We've learned a lot about question writing theory, but how do questions actually make their way out into the world? There are three basic types of question sets: housewrites, company sets, and packet submission sets. Most sets have mirrors around the country in order to allow geographically distant teams to all play the questions. Preferences for each type of set vary, and the quizbowl ecosystem is actually pretty evenly split between them. However, the most commonly played question sets in college use packet submission.
A housewrite is the most straightforward type of set: an independent group of people writes a set together and markets it on the quizbowl forums. In the past, housewrites were generally produced "in-house" by a single school, which is where they get their name. But as quizbowl has become more online, housewrites have turned into more collaborative affairs. The list of housewrites varies a lot by year, but some of the more well-known college housewrites are Penn Bowl, Terrapin, and EFT. In general, housewrites are more of a single project that assembles writers and then disbands after completion. Some housewrites (especially ones produced in-house) have sequels, but it is more common for housewrites to be one-time events. Writers are usually recruited through an informal process, either through connections to the people in charge or a good reputation in the community. In general, housewrites are the most volatile type of question set: quality is unpredictable especially if the writers and editors are untested. However, housewrites tend to be cheaper to run (and are good fundraisers for the schools involved).
A company set is the product of a company dedicated to producing quizbowl questions. Usually these companies have employees that write on a more regular basis and over a longer period of time. The most prominent company that produces question sets is NAQT. Other companies that produce questions include PACE, IQBT, and NHBB (technically History Bowl and not quizbowl). Company sets are generally more predictable in quality, and they are usually preferred by tournament hosts. However, they also tend to be more expensive. Company sets are more common at the high school level.
A packet submission set is when a central team of editors crowdsources submissions from the teams that are playing in exchange for a discount. This model requires less labor from the organizers than other types of sets, and they are also a good way to get new writers into question writing. In general, most question submissions are discarded because they are bad. The most well-known packet submission tornaments are run by the Academic Competition Federation (ACF). ACF produces the sets ACF Fall, ACF Winter, ACF Regionals, and ACF Nationals, which correspond to the four major dot scale difficulties.
You can find a list of all active college question sets on the College Quizbowl Calendar.
Generally people enter the writing ecosystem by writing for packet submission sets. If your college plays ACF tournamnets, then you will likely have to write questions for your school's packet submission at some point in your life. But there are other on-ramps, most notably the PACE Mentorship Program. In general, most question writers get their start when more experienced community members take them under their wing. So the best way to get started writing yourself is to reach out to people in the community. If you're interested in contributing to a project, talk to your club president and ask them to connect you with someone!
Congratulations for making it to the end of this guide! If you want explore question writing further, there are several places you can go. I only covered the foundations of question writing. In particular, I didn't cover how to actually find clues or themes that are worth writing about. To learn more about this, you can refer to some of the writing guides I linked on the Resources page. But it might be best to just get your feet wet ASAP. Try writing some questions yourself and see if it clicks. What do you find easy? Difficult? These are things that you can get a feel for before writing in any sort of official capacity. But if you want to dive right in, I have also linked a few opportunities on the resources page as well. I wish you the best of luck in your writing journey! Click here to go back to the beginning of this guide, and click here to go back to What Is Quizbowl?. And if you want to review some key terms from this guide, check out our glossary. Thanks for reading!