2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

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2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by AKKOLADE »

Here are my contributions this year (italics = edited)

DI

Round 1: Arp/Dada/Duchamp; Just a Gigolo/David Lee Roth/David Bowie
Round 2: TU Kurt Cobain's suicide note
Round 3: Dyer/Bacon/Innocent X
Round 10: TU The Searchers
Round 13: If I Had $1000000/Rent/In The Year 2525
Round 15: Warren Zevon/Werewolves of London/Knockin' on Heaven's Door

DII

Round 1: Dada/Cologne/Duchamp
Round 2: Best I Ever Had/Drake/Thank Me Later
Round 3: Bacon/triptych/Innocent X
Round 10: TU The Searchers
Round 14: NuvaRing/Merck/uterus
Round 15: day/sidereal day/3 minutes 56 seconds (difference in time between solar day & sidereal day)
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by hydrocephalitic listlessness »

I really liked the Warren Zevon bonus. Could you post the Searchers tossup? I watched it a couple months ago but wasn't able to buzz on any of the early clues—they didn't feel super-evocative.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by AKKOLADE »

One character in this film agrees to help if promised "a rockin' chair by the fire." The protagonist of this film, who was once in love with his sister-in-law Martha, has the catchphrase "That'll be the day." This film, which closes with the protagonist framed in a {cabin} (*) door as he walks away from the viewer, describes how Debbie, played by Natalie Wood, is rescued from Comanche [koh-MAN-chee] Indians. For 10 points--what 1956 {John Ford} {Western} stars Jeffrey Hunter and John Wayne as the title rescue party?
It's been 3 years since I watched this (and wrote the tossup!) but I remember both of those lines a lot, and that shot of Wayne in the door is one of the most memorable I've ever seen in an American film. shrug emoticon
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by ProfessorIanDuncan »

The Kurt Cobain Suicide note was a great idea for a tossup.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by vengefulsweatermensch »

Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon wrote:
One character in this film agrees to help if promised "a rockin' chair by the fire." The protagonist of this film, who was once in love with his sister-in-law Martha, has the catchphrase "That'll be the day." This film, which closes with the protagonist framed in a {cabin} (*) door as he walks away from the viewer, describes how Debbie, played by Natalie Wood, is rescued from Comanche [koh-MAN-chee] Indians. For 10 points--what 1956 {John Ford} {Western} stars Jeffrey Hunter and John Wayne as the title rescue party?
This is a pretty lame complaint, but I don't think the film ever actually says outright that Ethan was in love with Martha. Sure, the subtext is there, but it's never made explicit. The Martha thing was the first clue in the DII version and kind of through me off, but this is still a good tossup on a good movie -- Mose's rocking chair obsession is pretty memorable and the "that'll be the day" quote has made its way into pop culture. The final shot is iconic, too -- one bum clue aside, this tossup seems to reward a viewing of The Searchers pretty well.

The DII tossup on Kurt Cobain with clues from his suicide note played nicely, too, although I'm curious to see what the DI version looked like.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by AKKOLADE »

ProfessorIanDuncan wrote:The Kurt Cobain Suicide note was a great idea for a tossup.
I'm not sure I changed a word of that one. Matt Jackson wrote it. It's my most favorite question I ever had the pleasure to edit while doing PC:M: for NAQT.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by AKKOLADE »

vengefulsweatermensch wrote:
Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon wrote:
One character in this film agrees to help if promised "a rockin' chair by the fire." The protagonist of this film, who was once in love with his sister-in-law Martha, has the catchphrase "That'll be the day." This film, which closes with the protagonist framed in a {cabin} (*) door as he walks away from the viewer, describes how Debbie, played by Natalie Wood, is rescued from Comanche [koh-MAN-chee] Indians. For 10 points--what 1956 {John Ford} {Western} stars Jeffrey Hunter and John Wayne as the title rescue party?
This is a pretty lame complaint, but I don't think the film ever actually says outright that Ethan was in love with Martha.
You're right, but it's a super common critic response to the film to make that statement. And after watching the film myself, I didn't think it was a stretch to make that statement.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Holla! »

I, too, would enjoy/appreciate feedback.

DI:
Panama (history)
Netherlands (CE)

DII:
Branch Davidians
Janissaries
Blood and Iron/Bismarck/Caprivi
House of Valois
John of England
Wessex
Burgundy
Syriza/Greece/Golden Dawn
Lecompton Constitution
helots
Basque (linguistics)
Corn Laws
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Corry »

Holla! wrote:I, too, would enjoy/appreciate feedback.

DI:
Panama (history)
Netherlands (CE)

DII:
Branch Davidians
Janissaries
Blood and Iron/Bismarck/Caprivi
House of Valois
John of England
Wessex
Burgundy
Syriza/Greece/Golden Dawn
Lecompton Constitution
helots
Basque (linguistics)
Corn Laws
My only thought here was that Lecompton Constitution was a really hard answer line. In my playoffs game vs MIT, the question went until the very end, and I think I was the only person in the room who knew its specific name (as opposed to just "that slavery constitution something something Bleeding Kansas")
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

I also thought the Cobain question was neat.

My questions:

DI
apoptosis/mitochondria/TUNEL
Gioconda/Dance of the Hours/Suicidio
polytene chromosome/Drosophila/abdomen
roots/velamen/legume
cicada/Hemiptera/cochineal

DII
Fungi TU
apoptosis/mitochondria/p53
Gioconda/Dance of the Hours/Hugo
polytene chromosome/Drosophila/salivary gland
root/legume/adventitious
cicada/Hemiptera/nymph
eels TU
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Corry »

I wrote 30 questions for this year's ICT, mostly in history and geography. This was the first time I've ever written anything this difficult, so I'm very interested in hearing people's thoughts on my questions.

Tossups
Japan (early history)
Sea Islands
French nuclear program
Fridtjof Nansen
Savannah, Georgia
American Revolution (focusing on battles outside of America)
Morocco (geography and the Rif)
China (19th century foreign relations)
American slavery
Russia (geography)
Samuel Morse
Argentina (history)
Theodor Herzl
Samuel Huntington
Comoros
London (terrorism)
Ivan the Terrible (early Anglo-Russian relations)
Bactria
Lena River
Ottoman Empire (in World War I)
Namibia
Translyvania
Karakoram Mountains
Nagorno-Karabakh
Business Plot
Pontiac's Rebellion

Bonuses
Bangladesh/Sheikh Hasina/Khaleda Zia
Transoxiana/Syr Darya/Khorasan
Mount Katahdin/Appalachian Trail/Pacific Crest Trail
Novaya Zemlya/Tsar Bomba/Ural Mountains
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by swwFCqb »

I, too, would appreciate any feedback on the few questions of mine that made it into the set:

D1
5: Myers v. U.S./Tenure of Office Act/W.H. Taft
15: Warren Zevon/Werewolves of London/Knockin' on Heaven's Door

D2
1: Panama/Noriega/Torrijos
2: To An Athlete Dying Young
5: Myers v. U.S./Andrew Johnson/W.H. Taft (converted from D1); John Oakhurst/The Outcasts of Poker Flat/Harte
8: Nepal (geography)
12: Mississippi River (miscellaneous)
15: Warren Zevon/werewolves/Lon Chaney Jr. (converted from D1); Kuala Lumpur
16: John Yossarian
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

As a person from Georgia, I liked the Sea Islands tossup, even though I would have said "Golden Isles" because I always get them mixed up.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by cchiego »

I also enjoyed the Searchers TU. The shot in the door (framing) seems like a legit film-ish clue too.
Corry wrote:I wrote 30 questions for this year's ICT, mostly in history and geography. This was the first time I've ever written anything this difficult, so I'm very interested in hearing people's thoughts on my questions.
Sea Islands was an interesting idea, but there are multiple names for various groupings of them and I was also confused at first. It might have been better to have a TU on Georgia and just clue it off the islands (and you left out the best one, Cumberland Island). Having both a Sea Islands TU and a Savannah TU in the same set was a little odd too.

For Russia, you probably could have written on Kamchatka itself just fine at this level (I hesitated a second before pulling the trigger since "they'd never TU Russia as a whole at this level"), but that's fine. It was, again, a little odd to later have a tough Russia CE answer line (along with Kievan Rus).

Bactria had some issues--Demetrius was dropped really early I think and as soon as you hear Greek names of a kingdom + Mauryans it's a bit too easy. There are some architectural things and finds that would probably be better early clues. I'd also think Parthia might deserve more TUs these days compared to what seems like a surfeit of Bactria questions.

Karakoram Mountains I only briefly looked at since I didn't hear, but I recall a lot of place names and not a lot of actual peaks. That's ok, but it would have been interesting to have worked in a CE angle on the Nanga Parbat attack or something else mountaineering too since so many of the 8000ers are in there.

I enjoyed the Business Plot TU and the Huntington TU, thought the American Slavery one was interesting (but no mention of Time on the Cross?), and liked the ideas behind the Russia and American Revolution questions that rewarded int'l knowledge. In general, I thought this was a good mix of classic NAQT geography and some new ideas.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Stained Diviner »

I wrote the tossups on Bali, Inhofe, Idaho, Jerry Brown, and Bob Menendez. All of those except Bali were converted for DII, and I also wrote Argentina and Vistula/Baltic/Krakow for that. All of my tossups were CE.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Corry »

Hey Chris, I really appreciate the comments. A few words on some of your points:
cchiego wrote: Sea Islands was an interesting idea, but there are multiple names for various groupings of them and I was also confused at first. It might have been better to have a TU on Georgia and just clue it off the islands (and you left out the best one, Cumberland Island). Having both a Sea Islands TU and a Savannah TU in the same set was a little odd too.
Interestingly, I originally had a clue on Cumberland Island's feral horses in the first draft of this tossup, but then I cut it because length restrictions. Also, I honestly have no idea what people actually know about the Sea Islands (and it shows- the clue order of that tossup got adjusted at least three times in the editing process).
cchiego wrote: Karakoram Mountains I only briefly looked at since I didn't hear, but I recall a lot of place names and not a lot of actual peaks. That's ok, but it would have been interesting to have worked in a CE angle on the Nanga Parbat attack or something else mountaineering too since so many of the 8000ers are in there.


For reference, here's the text of the question:
In 2010 a landslide in Attabad [OTT-uh-bod] in this mountain range threatened the Hunza [HOON-za] people, who have unusually high literacy rates and speak the language isolate Burushaski [boo-roo-SHAA-skee]. This range's 40-mile long Baltoro ["ball"-TOH-roh] Glacier is in the Gilgit-Baltistan [GILL-git BAHL-tih-stahn] region, which lies north of the Ladakh [LAH-dock] region. Its Khunjerab [KOON-jur-ahb] Pass is part of the world's highest (*) paved road, this range's namesake "Highway." It is south of the Pamirs and east of the Hindu Kush. For 10 points--name this subrange of the Himalayas that contains K2.

answer: _Karakoram_ (Range or Mountains) (accept _Karakoram Highway_; prompt on "(Greater) Himalaya (Mountains)" or "(Greater) Himalayas" before "Highway")
I tried to incorporate more non-naming clues here, but admittedly the 2nd sentence gets more name-droppy than I'd like. I don't know enough about mountaineering to really write about it, but something like the Nanga Parbat attack would definitely have been a better clue for that sentence.
cchiego wrote: I enjoyed the Business Plot TU and the Huntington TU, thought the American Slavery one was interesting (but no mention of Time on the Cross?), and liked the ideas behind the Russia and American Revolution questions that rewarded int'l knowledge.
My initial draft of the American slavery tossup originally mentioned Time on the Cross, but I had to cut it out (again) due to length restrictions. Eh, hopefully it still played well. This tossup was another one that I was very unsure about, since it was entirely based off a class I had taken in my freshman year of college rather than anything that really ever comes up in quiz bowl.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Valefor »

I didn't write as much this year as I did last year, for various reasons, but I would still appreciate any feedback anyone has on my contributions to the set. :)

--D1--
R1: tyrannicides / Peisistratus / Homer | Pope Joan | Jerusalem
R2: Empty Quarter / Nullarbor Plain / Makgadkgadi
R5: ACT UP
R6: Hugo Black
R10: Corpus Christi / McNally / E L Doctorow
R12: ice (video games)
R14: Netanyahu's address to Congress
R16: Yoshi / Earthbound / Super Meat Boy
R17: Elektra | League of Cambrai / Julius II / Agnadello

--D2-- (* = converted from D1)
R1: Hipparchus / Peisistratus / Athens * | Suriname / Paramaribo / Dutch | Jerusalem *
R2: Empty Quarter / Nullarbor / Kalahari * | difference engine
R3: Power Elite / Mills / Protestant | October Manifesto
R6: False Dmitris / Ivan the Terrible / Fyodor I
R9: Dome of the Rock
R10: Everglades | Zoroastrianism
R11: four color theorem | San Marino / Monte Titano / Italy
R12: E natural | Lhasa / Tibet / Potala Palace
R14: Netanyahu * | The Death of the Hired Man
R16: Yoshi / EB / Meat Boy *
R17: Elektra * | Namib Desert / Skeleton Coast / Windhoek
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Lightinfa »

Corry wrote:I wrote 30 questions for this year's ICT, mostly in history and geography. This was the first time I've ever written anything this difficult, so I'm very interested in hearing people's thoughts on my questions.

Tossups
Japan (early history)
Sea Islands
French nuclear program
Fridtjof Nansen
Savannah, Georgia
American Revolution (focusing on battles outside of America)
Morocco (geography and the Rif)
China (19th century foreign relations)
American slavery
Russia (geography)
Samuel Morse
Argentina (history)
Theodor Herzl
Samuel Huntington
Comoros
London (terrorism)
Ivan the Terrible (early Anglo-Russian relations)
Bactria
Lena River
Ottoman Empire (in World War I)
Namibia
Translyvania
Karakoram Mountains
Nagorno-Karabakh
Business Plot
Pontiac's Rebellion

Bonuses
Bangladesh/Sheikh Hasina/Khaleda Zia
Transoxiana/Syr Darya/Khorasan
Mount Katahdin/Appalachian Trail/Pacific Crest Trail
Novaya Zemlya/Tsar Bomba/Ural Mountains
I really enjoyed the slavery tossup- George Fitzhugh is important so it was good to see him as a clue. I also liked the Huntington tossup although I'm not sure the lead-in was uniquely identifying- if I'm remembering correctly it just talked about this guy emphasizing the importance of institutions to development which a lot of people say (although I may very well be forgetting a key part of the lead in). The China tossup was also fun.
Vissi d'arte wrote:I didn't write as much this year as I did last year, for various reasons, but I would still appreciate any feedback anyone has on my contributions to the set. :)

--D1--
R1: tyrannicides / Peisistratus / Homer | Pope Joan | Jerusalem
R2: Empty Quarter / Nullarbor Plain / Makgadkgadi
R5: ACT UP
R6: Hugo Black
R10: Corpus Christi / McNally / E L Doctorow
R12: ice (video games)
R14: Netanyahu's address to Congress
R16: Yoshi / Earthbound / Super Meat Boy
R17: Elektra | League of Cambrai / Julius II / Agnadello

--D2-- (* = converted from D1)
R1: Hipparchus / Peisistratus / Athens * | Suriname / Paramaribo / Dutch | Jerusalem *
R2: Empty Quarter / Nullarbor / Kalahari * | difference engine
R3: Power Elite / Mills / Protestant | October Manifesto
R6: False Dmitris / Ivan the Terrible / Fyodor I
R9: Dome of the Rock
R10: Everglades | Zoroastrianism
R11: four color theorem | San Marino / Monte Titano / Italy
R12: E natural | Lhasa / Tibet / Potala Palace
R14: Netanyahu * | The Death of the Hired Man
R16: Yoshi / EB / Meat Boy *
R17: Elektra * | Namib Desert / Skeleton Coast / Windhoek
I really enjoyed your Hugo Black tossup which rewarded close reading of important opinions- however if I'm remembering correctly you dropped the year 1971 in the lead-in, which really narrowed down the answer space from the very beginning.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

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Corry wrote:My only thought here was that Lecompton Constitution was a really hard answer line. In my playoffs game vs MIT, the question went until the very end, and I think I was the only person in the room who knew its specific name (as opposed to just "that slavery constitution something something Bleeding Kansas")
Nah, the Lecompton Constitution isn't that difficult at all.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by ryanrosenberg »

Lightinfa wrote:I also liked the Huntington tossup although I'm not sure the lead-in was uniquely identifying- if I'm remembering correctly it just talked about this guy emphasizing the importance of institutions to development which a lot of people say (although I may very well be forgetting a key part of the lead in).
I don't remember the exact text, but it said that he criticized modernization theory for not including the role of institutions in Political Order in Changing Societies. I buzzed on that because I had read excerpts from it for a class. While I agree that it was not completely unique until the title drop (plenty of people have criticized modernization theory, after all), it was a helpful contextual clue.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Panayot Hitov »

Vissi d'arte wrote:I didn't write as much this year as I did last year, for various reasons, but I would still appreciate any feedback anyone has on my contributions to the set. :)

--D1--
R1: tyrannicides / Peisistratus / Homer | Pope Joan | Jerusalem
R2: Empty Quarter / Nullarbor Plain / Makgadkgadi
R5: ACT UP
R6: Hugo Black
R10: Corpus Christi / McNally / E L Doctorow
R12: ice (video games)
R14: Netanyahu's address to Congress
R16: Yoshi / Earthbound / Super Meat Boy
R17: Elektra | League of Cambrai / Julius II / Agnadello

--D2-- (* = converted from D1)
R1: Hipparchus / Peisistratus / Athens * | Suriname / Paramaribo / Dutch | Jerusalem *
R2: Empty Quarter / Nullarbor / Kalahari * | difference engine
R3: Power Elite / Mills / Protestant | October Manifesto
R6: False Dmitris / Ivan the Terrible / Fyodor I
R9: Dome of the Rock
R10: Everglades | Zoroastrianism
R11: four color theorem | San Marino / Monte Titano / Italy
R12: E natural | Lhasa / Tibet / Potala Palace
R14: Netanyahu * | The Death of the Hired Man
R16: Yoshi / EB / Meat Boy *
R17: Elektra * | Namib Desert / Skeleton Coast / Windhoek
I liked a lot of these, but one little thing: the Suriname bonus kind of made it sound like Bouterese is the current dictator; it's actually a Buhari-type situation.
I also wish that ACT UP made it to DII; that would have been fun.
Yellow-throated Honeyeater wrote:I wrote the tossups on Bali, Inhofe, Idaho, Jerry Brown, and Bob Menendez. All of those except Bali were converted for DII, and I also wrote Argentina and Vistula/Baltic/Krakow for that. All of my tossups were CE.
Larry Craig was a pretty easy lead-in for Idaho.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Corry »

The Predictable Consequences wrote:
Lightinfa wrote:I also liked the Huntington tossup although I'm not sure the lead-in was uniquely identifying- if I'm remembering correctly it just talked about this guy emphasizing the importance of institutions to development which a lot of people say (although I may very well be forgetting a key part of the lead in).
I don't remember the exact text, but it said that he criticized modernization theory for not including the role of institutions in Political Order in Changing Societies. I buzzed on that because I had read excerpts from it for a class. While I agree that it was not completely unique until the title drop (plenty of people have criticized modernization theory, after all), it was a helpful contextual clue.
For reference, here's the original tossup:
This man criticized modernization theory by claiming that instability was created when political institutions lag behind social and economic change in his 1968 book ~Political Order in Changing Societies~. He discussed the "bloody borders" of Islam and described Turkey as a (*) "torn" country in a 1996 book that argued that the title events were the "greatest threat to world peace" in the modern world. For 10 points--name this Harvard political scientist who wrote ~The Clash of Civilizations~.
I also read an excerpt of Political Order in Changing Societies for one of my classes, which is why I used the clue. But in retrospect, you guys are right that a LOT of people write about institutions in development literature, so the sentence probably wasn't too helpful for anybody before the name drop. Sorry about that.
Cody wrote:Nah, the Lecompton Constitution isn't that difficult at all.
It seems to be something that has been asked about in D1 a few times, but I'd still wager that most people in DII wouldn't be able to name it (or if they could, they would at the very end).
Last edited by Corry on Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Important Bird Area »

40th Day after death wrote:the Suriname bonus kind of made it sound like Bouterese is the current dictator; it's actually a Buhari-type situation.
This issue is my fault from the editing process (it was not present in the original text).
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Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

Post by Harpie's Feather Duster »

I mean I would say the Lecompton Constitution is pretty tough, but there were probably a good amount of questions of similar difficulty or harder in the D2 set. That seems like an alright "harder answerline" for D2 to me, at least. We certainly covered it in my high school AP US History class.
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