Question Writer's Bookshelf

[rebelwrest]

When I had to write questions for a high school & middle school tournament, I was in college at the time so I pretty much used the current reference section of the college library.  I narrowed it down to one book (or a set) for each subject.  For example, I used Masterplots and a guide to poetry for Literature, a Science dictionary, a four volume history of the world, an almanac of geography, and so on.  For current events and pop culture questions, I relied on my memory for answers and did research to write a good question.

The day of the tournament, I told my old quiz bowl coach (manager of the tournament) about what went into writing questions (current references, double sourcing, and rewriting if necessary); her response was, "you put way too much effort into it."

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'185991\' date=\'May 14 2008, 10:35 AM\']
The almanac also has Information Please's name attached.  If that isn't akin to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, I don't know what is.[/quote]
I agree, and I believe that answers my question.

[mcsittel]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'185988\' date=\'May 14 2008, 11:48 AM\']
[The World Almanac
The People's Chronology (sadly not updated since 1991)
A Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits
Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary
New York Public Library Book of Popular Americana (1994)
Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins
[/quote]

Now we can expand personal libraries based on the "Ottinger Index".  Good deal, that!  Alas I've only 3 of these titles.  No wonder Jeopardy! never called back... or was it the baldness... hmmm...

I was surprised to not see a world atlas of some kind on the list... as a geography fanatic and meteorologist, that gets used at work almost as much as the Billboard book my co-worker keeps at his desk!    

One title I like is Webster's New Geographic Dictionary, if only for the pronunciations of unusual place names.

/ Like Gallipolis, Ohio

[Ian Wallis]

I was surprised to not see a world atlas of some kind on the list... as a geography fanatic and meteorologist, that gets used at work almost as much as the Billboard book my co-worker keeps at his desk!

The Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits by Fred Bronson also has a lot of great musical information in it; I'm always referring to it when trying to recall something about past hits.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'186065\' date=\'May 15 2008, 11:31 AM\']
The Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits by Fred Bronson also has a lot of great musical information in it; I'm always referring to it when trying to recall something about past hits.
[/quote]
It is a good resource, but there were quite a few errors in the first edition that needed to be fixed (some were corrected for the second edition--I haven't bought future editions beyond the second).  So while I wouldn't say to take everything in the book with a grain of salt, I would say to have an additional resource to double and triple check.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'mcsittel\' post=\'186046\' date=\'May 15 2008, 03:52 AM\']I was surprised to not see a world atlas of some kind on the list... as a geography fanatic and meteorologist, that gets used at work almost as much as the Billboard book my co-worker keeps at his desk!    [/quote]
Good catch.  My atlas is oversized and on a different shelf, so I completely forgot about it.

As someone already figured out, the bulk of the writing I do professionally is for QB Jr., the middle school version of our show, which is why The World Almanac for Kids comes in so handy.  We use NAQT for the biggest chunk of our regular high school game, but they're not comfortable writing any younger than that.

Typically, the way I write is to use reference books to come up with a subject I think would be a good answer, then work back from that to construct the question, consulting various resources along the way.
 
[quote name=\'rebelwrest\' post=\'185998\' date=\'May 14 2008, 03:09 PM\']The day of the tournament, I told my old quiz bowl coach (manager of the tournament) about what went into writing questions (current references, double sourcing, and rewriting if necessary); her response was, "you put way too much effort into it."[/quote]
That's a shame.  She of all people should appreciate your diligence.  As a player, there's nothing more frustrating and disappointing than to come up against a poorly written or poorly researched question.  The PlayCafe gang are still in the process of learning that.

[tomobrien]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'186066\' date=\'May 15 2008, 11:51 AM\'] [quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'186065\' date=\'May 15 2008, 11:31 AM\']
The Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits by Fred Bronson also has a lot of great musical information in it; I'm always referring to it when trying to recall something about past hits.[/quote]
It is a good resource, but there were quite a few errors in the first edition that needed to be fixed (some were corrected for the second edition--I haven't bought future editions beyond the second).  So while I wouldn't say to take everything in the book with a grain of salt, I would say to have an additional resource to double and triple check. [/quote]Even better for pop music reference are the Joel Whitburn Billboard compilation books, particularly the Top-40 and Top-100 books.  Expensive, but well worth it.

[clanky06]

Another might be Famous Name Finder by Coral Amende. It has some errors too, such as Pat Sajak's real name listed as Sadjak rather than Sajdak.

[mcsittel]

[quote name=\'tomobrien\' post=\'186080\' date=\'May 15 2008, 05:09 PM\']
Even better for pop music reference are the Joel Whitburn Billboard compilation books, particularly the Top-40 and Top-100 books.  Expensive, but well worth it.
[/quote]

If you're interested in the other 60 positions of the Hot 100, the latter is certainly interesting.

I've got about half a dozen Whitburn titles... pop and country top 40s, the Hot 100 version of the Top 40 hits, the decades reprints for the 70s and 80s, and the Top 10 lists for every week book.  Mr. Whitburn gets a lot of shelf space!  I even have a Canadian Top 40 book I found in Winnipeg a few years ago.

Today at work someone quizzed me on who sang "Major Tom".  A little *too* easy.  I countered with his lesser known "The Different Story (World Of Lust and Crime)".  We spend *way* too much time on music trivia at work...

Matt

[rebelwrest]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'186069\' date=\'May 15 2008, 01:47 PM\']
[quote name=\'rebelwrest\' post=\'185998\' date=\'May 14 2008, 03:09 PM\']The day of the tournament, I told my old quiz bowl coach (manager of the tournament) about what went into writing questions (current references, double sourcing, and rewriting if necessary); her response was, "you put way too much effort into it."[/quote]
That's a shame.  She of all people should appreciate your diligence.  As a player, there's nothing more frustrating and disappointing than to come up against a poorly written or poorly researched question.  The PlayCafe gang are still in the process of learning that.
[/quote]

Yeah, I was kind of angry as well, but it was eclipse when she asked me wheter I wanted to manager the tournament (volunteers, scores, all the jazz) or read.  I decided to read in all of the rounds and got to see my questions in action.  Second, I was paid $150 for 400 questions (20 hours of work), not a bad transaction.

Now that Playcafe has introduced Letter Perfect, lets see if those episodes of Scrabble and Definition has rubbed off.

[Ian Wallis]

I've got about half a dozen Whitburn titles... pop and country top 40s, the Hot 100 version of the Top 40 hits, the decades reprints for the 70s and 80s, and the Top 10 lists for every week book. Mr. Whitburn gets a lot of shelf space! I even have a Canadian Top 40 book I found in Winnipeg a few years ago.

Today at work someone quizzed me on who sang "Major Tom". A little *too* easy. I countered with his lesser known "The Different Story (World Of Lust and Crime)". We spend *way* too much time on music trivia at work...

I've got a lot of his books too, but mostly just for pop, and the top albums.  I've also got the books with the reprints of all the Hot 100 charts (...and also seem to have committed to memory the peak positions of most of my favorite songs over the years!)

OBgame shows:  Casey Kasem, who used to count down the Billboard charts, was the voice on 100%.

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'tomobrien\' post=\'186080\' date=\'May 15 2008, 06:09 PM\']
Even better for pop music reference are the Joel Whitburn Billboard compilation books, particularly the Top-40 and Top-100 books.  Expensive, but well worth it.
[/quote]
Of course, when you have the books at work...

Here's our music/movie/TV reference library at my place of employment.  Picture a bookshelf 7 feet high, three feet wide filled with books or magazines.  Now multiply that by 28.

Be wary of almanacs, since they will lend you to dry question writing and they'll make your questions uninteresting.  Back when I was more into question writing, I would tend to use the almanac as an answer getter and then use other sources to actually come up with the question.  The hardest part of question writing is not the question -- it's coming up with an interesting answer.


--Mike

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'mcsittel\' post=\'186082\' date=\'May 15 2008, 06:53 PM\']Today at work someone quizzed me on who sang "Major Tom".  A little *too* easy.[/quote]
Man, I'm glad I looked some stuff up before I put my foot in my mouth with a reply.