Subject: Length of individual questions
Posted by: Cuish
Date: Jan 24 12
How long should a question ideadly be? I assume there's a rule of thumb on this.
Posted by: Cuish
Date: Jan 24 12
How long should a question ideadly be? I assume there's a rule of thumb on this.
13 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
salami_swami 
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*Puts on authoring hat, keeping in mind that I am NOT an editor...* I have discovered that the category you write in has a huge impact on the ideal length of questions. Some editors have told me that, ideally, 5 lines is the maximum for a question. Others have said 7 is the max. Even others have told me they did not know there was a "maximum" number, and so are ok with more than 7. A player once wrote me because they were a bit upset with one of my questions... They had a quiz rejected because some of there questions had more than 5 lines, and they needed to cut it down. One of my questions had a 6th line. It greatly depends on the individual question, as well as category. Some questions NEED many lines of text; others could do with less. My advice is to always write as much as you can in a question in as little words as you possibly can. The longer questions may or may not be accepted... But the shorter ones will always work. So try to keep it short, and you should always do fine. Of course, as I said, longer questions are accepted, but the precise length does not exist as an official "rule". It goes by a question by question basis. Some are ok long, others are not. My two cents. :) Buy some gum. Reply #1. Jan 24 12, 9:49 AM |
tazman6619
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Being concise is always considered a hallmark of good question writing. When writing single questions you are expected to be more concise than when writing quiz questions. But as Salami pointed out much depends on the category within which the question will appear. My own rule of thumb is whether or not the information is necessary to being able to answer the question or to the flow of the quiz in general. If it is necessary it stays in the question. If it is not it goes in the II section. Reply #2. Jan 24 12, 10:17 AM |
agony
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As an editor I have no hard and fast rule - though some editors do. I'd say you'd do best by making sure that every word in your question serves a purpose: giving necessary information, promoting clarity, keeping the quiz in theme, being entertaining. Some quite long questions are worth reading through because every word is a pleasure; others are just meaningless and redundant burbling. One thing I would strongly suggest - the less confidence you have in your literary skills, the shorter your sentences should be, and the shorter your question. Reply #3. Jan 24 12, 10:43 AM |
guitargoddess
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But, if we're talking about the single questions, not questions in a quiz, there is a maximum built into the system - I don't know off the top of my head how many characters, but it's no more than 3 lines. Reply #4. Jan 24 12, 11:37 AM |
looney_tunes
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(author's hat in place) When I first started writing quizzes, I saw an instruction somewhere that said a maximum of four lines, and I put a lot of effort into trying to get all the information I wanted to convey into four lines. It was excellent discipline. I remember one question that simply wouldn't go down to less than part of a fifth line to give all the clues needed for the overall quiz structure - it was a relief to see it was only on the fourth line in the quiz preview screen. I remember wondering at the time how those quizzes that had a whole song verse in them could meet the rule, and later found that there is no such limit hardwired in the system for quizzes. There is for single questions, but it is in terms of characters rather than lines. (swapping to editor's hat) The clarity of the question is far more important than its length. A lot of writers try to include some extra information about the subject matter in their question, so that the player is given some hints or alternative means of deciding on the correct answer. This means the question must be longer than "What color are Jenny's fingernails?", but does not mean that it needs to be a novel. A sentence describing the most significant points about a book whose title is being asked for is better than trying to retell the entire plot, for example. Reply #5. Jan 24 12, 12:04 PM |
pollucci19
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(quiz player's hat) I took a QOTH yesterday where each question was a novel .... and a loud groan escaped my lips. A lot of the stuff in the question could have gone into the II I tend to agree with agony ... every word must be essential to the question Reply #6. Jan 24 12, 4:08 PM |
Snowman
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The single question limit is 250 characters. I know because I just had a question rejected on those grounds. I have no hard and fast rules but think along similar lines to agony. People is one of those categories that tends to get longer questions and that's fine by me but as a rough rule of thumb, if you find that the scroll bars appear after you have typed the full question into the box in the template then it's worth reviewing whether you could reduce the length. If you think all the content you have included is serving a purpose then that's fine but if not then it's probably best to remove it. Reply #7. Jan 25 12, 12:42 AM |
MotherGoose
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As an editor, I was not aware of a specific length requirement or limit, and I don't have any "rules" myself when I am editing, but I do try to encourage quiz authors to be concise. Agony expresses my thoughts perfectly and far better than I could have. Speaking as a player rather than an editor, my eyes glaze when I see long questions. I find the longer the question, the more boring and tedious it tends to be. Also, long questions really irritate the people who play the timed quizzes as they slow them down, hence the players tend to rate them lower if they have the opportunity to rate them. In Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", Polonius says "brevity is the soul of wit" (wit meaning intelligence). A concise question is more easily understood and has more impact than a load of waffle. Save all the extra information for the Interesting Information section of the question. Reply #8. Jan 25 12, 4:13 AM |
lesley153
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As a player, I think the most eye-glazing questions are the ones ending with a question that's nothing at all to do with the waffle. Example, fabricated for illustration only: five lines of waffle about the plot of the Ugly Duckling, followed by the question, "What's the capital of Denmark?" Reply #9. Jan 25 12, 8:43 AM |
Jakeroo
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LOL at Lesley, good point. As far as I'm concerned, the last time I remember paying two cents for gum was somewhere around 1968 lol oh wait, questions? Perhaps it depends on one's "perceived" difficulty (hopefully this is where editors can help out since, personally, I'm a HORRIBLE judge at what is "too easy" and what is not LOL). Some q's probably need expanded "hints" (such as Movies, where not everyone is necessarily as avid a fan as you are) and some don't (most likely case being Kids categories, where younger crowds are easily bored, hate having their intelligence insulted and generally have little patience, not to mention short attention spans). As a player, I don't mind extra information, but my eyes glaze over after three lines (and I don't have an extra wide monitor lol). Reply #10. Jan 26 12, 12:10 AM |
Donna39
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Keep the questions short and to the point. Who can be bothered reading long drawn out questions! Put the info where the info belongs! Reply #11. Feb 07 12, 1:12 AM |
LadyCaitriona
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As a player I prefer longer, more entertaining questions so I don't have any qualms as an editor allowing quiz authors to write them. A quiz that's well crafted and tells a story from Q1 - Q10 is, in my opinion, far better than one with ten short questions that doesn't offer much in the way of entertainment. While the FT games are interesting, I don't think the site should be ruled by every quiz catering to the "need for speed". (In any case, someone mentioned in a similar thread in the forum that the software automatically rejects the selection of questions past a certain character length for use in the games.) It isn't fair to authors and to players who enjoy taking quizzes to insist that everything be a certain way; one of the best things about FT is that there's something for everybody. If you don't like something, that's fine. Rate it poorly and move on. But don't insist that everyone else march to the beat of your drum. That being said, I do try to make my questions playable for people who don't want to read everything. I'll have my four-six lines then a blank line then the actual question. If you read the whole thing you'll be able to use more clues but there's nothing to prevent a player just reading the one line and answering. Reply #12. Feb 07 12, 6:12 AM |
Creedy
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(Tears back quickly to her newest incompleted quizzes to check the questions) Reply #13. Feb 07 12, 6:19 AM |
13 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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