| Please Avoid Excessive Punctuation |
| We try to keep questions and answers as free of excessive punctuation as possible. For example, we don’t use periods on Memory Packer, as most of the material on the site consists of statements, rather than complete sentences. We include question marks at the end of questions, but no period is used with the answer. See example below:
EXAMPLE QUESTION AND ANSWER: Who was the Elected President of the United States in November, 2008? Barack Obama |
| No Double Quotations |
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Please avoid double quotes, as the computer software that displays the questions has a problem with them. For example: “The Memory Packer system would have a problem with this quote, because it uses double quotation marks." If you must quote something, please use single quotes. For example: ‘This is enclosed in single quotes, and would cause no conflict with the Memory Packer software.’ We try to avoid using even the single quotes whenever we can. See examples below to see where we would and would not use quotes. (Note that this is a non-news-related example, used to avoid a reference that could become dated)
EXAMPLE OF WHERE QUOTES WOULD BE USED: Who starred in the film ‘The Wizard of Oz?’ Judy Garland Because the name of the film is included with other material, we use a single quotation mark. EXAMPLE OF WHERE QUOTES WOULD NOT BE USED: In 1949, Judy Garland starred in what classic film? The Wizard of Oz Because the name of the film appears in the answer by itself, we don’t use quotes in this instance. Note that there is no period at the end of the answer. |
| Questions must be stand-alone |
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Because questions could appear in any order, they should be worded so that each question makes sense by itself. In other words, Memory Packer is not suited for using a series of related questions that were intended to appear in order. See examples below. (Note that these are non-news-related examples, used to avoid references that could become dated)
EXAMPLE OF QUESTION WORDING THAT WILL NOT WORK ON MEMORY PACKER: Two Related Questions: What classic film was released in 1949? The Wizard of Oz Who starred in the film? Judy Garland The second question would not work on Memory Packer because it would not necessarily appear after the first question. Users would be confused if, out of the blue, they were asked ‘Who starred in the film?’ They would be left wondering ‘what film?’ EXAMPLE OF HOW THESE QUESTIONS & AN ANSWERS SHOULD BE WORDED: What Classic film was released in 1949? The Wizard of Oz? Who starred in ‘The Wizard of Oz?’ Judy Garland |
| Please Avoid use of 1st, 10th, etc. |
| Because we don't have time to use the proper html formatting in cases like this, we prefer these type of numeric references to be written out, as in, ‘first,’ ‘tenth,’ etc. |
| Please Use Items That Will Stay Relevant |
| The purpose of Memory Packer is to help people remember information that will be relevant to their life and/or help them improve their memory. While we do want to help them learn and remember a wide variety of names from a wide variety of news subjects (politics, sports, business, etc), we also want to include as many names that will continue to be relevant in the future. In other words, we strive to include the names of people that are likely to continue to make news and remain relevant in the future. |
| Please Keep Questions & Answers Short |
| The Memory Packer news sections are meant to break news items down to just the basic facts. We try to keep most items to just one fact, usually the name of one of the people involved in a news story. Occasionally, we include more than one name, or a group of names. |
| Feel Free to Include the Names of People, Places and Things |
| While the majority of the answers to the questions in this category are the names of people, we also include other things. For example, answers could be the names of places, movies, albums, songs, etc. Essentially any “name” that is making headlines, and is likely to continue to make headlines. |