2016 EFT Literature

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Jason Cheng
Rikku
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2016 EFT Literature

Post by Jason Cheng »

I wrote a little over half the literature in this set and I'm curious to hear what people thought about it, so (please) post any thoughts you have about it here. The American and the majority of Euro lit was written by me, and I had a hand in a bunch of the rest of it.

Contra Will in the general discussion thread, I don't think I stuffed the American lit _full_ of underasked topics, although I certainly did make an effort to highlight things I considered very important, like ethnic-American literature and stuff. When I chose tossup answer lines (for all literature), I wanted them to be something that would be almost 100% converted at the FTP by the target "ACF Fall" team and similarly by the end of the second to last line by the target "regs" lit player. I did get a lot more avant-garde with bonus topics (for all literature), and in general my fondness for "structural" literature knowledge (movements, thematic material of authors, literary criticism, historical and cultural values/influence in writing, writing style & techniques, etc) colored a lot of the clues I used. In particular, I tried to make sure specific clues I used were tied directly to some major theme of the work or author when it came down to pulling deep from a work.

Because of the nature of EFT, I also tried to make sure all the topics that I touched on were things I could confirm were things that many, many people engage with in the "real world" and my reckoning of gettable things weren't just "these are bread and butter topics that quizbowl players learn."

Other than that, I don't think Richard or I had an overarching philosophy behind this distribution besides "make it good and hit the target difficulty on all of them." I might have other thoughts later when discussion is rolling or I think of them.

If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, or concerns, please post them here!
Jason Cheng
Arcadia High School 2013
UCSD 2017
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Irreligion in Bangladesh
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Re: 2016 EFT Literature

Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

I think you guys did a fantastic job of hitting at least one aspect of your difficulty goal - the broad topics (tossup answer lines, bonus themes & easy parts) were easily accessible and important. A whole bunch of properly "new" quizbowl players are going to have a fun time playing this literature; you hit your target well. I'm not a lit person, so I'll leave the discussion to others; I'll just say a quick "thanks" for making my 2004 ACE Camp notecard on House Made of Dawn finally pay off after 12 grueling years. I should probably read it in honor.
Brad Fischer
Head Editor, IHSA State Series
IHSSBCA Chair

Winnebago HS ('06)
Northern Illinois University ('10)
Assistant Coach, IMSA (2010-12)
Coach, Keith Country Day School (2012-16)
Jason Cheng
Rikku
Posts: 362
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:23 am

Re: 2016 EFT Literature

Post by Jason Cheng »

Thanks for the kind words, Brad! I was a little worried that not enough of my bonuses went deep into singular core works, but I'm glad you think I made the right decision on the tradeoff (not giving inexperienced teams a sad 0/10 if they've never read/watched the work) by abusing common themes and expanding the breadth of the bonus topics.

And you're welcome--the writing team can attest to how much extra effort I put into working in a question on Native American literature and about Momaday, whom both RYu and I apparently learned about in class in elementary school :party:
Jason Cheng
Arcadia High School 2013
UCSD 2017
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