Guidelines for Quiz Creation
Important: ALL of the following sets of
guidelines are
relevant for the
category you would like to submit to. Please read all of them carefully
and keep them in mind as you develop your quiz. Thanks!
The following sets of guidelines apply to quizzes created in
McDonald, Gregory.
Guidelines for McDonald, Gregory
No special instructions.
Guidelines for Authors L-P
No special instructions.
Guidelines for Literature
Please avoid quizzes that are just a collection of 'Who wrote ---?' or 'Which of these titles did X write?' If you wish to make a quiz like this, please select a theme, for example a certain genre, books or authors from a certain country, etc., and add some interesting information to your answers.
In the Literature category, we expect to see at least two or three sentences of interesting information for each question. This does not include repeating the correct answer, copying material from the original text, or offering personal opinion, although any of these might be appropriate to include at times. You should use your own words to make players aware of the significance of the subject matter of your question.
In quizzes about a specific book or series of books, the author's name should always be included either in the introduction or in the title. In this category, we sort the quizzes by author name. Only use the genre categories for mixed quizzes. A quiz about books by Agatha Christie goes under Christie, Agatha, while a quiz about mysteries by many different authors goes under Mystery and Detective Fiction.
All book, play, poem or other titles should be written in quotation marks or inverted commas unless they are the only text in your quiz title or in a multiple choice answer. Direct quotations (e.g. from written text or interviews) should always be in quotation marks or inverted commas to set them apart from your own phrasing.
Keep in mind that quizzes should be fun and interesting. Questions based on characters' names, or what chapter a certain incident occurred in, are not really very interesting, and will lead to a less well-rated quiz. Please do not ask the main character's name in the first question; it is almost impossible to word the subsequent questions without giving away the answer.
The Literature category is for quizzes about an author's works, not his/her life. We may accept one or two life questions in a quiz, especially if they are geared towards the writing career ( In what year did Ernest Hemingway receive the Nobel Prize for Literature? ) but please keep the focus on the works. Quizzes about an author's life will be accepted in the People category.
In the Literature category, multiple choice is the preferred format. If you wish to include fill in the blank questions in your quiz, please ensure that there is only one correct answer to your question. Make sure all FITB answers are short, easy to spell and do not require punctuation marks. Remember that FITB questions can turn your quiz from a test of knowledge to a typing or spelling test, which may cause players to rate your quiz less favourably. The acceptance of FITB questions is at the discretion of the editors. Keep the number of FITB questions in your quiz down to one or two. Please keep the number of true/false questions down to two per quiz or fewer.
We generally only accept quizzes on works that have been published. If you are interested in writing a quiz about a work that only has only been published online, please contact an editor to discuss it before writing your quiz.