2019 Glasgow [[Scottie]]}}
A <strike>psychopath</strike> particularly bold individual could buzz after the word "deity" and give an answer like {{q|Ares}} then attempt to [[protest]] their way into points on the argument that the answer they provided was accurate given the clues that had been read thus far. To avoid this edge case, both [[ACF]] and [[NAQT]] have clues that limit protests on the grounds of uniqueness to ''after'' the first clue. This has had its own negative consequences, namely that it is difficult for a player to discern where the first clue ends (and thus when they are allowed to protest).

A [[hose]] is a particular form of "[[bad quizbowl]]" in which this basic principle has been upended and players who buzz on early clues are [[neg]]ged because the clues were accidentally or intentionally non-unique.

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 -2019 Glasgow [[Scottie]]}}
-A <strike>psychopath</strike> particularly bold individual could buzz after the word "deity" and give an answer like {{q|Ares}} then attempt to [[protest]] their way into points on the argument that the answer they provided was accurate given the clues that had been read thus far. To avoid this edge case, both [[ACF]] and [[NAQT]] have clues that limit protests on the grounds of uniqueness to ''after'' the first clue. This has had its own negative consequences, namely that it is difficult for a player to discern where the first clue ends (and thus when they are allowed to protest).
+A <strike>psychopath</strike> particularly bold individual could buzz after the word "deity" and give an answer like {{q|Ares}} then attempt to [[protest]] their way into points on the argument that the answer they provided was accurate given the clues that had been read thus far. To avoid this edge case, both [[ACF]] and [[NAQT]] have rules that limit protests on the grounds of uniqueness to ''after'' the first clue. This has had its own negative consequences, namely that it is difficult for a player to discern where the first clue ends (and thus when they are allowed to protest).
 A [[hose]] is a particular form of "[[bad quizbowl]]" in which this basic principle has been upended and players who buzz on early clues are [[neg]]ged because the clues were accidentally or intentionally non-unique.
 {{Refs}}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Studying}}
 <onlyinclude>
-'''Uniqueness''' is a property of a [[clue]] or series of clues that refers to exactly one potential action; such a clue is then '''uniquely identifying'''. The selection and proper rendering of unique clues is an important step of the [[writing]] process.
+'''Uniqueness''' is a property of a [[clue]] or series of clues that refers to exactly one potential action; such a clue is then '''uniquely identifying'''. The selection and proper rendering of unique clues is an important step of the [[writing]] process./onlyinclude>
 ==Theory==
 Uniqueness is an important aspect of [[pyramidality]] - in order to distinguish players based on their relative level of knowledge, it must be possible to provide the correct answer at various points in the question.
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 A [[hose]] is a particular form of "[[bad quizbowl]]" in which this basic principle has been upended and players who buzz on early clues are [[neg]]ged because the clues were accidentally or intentionally non-unique.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Studying}}
 <onlyinclude>
-'''Uniqueness''' is the property of a [[clue]] or series of clues which points to exactly one [[answer]]. The selection and proper rendering of unique clues is an important step of the [[writing]] process.
+'''Uniqueness''' is a property of a [[clue]] or series of clues that refers to exactly one potential action; such a clue is then '''uniquely identifying'''. The selection and proper rendering of unique clues is an important step of the [[writing]] process.
-Making a clue unique by adding additional information is often referred to as "pinning it" to the answer.
+Other [[trivia]] events sometimes refer to this property as '''"pinned"''', or refer to adding information that makes an otherwise non-unique clue unique as adding "the '''pin'''"; that may be because those were the terms of art among writers for [[game show]]s such as ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'' as recently as the mid-2000s.[https://books.google.com/books?id=tXi_rfgUWCcC&pg=PT113]
 </onlyinclude>
 ==Theory==
-Uniqueness is an important aspect of [[pyramidality]] - in order to distinguish players based on their relative level of knowledge, it must be possible to provide the correct answer at various points in the question. This is not possible unless each
+Uniqueness is an important aspect of [[pyramidality]] - in order to distinguish players based on their relative level of knowledge, it must be possible to provide the correct answer at various points in the question.
-It is not required (or even possible, in most cases) for every single word or clause of a tossup or clue to be unique. Nevertheless, it is preferable to have as many subsets of a clue be unique as possible.
+It is not required (or even possible, in most cases) for every single word or clause of a tossup or clue to be unique. Nevertheless, every sentence in a [[good quizbowl|good]] [[tossup]] should contain at least one uniquely identifying clause, and all such clauses will be about the actual answer to the tossup. There is more flexibility to use non-unique sentences in [[bonus]] parts, but each bonus part should contain at least one uniquely identifying clue.
 Consider the following [[leadin]] from a question on {{q|{{bu|Amaterasu}}}}: