NHBB Call for Writers 2017-18
Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:46 pm
Thank you to everyone who made this past year of NHBB & USABB a success - in particular, for purposes of this announcement, our team of question writers.
We are, as always, looking to hire question writers! I'm rolling out the call for writers in a few stages. Today, I'm starting with side events for the third International History Olympiad (held Summer 2018, as it is now officially a biennial event). Later this month, I'll be posting announcements for category assignments (a la the cultural history writers from 2016-17), writers at large, and new writer training.
IHO Side Events
The International History Olympiad includes a standard Bee and Bowl competition in addition to roughly a dozen mini-tournaments. Topics for the tournaments include...
*Visual Art
*Classical Music
*Pop Music
*Sports History
*Science/Technology History
*Historical Geography
*Ancient History
*Recent History
*German Military History
The first eight events each return from the previous two incarnations of IHO. As IHO 2018 is being held in Berlin, the military history slot focuses on Germanic history, ancient through modern. Two side events will have their topics announced much later: the attendees of IHO vote on the topic for "You Pick, We Write" in the spring, and the Scramble topic isn't announced until IHO approaches.
The art and music events involve audio/visual questions, a la the Eyes That Do Not See and Imaginary Landscape sets.
Writer Responsibilities
*The writer of a side event is in charge of answer blanking, writing, and packetizing their set. I'll check in on occasion to help calibrate difficulty and make sure you're on pace to finish on time, then read the finished product and provide feedback/revision notes if necessary. I prefer assigning a side event to a single writer or pre-formed writing team; given the time we have to complete these, I won't be assigning writers to an editor for any of these sets.
*Side events are played by both MS and HS students; the writer is responsible for making a MS copy of the packets, then making appropriate edits for that version. This involves cutting the 5 hardest questions in each prelim packet, then making whatever further edits necessary to make the set good for MS play. These MS kids are really good, so it's not generally a ton of extra work, especially if the original questions are already plotted with answer line accessibility in mind.
*IHO is, of course, an international event; there are tons of non-American students there, so the distributions shouldn't be heavily American. This is easy to do in things like ancient history; sports is usually a challenge.
Beyond general guidelines of "don't make this way too hard or too American" and some minor event-specific notes, the set is yours to write as you see fit. You don't have to worry about stylistic differences or repeats with other sets.
Payment: I'm waiting on Madden's confirmation for financial specifics. I can say that writing for IHO side events is a little bit higher than writing regular questions for NHBB, as you're caring about balancing a distribution and putting Word docs of packets together. NHBB writers in 2016-17 were paid a base rate between $3.50 and $5 per tossup, based on experience.
Timeframe: I would like all the IHO side events to be done by December; having a set done before September is extra helpful to me because I can review it before the 2017-18 regular season deadlines get moving, but that's not a requirement.
You can apply for more than one side event if you like; I doubt I'll be assigning more than two to anybody.
If you're interested in writing an IHO side event, let me know by e-mailing me at [email protected] with
*your desired subject,
*a proposal for the subcategory distribution you'd like to follow, either as "percentage of the set" or as "number of questions in a packet of 30 tossups," and
*an example tossup or two of your vision for the set.
(The subcategory distribution will be more of a thing in some than others; art and music, for example, are a fair bit less divisible than sports. If you think it doesn't matter for your event, don't worry about it.)
Applications will be open until at least June 23rd. Expect radio silence on your application until I get to them all later, unless you've got a question in there. My hope is to get IHO side events assigned and working by July 1.
Thank you, and be on the lookout for info on the Provisional Writer training program soon!
We are, as always, looking to hire question writers! I'm rolling out the call for writers in a few stages. Today, I'm starting with side events for the third International History Olympiad (held Summer 2018, as it is now officially a biennial event). Later this month, I'll be posting announcements for category assignments (a la the cultural history writers from 2016-17), writers at large, and new writer training.
IHO Side Events
The International History Olympiad includes a standard Bee and Bowl competition in addition to roughly a dozen mini-tournaments. Topics for the tournaments include...
*Visual Art
*Classical Music
*Pop Music
*Sports History
*Science/Technology History
*Historical Geography
*Ancient History
*Recent History
*German Military History
The first eight events each return from the previous two incarnations of IHO. As IHO 2018 is being held in Berlin, the military history slot focuses on Germanic history, ancient through modern. Two side events will have their topics announced much later: the attendees of IHO vote on the topic for "You Pick, We Write" in the spring, and the Scramble topic isn't announced until IHO approaches.
The art and music events involve audio/visual questions, a la the Eyes That Do Not See and Imaginary Landscape sets.
Writer Responsibilities
*The writer of a side event is in charge of answer blanking, writing, and packetizing their set. I'll check in on occasion to help calibrate difficulty and make sure you're on pace to finish on time, then read the finished product and provide feedback/revision notes if necessary. I prefer assigning a side event to a single writer or pre-formed writing team; given the time we have to complete these, I won't be assigning writers to an editor for any of these sets.
*Side events are played by both MS and HS students; the writer is responsible for making a MS copy of the packets, then making appropriate edits for that version. This involves cutting the 5 hardest questions in each prelim packet, then making whatever further edits necessary to make the set good for MS play. These MS kids are really good, so it's not generally a ton of extra work, especially if the original questions are already plotted with answer line accessibility in mind.
*IHO is, of course, an international event; there are tons of non-American students there, so the distributions shouldn't be heavily American. This is easy to do in things like ancient history; sports is usually a challenge.
Beyond general guidelines of "don't make this way too hard or too American" and some minor event-specific notes, the set is yours to write as you see fit. You don't have to worry about stylistic differences or repeats with other sets.
Payment: I'm waiting on Madden's confirmation for financial specifics. I can say that writing for IHO side events is a little bit higher than writing regular questions for NHBB, as you're caring about balancing a distribution and putting Word docs of packets together. NHBB writers in 2016-17 were paid a base rate between $3.50 and $5 per tossup, based on experience.
Timeframe: I would like all the IHO side events to be done by December; having a set done before September is extra helpful to me because I can review it before the 2017-18 regular season deadlines get moving, but that's not a requirement.
You can apply for more than one side event if you like; I doubt I'll be assigning more than two to anybody.
If you're interested in writing an IHO side event, let me know by e-mailing me at [email protected] with
*your desired subject,
*a proposal for the subcategory distribution you'd like to follow, either as "percentage of the set" or as "number of questions in a packet of 30 tossups," and
*an example tossup or two of your vision for the set.
(The subcategory distribution will be more of a thing in some than others; art and music, for example, are a fair bit less divisible than sports. If you think it doesn't matter for your event, don't worry about it.)
Applications will be open until at least June 23rd. Expect radio silence on your application until I get to them all later, unless you've got a question in there. My hope is to get IHO side events assigned and working by July 1.
Thank you, and be on the lookout for info on the Provisional Writer training program soon!