21 guides · 5 sections
All guides
The whole site on one page: how a question is built, where the facts come from, what the room does to difficulty, how the formats work, and who actually writes this stuff.
The Question
One answer, and no room to argue.
- 01
One Answer, and No Room to Argue
A question with two defensible answers is broken, however interesting it is. How ambiguity creeps in through tense, scope and unstated assumption, and the discipline of closing every door but one.
- 02
Write the Answer First
Setters start from the fact and construct backwards. Why that order prevents the most common failure, and what it does to the shape of the finished question.
- 03
The Second Answer Is Usually True
When a team argues, they are usually right that their answer also fits. What that reveals about the question rather than about the team.
- 04
Rejected for Being Interesting
The best fact is often the worst question. Why setters throw away material they love, and what makes a fact unusable.
- 05
Questions That Have to Survive a Lawyer
On broadcast quizzes every question is checked for defensibility. What that process removes, and what it improves.
Sourcing
Two sources or it is not a fact.
- 01
Two Sources or It Is Not a Fact
The setter's minimum standard, and why a single source — however authoritative — is not enough. Circular citation, and how an error propagates until it is common knowledge.
- 02
The Reference Shelf, and Why It Survives
Printed reference works still matter to setters in an era of instant search. What a fixed edition gives you that a live page cannot.
- 03
Facts With a Shelf Life
Records, populations, tallest and fastest. How setters handle facts that will be wrong within a year, and the phrasing that makes them safe.
- 04
Verifying a Negative
'Only', 'first' and 'never' are the three most dangerous words in a question. What it takes to justify each.
The Room
Difficulty is a property of the room.
- 01
Difficulty Is a Property of the Room
There is no absolute difficulty — only difficulty for these people, tonight. How setters read a room, and why a question that works in one pub dies in another.
- 02
The Shape of a Round
Opening gently, peaking, and finishing on something everybody can attempt. Why sequencing matters as much as content.
- 03
The Tie-Break
A question nobody can know but everybody can estimate. The specific craft of a good numeric guess.
- 04
Scoring, and What It Encourages
How a scoring scheme changes behaviour — bonus rounds, jokers, negative marking — and what each rewards.
Formats
The pub quiz borrowed its shape from television.
- 01
The Pub Quiz Borrowed Its Shape From Television
The rounds, the jokers and the picture sheet all descend from broadcast formats. How the traffic went, and what the pub added back.
- 02
The Picture Round
Why almost every quiz has one, what it does for pacing, and the rights problem sitting underneath it.
- 03
Why Teams
The social design decision that made the pub quiz durable, and what it does to question difficulty.
- 04
The Television Quiz as a Machine
Format, timing and jeopardy engineered around a broadcast slot — and how that constrains the questions themselves.
The Trade
Millions play it. Almost nobody writes it.
- 01
Millions Play It. Almost Nobody Writes It.
The strange economics of a form with an enormous audience and a tiny profession. Who actually writes questions, how the work is bought, and why it stays invisible.
- 02
House Style
Every quiz has one, most are unwritten: length, register, how a question announces its own difficulty.
- 03
A Setter's Week
Where material comes from, how it is stockpiled and how a set is assembled — the unglamorous rhythm of the job.
- 04
Who Owns a Question
Copyright in a fact, in a phrasing and in a set. Where the line falls, and why the answer surprises people.