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Quiz writers required.

Over the past few months, we have been rapidly expanding and as a result have an immediate need for more questions to fill our database of cheap, readily available questions for quiz machines, computer games etc.

They are the types of questions that we use in our free trivia game at www.quiz-game.co.uk

If you would like to join our team of writers and get paid for your efforts, a lengthy, in-depth specification appears below.

If you can't be bothered reading it - play our quiz game now and enjoy!

For questions that will be held in this database, we will pay 25p per question - or if outside the U.K. your local currency equivalent provided you can be paid by Paypal - our preferred method for non-U.K. writers.

Once accepted onto our roster of writers, you may also from time to time be invited to write questions for some of the more bespoke jobs that we may have. These are usually in the same format but will require some research. As a result, rates of pay for these jobs can range from 40p to £2.50 per question.

If these rates are lower than you expected - please stop reading now - they are non-negotiable!

How To Get Involved.

Firstly - go to www.quizwriters.co.uk - register yourself an account.

You'll be asked for Name, Address, email and a Paypal address for payment

You'll be emailed a password automatically - now you can login to the system.

For us to assess your quiz writing skills, we now require you to send us 50 quiz questions that follow our quiz writing conventions as below. You WILL NOT BE PAID for these questions unless we accept them.

Once accepted each question will be paid for at 25p per question - £12.50 for the set.

These questions should be on a broad range of subjects - at least 2 from every main category we have listed in the system.

The basic process is as follows;

1) You write a question into the system at www.quizwriters.co.uk - full details appear below.

2) You can save it and come back to it later - or if happy you can Save and send for approval.

If you have Saved it for later editing etc. it will appear in your Manage Questions area as Saved. To reopen it just click the number to the left of the question.

If you have sent a question to use for proofing and checking, it will appear in your Manage Questions area as Submitted

3) Once sent for approval we will check it - if there are any errors, style issues etc., we will send it back via the system - otherwise we'll accept it.

If the question is accepted and we are happy to pay you, the question appears in your Manage Questions area as Approved

If we reject it for any reason, you will see the question appear in your Manage Questions area as Saved - you will then need to click the number of the question to reopen it - at the bottom of the question you'll see its history - one of the items will be our comments and the reason for rejection. Fix this then resubmit.

4) Once you have 50 accepted questions on your choice of subject then you will become an approved user and will have access to the jobs we currently have available - these are at higher rates of pay but we will be on the subject we choose.

The process of Saving, Submission and Approval is as above.

For us to accept them, they must adhere to the quiz writing conventions below. We will not enter into detailed correspondence with you if not accepted although we will give pointers as to why we have not accepted them.

We would like as many writers working for us as we can - you'll only be utterly rejected if your quality is poor, if you don't follow conventions or we believe our styles just don't gel......

Quiz writing conventions

All quiz questions should be entered into our system at www.quizwriters.co.uk

All quiz questions should be original

There should be no spelling or grammatical mistakes

Each question should make readers think - "Do I Care"?

What makes a good quiz question is subjective but our general yardstick is if the quiz player 'cares' about the answer (no matter how little) then it's a good question.

i.e. How many people named Jones are there in the London Phone Book in 2009 - answer 11,322 (We made this up by the way so don't check it) is a pointless question - you don't know, don't care and can't guess it.

What is the capital of France would be vaguely interesting to someone who didn't know.....

How interesting your questions are is up to you - but after writing them read them again - do you care, could you guess? If not take it out.

WE DO NOT NEED OR REQUIRE:

	Any questions about number one hit singles in the U.K.
	Questions about currencies, capital cities or major rivers and mountains
	Questions about state capitals in America or Australia
	Questions about FA Cup, European Cup, World Cup winners
	Questions about Olympic or World Cup host countries
	Questions about Oscar winning Films, Actors or Actresses
	Questions about chemical symbols, the periodic table, chemical elements
	Collective noun questions
	Questions of the type - What sort of animal is a guillemot? or What variety of bird is a swan?
	Car registration letters of countries
	The Chinese zodiac
	Zodiac symbols and questions of the type - What star sign would you be if you were born on.....
	Questions about phobias
	Questions about ologies
	Questions about the major bones in the human body
	Who was world (sport) champion in.... type questions
	Questions about sporting terms
	Winners of major horse races
	Questions about football team nicknames and home grounds

We have done almost every possible variation of these types of question using computer software and there is no point in us buying questions that we will almost certainly already have. Additionally they are lazy questions - the type that a poor pub quiz is padded out with.

The quiz system explained

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Question

This is where you write your quiz question. Ideally the question should be as short as possible - the more words you use for your question, invariably the less appropriate it becomes. We ideally need questions that fit on a Trivial Pursuit card - not those read out on University Challenge.

See above - Questions should be original, interesting and factually correct.

Before writing a single question read the above section headed What we do not require. We do not require these type of questions for ANY writing job. This type of question will always be rejected. It is lazy, money for old rope and no fun to answer and we will not pay for them!

Each question should begin with a capital letter and end in a ?

If a question begins with the phrase "Name the......" this should end in a . and not a ?

Names of Books, TV Programmes, Films, Poems, Ships etc. should be contained within inverted commas - i.e. 'Jurassic Park', 'H.M.S. Victory', 'Star Trek' etc. and capitalised.

Quotations should be within speech marks - i.e. "The lady's not for turning"

Apostrophes should be used correctly - i.e. Ownership and Abbreviation - NOT plurals.

i.e. The dog's tail, The man's tie - NOT Disco's every Friday

Ownership for its does NOT need an apostrophe - i.e It's a dark night tonight is correct whereas The dog has a flea on it's back is NOT CORRECT!

Questions should not need the incorrect answers to enable you to answer them - i.e. Questions that contain the phrases "Which of these..." are not acceptable.

For clarity - the question may be used in a multiple choice database or a straight question and answer database so people should be able to answer the question by hearing just the question - the incorrect answers are only there to help or put doubt in the mind. See also Question Type

There should only be one answer to your specific question - research your facts - i.e. In which year was the film 'King Kong' released is not a valid question for our purposes. There was an original version in 1933, there was one released in 2005 and there were other films of the same name in 1962, 1966 and 1976. In this case better to phrase it - In which year was the film 'King Kong' originally released (Answer 1933) or In which year was the film 'King Kong', starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange released (Answer 1976).

Take care with film titles - some have different names in different countries - use sources such as www.imdb.com or Halliwell's film guide to check facts.

When writing about number one hit singles, top 5 hits, top 10 albums etc - they are written like that - not #1 No.1 etc. Similarly, make sure that when writing about number one hits etc. cite which country if there could be any doubt (Who had a U.K. number one single in 1997 with ....)- what was number one in the U.K. may not have been number one in the U.S.A. and vice versa and may not have been released in Norway etc. - See also Column K - Suitable for.

Take care with abbreviations - It's B.B.C. not BBC It's U.S.A. not USA - only exemption from this is that it's TV (not tv)

For decades use 1960s not '60s sixties etc.

Most important - All questions should be timeless - i.e. Should still be valid in 20 years time.

i.e. If your question includes the phrase "Who is the current......" it's not acceptable.

"Who is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom" - is not acceptable - Whereas "Who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in....." is acceptable. See also Expiry Date.

Correct Answer

In this column you should input the correct answer to your question. Invariably this will be no more than 3 words and where possible should be one word. If your answer is "Because he was the only right handed player in the team" it's probably not a good question....

In this column - ensure that your answer is the right answer and is the ONLY POSSIBLE ANSWER to the question that you asked and forever will be the ONLY POSSIBLE ANSWER! barring warfare, new discoveries hitherto unthought-of of or natural disasters.

i.e. What is the smallest planet in our solar system - Pluto - would have been OK 5 years ago.

Every word in every answer should begin with a capital letter - except for the word 'and' in partnerships etc. of of in countries etc. i.e. Answers should be Aviator Sunglasses, Gilbert and Sullivan, Port of Spain, etc.

In all answers, film titles, books etc. should NOT be in inverted commas

In all answers quotations should be in speech marks - i.e. "The Lady's Not For Turning" - as above note that this quotation used in a question is in sentence case, in an answer is in Title Case.

Difficulty

Difficulty is subjective which is why every question in our database is asked of at least 100 people before being put on sale - so you don't need to assess your own dififculty levels. We do need a broad mix on all jobs unless specified - so if we think there are too may 'Easy' or 'Hard' etc. we will let you know either way. Sometimes jobs will ask for you to write easy or hard stuff and we will give guidelines for these.

Wrong Answers

See above for Correct Answer - same conventions apply.

In these 5 boxes you should put 5 alternative, credible but incorrect answers to the question that you asked.

You can use some humour here - subtle humour, not crude or rude and if in any doubt whether it's 'funny' or not or would be 'funny' if it was the right answer, then don't use the 'funny' version, bear in mind that questions may be seen by children so subtle innuendo only....

Occasional spelling mistakes as possible answers is fine but using this as the option all the time is lazy - i.e. What is the capital of England - answers London, Lendon, Lindon, Lundon will almost certainly be rejected if this style is used too often!

Category

In here insert your assessment of the main subject category of your question choosing from the 11 options below.

In other words, what round in the list of 12 would this question appear in during a normal pub quiz night

General Knowledge appears at the top of the list but should be an absolute last resort.

Art and Literature

Food and Drink

Science and Nature

Entertainment - TV, Film, Games etc.

Pop Music

Music - Anything that wouldn't normally be found in 'Pop' charts - Classical, Opera, Theatre, National Anthems, Film Soundtracks etc.

History

Sport

Geography

Religion

Politics

Tags

In here insert your choices of sub-category.

In short, if this question were used in a 'Mastermind' specialist quiz round then what would the title of the round be? Or if you heard this round in a pub, what would the one or two word title of the round be

i.e. A question about the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher coming to power in 1979 would be in the main category Politics

Tags could be - Prime Ministers, History, 1979, Margaret Thatcher, General Elections,

A World Cup 2010 football question would be in the main category Sport

Tags could be - Football, World Cup, 2010,

You have a free choice in this box - we need at least 3 comma separated tags in this box with each word's first letter capitalised.

Note - The tags of questions should not give away the answer.

e.g. What would you end up doing, if you accepted an invitation for Canasta? - Could be Games, Pastimes, Words, Activities etc. but NOT Card Games

From which area of activity does the expression "breaking your duck" come? - Could be Expressions, Quotations, Birds etc. but NOT Sport or Cricket

Don't make up 'Pub Quiz' round titles - a tag of Hearts and Minds, or Body and Soul, or Myths and Legends is no good - better to have single words - e.g. Myths, Legends, Fables,Mythology etc.

In this manner if someone needs questions on Myths and Legends - we can search for the comma separated tags - Myths, Legends

Specialist

We will notify you if this needs to be ticked.

If we need a really specialised database - or a big one that one skew our main database we would label this - i.e. If we asked for 2000 questions on James Bond films, this would heavily skew the Entertainment section.

Leave this unticked unless told otherwise.

Question Type

There are 2 question types - one that can only be answered having seen the answers (Multiple Choice) and one you can answer having heard the question alone (Both)

Occasionally we may ask you for multi-choice question - "Which is the biggest...." but normally this dropdown will be BOTH.

You will need to manually change this dropdown on every question - it's a failsafe check for you to ask yourself - "Do I need the answers to answer this?"

Expires

On 1st January each year, we look for questions with an expiry date of the previous year and reassess their suitability. Although your questions need to be written timelessly, you may want to give them a sell-by date - i.e. Who resigned as Real Madrid coach in September 2004? remains a valid question forever, however in 2/3 years time becomes a 'Who Cares?' question - in this case an Expiry Date is desirable to allow us to reassess.

If you have a date in this column, you may want to reassess whether the question is in fact suitable. We would prefer every question to be ticked "No"

Source 1 and Source 2

Here we want to know the source of your question - ideally using web addresses so we can check your source.

Acceptable primary sources;

www.bbc.co.uk/news - or most national news sources

http://www.rcls.org/deskref/ - for most other stuff

Wikipedia is untrustworthy - but reasonably good so can only be used as a secondary source - the information you use there should be footnoted and the footnote be correct and use a proper source as above.

I once researched a question about UK celebrity Kerry Katona and was surprised to see her Wikipedia entry listing some very special 'talents' she had - the reference for a couple was a fan site - "Bob's Kerry katone' tribute page - so take care using this type of combo - we will reject them.

Target Market

In this dropdown you should note which countries each question is suitable for

i.e. A question about a British TV soap opera will only be suitable for the U.K. whereas a question about widely distributed American soap opera such as 'Dallas' will be suitable for All.

Similarly a question about a soap opera shown only in Tibet will be suitable for All - but will probably be rejected as too hard.

If your question cannot be categorised in this column as suitable for UK, Australia or USA or any combination of them, it is not acceptable.

Ideally every question you write should be 'All' unless otherwise directed.

Wanted Topic

From the dropdown list, which job featured on the right hand side is this for?

This will take one from the required number meaning you're not writing questions about stuff we no onger need and also means you get paid the right amount of pay for the right job!

What Next?

If you have bothered to read this far, we probably want you......

Now all you have to do is submit 50 questions to us on the database as detailed above

Be original!!!!!!

You have pretty much a free choice of subject matter - the wider the range of questions the better for us to assess and ideally 2 from each main subject.

Asking you to write 50 questions will also allow you to assess whether it's worth your while. You may get 30 questions an hour on more specialised stuff - at 40p per question you're on £12 per hour.

We do not require and do not want

a) Anything that costs us more than 25p per question for this trial set.

b) Anything that does not meet the spec above.

c) Anything not sent via the online system.

Thanks!

We will employ any writer that meets the above criteria and where work is required (Still plenty) to our specification will make it open to all. We will pay for all work submitted that meets our standard but will immediately cease utilising the services of any writer that fails to meet our standards.

We buy questions from freelance writers to sell on to companies who may use them for cash games, widely available quiz games etc. - as a result we and they expect quality questions.

And Finally - The Legal Stuff.

All questions that you enter into our online system remain your property until we have accepted them and approved them. At this point, we will pay you for them and reserve the right to resell them or reuse them as we wish.

By accepting payment you pass rights to us to use the questions as we see fit.

By inputting questions into our system, you agree that they are your own work and you have the right to resell same to us.

If you do not agree to this please do not enter questions into our online system.