Quizbowlese

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A term which refers to formulaic phrases that recur much more often in quizbowl question writing than anywhere else. Many forms of quizbowlese emerge from attempts to avoid transparent questions, but often causes them or makes quizbowl questions difficult for new players to understand.

Examples of quizbowlese include:

  • Overuse of the word "work" to describe books, paintings, symphonies, treatises, etc.
  • in a similar vein, using "polity," "entity," "figure" as the only noun describing the answer more than is necessary
  • overusing the adjective "titular" in place of the adjective "title"
  • unduly vague uses of "associated with"
  • connecting unrelated sentences with "In addition to <title>, ..." or linking unrelated clauses mid-sentence with "and" or "while" mid-sentence
  • giveaways that are neither a question nor a statement ("For 10 points, name this first President of the United States" is acceptable; "For 10 points, this first President of the United States." is not)