--- In quizbowl_at_y..., ZAMM_Phaedrus <no_reply_at_y...> wrote: > Of course, this assumes that one may only major in one subject and > that one may gain a level of expertise in a subject only by majoring > in it, but the point is taken. Nice points made. I did not take into account the possibility of a double major (or minors, for that matter), but to cover the whole ACF quota, every member on a team of four must be at least a double major and/or with one to three minors. On expertise: I perceived disgust among some posts concerning the writing of questions by non-experts in the subject field, especially science questions written by non-science experts. There are other ways to gain expertise in a field (at least quizbowl-worthy expertise), namely by studying the right sources and *writing questions.* The term "major" was used in preceding posts, and I adopted the term "major" to illustrate my point that one should not have to read the whole Mahabharata to write a good tossup on it. I agree that using sources verbatim is a bad practice, but if quizbowl lashes out against the total use of concise reference sources (Benet's included), then the process of submitting an acceptable packet will be like writing fifty or more in-depth research papers. Surely no team wants to do that for each tournament. Also, this lashing-out against the use of non-primary reference sources will discourage young players from writing questions and improving their quizbowl aptitude out of fear of being prosecuted by Britannica and spending their prime reproductive years in a forced-labor camp. Besides, which is better for improving quizbowl aptitude: reading two hundred short literature summaries and learning a little bit about each work, so that one is able to answer a question on any of the two-hundred works somewhere around the "for ten points" mark; or reading four full-length novels in-depth, so that one is able to answer questions on those four works in the first sentence? Not counting bonus conversion, I think the first method would win 2000 to 40. Joshua Hill Treasurer, Arkansas Quiz Bowl Panthera tigris altaica
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