UC Irvine Open III packets

• From: williechen7
• Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 18:26:57 -0700
• Message-ID: <000TFEIR1.0003JG6SS.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

Hi, again:

PACKET WRITING
GUIDELINES:

The required packets should have 25 tossups and 25
bonuses, balanced across subjects as per the following
ranges for each set of 25:

4-5 History (mixing
eras and geography of course)
4-5 Literature
(ditto)
4-5 Science/Math (mixing subcategories)
1-3
Geography
1-2 Sports
2-3 Film or TV or Pop Music or other
Pop Culture topic
2-3 Fine Arts (Music other than
Pop, Visual Arts, etc.)
1-2
Philosophy/Religion/Mythology
1-2 Social Sciences (Soc, Anthro/Archaeology, Econ,
Poli Sci, Psych, Law, etc.)
1-4
General/Miscellaneous (other topics, mixed topics, current
events)

Acceptable packets must have subject distribution that falls
within these ranges. The text of tossup questions (not
including spaces or answers) should always fall between 200
and 500 characters in lengththats roughly two and a
half to at most six lines of text in most fonts.
Bonuses should all be worth a total of 30 points, with
partial points possible.

What to say about desired
difficulty? Questions should be interesting and challenging
for experienced players, as befits a Masters event;
at the same time, however, I want packets that can
be played with enjoyment by an average
college-circuit-ability team. Tossups in particular should rarely go
unanswered if read to completion to such a team. As one
benchmark, Id
say that for this event any packet within
the range from typical NAQT Sectionals difficulty on
the low end to typical NAQT Division I ICT difficulty
on the other (average to well above-average
invitational circuit difficulty) would be appropriate and
successful, but that writers should aim to avoid writing a
packet with a difficulty level outside that range in
either direction. (Roughly the same in ACF terms:
Anything from ACF Regionals to ACF Nationals in difficulty
is fine.)

Finally, an acceptable packet
should show some evidence of having been prepared with
care, and proofread prior to being sent off. Yes, it
will be edited, but you should submit it in a state
that you believe is ready for play as
is.

Please send your finished packet to Mr. Hilleman at
ehillema_at_.... Thanks!