Question marks
The Listener’s quizmaster-in-chief, Gabe Atkinson, says a well-designed question may allow the reader to deduce the right answer.
1. How do you find the questions for your quizzes?
If I hear a surprising fact, or somebody uses an unusual turn of phrase, or perhaps there is a debate between friends about something trivial (say, whether tortoiseshell cats are exclusively female), I often make a quick note of it. I’m always listening for interesting morsels of information. When it’s quiz-writing time, I review the notes from the week and decide which ones have potential.
2. Do you do pub quizzes?
Yes, I enter them occasionally. I think the pub-quiz format has made big strides in the past decade, and many are now well organised and a lot of fun. My team has a tendency to start quickly out of the block, throw back a few drinks too many, and stagger to the finish line in the middle of the pack.
3. How do you strike a balance between making questions too hard and too easy?
I use some of my friends and relatives as quiz guinea pigs. They’re often subjected to out-of-the-blue text messages containing questions. In a multi-choice format, when the correct answer is right in front of the reader, I have to increase the difficulty slightly, compared with open questions. One satisfying aspect of writing for this format is that a well-designed question may allow the reader to deduce the right answer by a process of eliminating the incorrect options.
4. What makes a good quiz question?
If the reader gets a question wrong, will they still find the answer entertaining? Will it prompt further thought or discussion? I particularly enjoy questions about the origins of old sayings, many of which are deeply silly, yet we take the expressions for granted without pausing to think about what they mean. For example, “as happy as a clam”. Why would a clam be especially happy? The meaning becomes clearer when you realise the full expression is “as happy as a clam at high tide”.
5. Are people always suggesting questions to you?
People do make frequent suggestions, but I’ve written thousands of questions by now and there’s a good chance I have already covered it. Also, it’s quite tricky to work a question into multichoice, and many ideas are unsuitable for that reason. However, I have used some good suggestions from time to time.
6. Accuracy is important. Are your answers ever contested?
I originally wrote the list of correct answers without any elaboration. When I used questions that challenged common misconceptions (does the word “posh” really derive from the phrase “port out, starboard home”?), some readers asked for further explanation. Since then, I’ve made a point of including as much extra detail as I can squeeze into the small answers space. By the way, there is no evidence for that or any other explanation of posh’s origin.
7. How do you verify your answers?
I research each question thoroughly, using primary sources where possible. This means a lot of time is spent scanning scientific papers, trawling through statistical data, watching clips from movies, or reading old texts and so forth. Verifying a quotation can be one of the most difficult research tasks, and it’s really surprising how many wellknown quotes are either misattributed or just plain false. A good example is Marie Antoinette supposedly saying, “Let them eat cake”. Again, no evidence.
8. Do you have quiz heroes and favourite quizzes?
The TV show QI is a favourite, because it combines thoughtprovoking questions with some amusing discussion. I also enjoy the panel shows 8 Out of 10 Cats and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. The American crossword constructor Merl Reagle, who died in 2015, was an inspiration for the cleverness of his themed puzzles.