Quizbowlese

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The term "quizbowlese" is used to refer to formulaic phrases or words that recur much more often in quizbowl question writing than anywhere else. Many forms of quizbowlese make quizbowl questions harder to read or make it more difficult for new players to understand what their moderator is asking them.

Examples of quizbowlese include:

  • Overuse of the word "work" to describe books, paintings, symphonies, treatises, etc.
  • in a similar vein, using "polity," "entity," "figure," etc. as the only noun describing the answer
  • overusing the adjective "titular" in place of the adjective "title"
  • unduly vague uses of "associated with"
  • using the standalone adjective "this" or "these" as a noun
  • connecting unrelated sentences with "In addition to <title>, ..." or linking unrelated clauses mid-sentence with "and" or "while"
  • 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)