Distance Proofreading
Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:08 pm
I am putting forth this idea because of the last two tournaments I have been to.
The first tournament, Penn Bowl in January, featured all rounds being read off of laptops. I had a chance to read one of the rounds during the day. My opinion of running a tournament with all laptops instead of paper packets is much less Luddite than it was before I had read that round. It is much easier to scroll up and down a Word document than it is to flip pages of paper between tossups and bonuses. My only concerns are laptop security and structural integrity, as I am quite risk averse.
The second tournament, the first day of the Weekend of Quizbowl at George Mason University, put forth another problem that is frequent in tournaments: poor copy editing. There were many, many examples of typos, bad grammar, and even sentences and whole bonuses that were cut and pasted in a spectacularly bad fashion that were not caught before the set was printed. Even more astounding was the fact that the packets I read were used in a tournament a few weeks previous and these errors were not flushed out!
Copy editing of tournament packet sets is one of those tasks that is considered to be low priority, but moderators will notice when the task has not been done and think less of the tournament for it. There is usually just not time for copy editing, seeing as many, many tournament editors are working on the packets up until a few hours before the start of the tournament. Copy editing gets pushed aside in favor of just getting the packets printed, buildings opened, breakfast obtained, etc. on the morning of the tournament.
However, with the more frequent use of laptops to read questions during rounds, there are tournaments where packets do not need to be printed prior to the start of the tournament. This means the packets can be worked on up until Round 1, and even during the tournament. Also, most tournament locations now have access to a campus wireless network, meaning they have electronic access to the outside world. In addition to being able to consult Internet sources during a tournament in order to resolve challenges, this allows the packets themselves to be sent back and forth through the ether on the day of the tournament.
My proposal is close-to-real-time proofreading. This would involve a copy editor who is available all day in front of a computer, anywhere.
1. The off-site copy editor (CE) would coordinate with the on-site tournament director (TD) means of instant communication, such as gchat or AIM, as well as phone, as well as a means of passing question packets back and forth electronically, such as email or ftp.
2. About half an hour before each round, the TD would send the unpolished packet to the CE via the previously agreed to channels. Alternatively, the TD could send all of the packets of the tournament at once and the CE could send each packet as it is polished.
3. The CE would proofread the packet for grammar, spelling, and repeats. The CE would also inform the TD of other problem areas, such as content errors that may have escaped the editing process or alternative answers that would be helpful to add to the ANSWER line of a question.
4. The CE would send the polished packet back to the TD to be read off of the laptops at the tournament.
5. The TD would make the polished packet available to the moderators at the start of the round. Alternatively, the TD could then print out each packet for all moderators or all moderators not using laptops, but this would require a longer lead time for the CE.
I would like to experiment with this idea at a future tournament that is conducted with some or all moderating done with laptops. However, first, lets hear some feedback.
The first tournament, Penn Bowl in January, featured all rounds being read off of laptops. I had a chance to read one of the rounds during the day. My opinion of running a tournament with all laptops instead of paper packets is much less Luddite than it was before I had read that round. It is much easier to scroll up and down a Word document than it is to flip pages of paper between tossups and bonuses. My only concerns are laptop security and structural integrity, as I am quite risk averse.
The second tournament, the first day of the Weekend of Quizbowl at George Mason University, put forth another problem that is frequent in tournaments: poor copy editing. There were many, many examples of typos, bad grammar, and even sentences and whole bonuses that were cut and pasted in a spectacularly bad fashion that were not caught before the set was printed. Even more astounding was the fact that the packets I read were used in a tournament a few weeks previous and these errors were not flushed out!
Copy editing of tournament packet sets is one of those tasks that is considered to be low priority, but moderators will notice when the task has not been done and think less of the tournament for it. There is usually just not time for copy editing, seeing as many, many tournament editors are working on the packets up until a few hours before the start of the tournament. Copy editing gets pushed aside in favor of just getting the packets printed, buildings opened, breakfast obtained, etc. on the morning of the tournament.
However, with the more frequent use of laptops to read questions during rounds, there are tournaments where packets do not need to be printed prior to the start of the tournament. This means the packets can be worked on up until Round 1, and even during the tournament. Also, most tournament locations now have access to a campus wireless network, meaning they have electronic access to the outside world. In addition to being able to consult Internet sources during a tournament in order to resolve challenges, this allows the packets themselves to be sent back and forth through the ether on the day of the tournament.
My proposal is close-to-real-time proofreading. This would involve a copy editor who is available all day in front of a computer, anywhere.
1. The off-site copy editor (CE) would coordinate with the on-site tournament director (TD) means of instant communication, such as gchat or AIM, as well as phone, as well as a means of passing question packets back and forth electronically, such as email or ftp.
2. About half an hour before each round, the TD would send the unpolished packet to the CE via the previously agreed to channels. Alternatively, the TD could send all of the packets of the tournament at once and the CE could send each packet as it is polished.
3. The CE would proofread the packet for grammar, spelling, and repeats. The CE would also inform the TD of other problem areas, such as content errors that may have escaped the editing process or alternative answers that would be helpful to add to the ANSWER line of a question.
4. The CE would send the polished packet back to the TD to be read off of the laptops at the tournament.
5. The TD would make the polished packet available to the moderators at the start of the round. Alternatively, the TD could then print out each packet for all moderators or all moderators not using laptops, but this would require a longer lead time for the CE.
I would like to experiment with this idea at a future tournament that is conducted with some or all moderating done with laptops. However, first, lets hear some feedback.