Re: Ghetto Warz (and question-writing in general)

Willie Chen <*williechen7_at_williechen7.yahoo.invalid*> · Fri, 30 Apr 2004 21:51:26 -0000

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, berkeleykaplan <no_reply_at_y...> wrote:

>     In addition, hastily written house packs and largely unedited
> submissions are bad enough, but the problem is compounded when the
> tournament staff uses its time to write a completely superfluous
> trash packet rather than improving the academic questions.
>     I encourage USC to try hosting a tournament again next year, but
> this year's version left an incredible amount to be desired.

Steve:

Is this your way of encouraging people?  I wasn't exactly 100% happy 
with Ghetto Warz myself, but can we at least stay positive and 
constructive in our criticism?  I believe we all share the goal of 
fostering a quiz-bowl community in California, so the last thing any 
of us should do is to make people feel bad about themselves.  Have 
you witnessed the disappearance of several QB programs in our 
circuit?  Have you ever wondered why the regular CBI schools (that 
don't already play NAQT) in California _don't_ cross over?

In defense of the UCI packet--I actually don't think it's all that 
horrific considering 95% of your complaints are on questions written 
by first-year players.  I decided not to write the entire packet 
because I realized that I can't shelter our new players forever.  As 
a general rule, every week our players bring in five new tossups and 
five new bonuses they wrote.  I can't _make_ them write questions, 
but most of the time they do bring in their works-in-progress.  We 
then playtest and critique each other's questions.  Regarding 
the "poor" questions you've addressed, I've already made suggestions 
on how to improve them during our weekly practice, but I left the 
actual editing/improving to the writers themselves because that's 
really how one becomes good at quiz bowl, isn't it?

And, for the record, I did not have control over the other half of 
our packet.  I sent my packet in one week ahead of theirs.

Regarding the quality of tournament, I think it was a good tournament 
for a _first_ tournament under the current USC administration.

Instead of an en masse vituperation, Steve, perhaps you can help all 
of us by finding a way to encourage inexperienced question writers 
and editors in the future.

Willie Chen
Advisor, UCI quiz bowl