Emulate Write: 200-text evaluation

Sample	N	Human	Mixed	AI	Length compliant	Mean rating / 5
Round 1	100	85	7	8	70/100	3.69
Round 2	100	81	2	17	62/100	3.68
Pooled	200	166	9	25	132/200	3.69

Category	N	Human	Mixed	AI	Mean rating / 5
Creative writing	20	18	1	1	3.33
Essays and humanities	20	18	0	2	3.32
Science and technology	20	19	0	1	4.05
Business and workplace	20	14	2	4	3.60
Journalism and commentary	20	14	2	4	3.50
Personal communication	20	16	0	4	3.75
Education	20	15	2	3	3.87
Marketing and product writing	20	15	2	3	3.75
Practical guides and reviews	20	19	0	1	3.75
Civic and community writing	20	18	0	2	3.95

W001 · Literary storyRound 1 · Human · 548/500 words

Write a story about a retired train conductor who finds an unclaimed suitcase. End with a difficult choice rather than a twist. Aim for 500 words.

Walter had been retired now for six years. He used to know a lot about trains, the groaning of their brakes as they pulled in, the rattling of their windows when they pulled out, the sighs of relief as people sat down. But now, the only things to be found at the station were pigeons. Walter wandered down to platform two, and there in the middle of a bench was a suitcase. Walter waited for the local to arrive before reporting the suitcase to the clerk in charge of the station. `` There's a name on it,'' said Walter, showing the clerk the paper tied to the handle. ``'Edwin Pike'.'' The clerk read the address that was scribbled beneath the name, and raised his eyebrows. `` Hold on a minute.'' The clerk dialed a number and waited until someone answered. `` Yes, hello... I'm sorry to trouble you, but have you seen Mr. Pike today?... I see... What do you want me to do?... Yes, of course... Thank you.'' He hung up and turned to Walter. `` You'd better not give it to him if he does show up.'' `` Why?'' `` He has dementia. He's in Rosehill House now. He's gone and packed a bag and run away again because he thinks that his wife's waiting for him at the station in Bellweather.'' `` Is she?'' `` Walter!'' The girl's voice was stern, but he could hear the tears in it. `` My mother died eleven years ago, but my dad's memory is stuck at when they first moved here. He remembers the station, and he remembers the trains, but he ca n't remember the route to get there.'' `` Has he done this before?'' `` Last month. We were lucky that he only went two towns over, and no harm came to him. But he ca n't be trusted to do this on his own. I'm coming down to get the suitcase now. If he gets here before I do, could you keep him there until I arrive?'' Walter looked at the suitcase lying on the table in front of him. He knew all the routes those trains took, and he knew how important they were. He looked inside the suitcase to see if there was anything that might tell him what medicine the man needed. All he found, on top of a pile of clothes, was a photograph of the man and his wife on holiday by the sea, and a return train ticket. Walter snapped the suitcase shut. At noon, an elderly man walked into the station. He looked at the signs telling him which way the platforms were, and came straight to the lost property office. `` Have you seen my suitcase?'' he asked, his voice urgent. `` My wife's waiting for me at the station in Bellweather.'' Walter knew what he had to do, but what if he was wrong? `` The next train to Bellweather leaves in twelve minutes,'' said the old man. `` I ca n't keep my wife waiting.'' Walter knew what he had to do, but what if he was wrong? Walter reached for the suitcase, and the old man reached for it too. For the first time in years, Walter did n't know which route to take.

W002 · MysteryRound 1 · Mixed · 570/500 words

Write a mystery set in a small bakery. A missing recipe is the central puzzle, and the solution should follow from clues in the story. Aim for 500 words.

At 7am on Monday morning, the first thing that Bell noticed was that her recipe card was missing. For forty-two years, that card had hung on a hook above the mixing table. The recipe was for Bell's honey cakes, and the card had been written in green ink by Bell's mother. There was one instruction in particular that had been underlined twice: Leave the dough overnight. 'What do you make of that?' she asked. 'Well, someone's pinched it that's for sure, but who would want your recipe?' 'Well, they might want to sell it to the new bakery on the high street.' Bell could think of three possible culprits: her assistant, who had been offered a job at the new bakery; Mr. Pruitt, the flour merchant, who'd called in before closing the day before; and Bell's nephew Owen, who'd been delivering bread to the shop and had asked her how much the business would be worth. Together, they searched the bakery. Bell's assistant checked the cupboards, Bell checked that the back door was securely bolted, and Owen - who had been quickly brought in to help solve the mystery - looked underneath the counter and said that he had not even seen the card. Mr. Pruitt was asked to come back in but said that he was far too good to be asked such a thing. 'Goodness me, I sell flour - I'm not going to steal cake recipes!' However, Bell noticed that there was flour on the floor underneath the hook, and there were some small markings in it. Her assistant stooped down to inspect them more closely. 'Could it have been a mouse?' asked Owen. 'No, look at the size of them and there are no footmarks leading to the door.' They followed the footmarks to a wicker basket which held old linen. They emptied out the basket. There were some aprons, towels and an old scorched potholder, but no recipe. They tried to bake some cakes by memory, but the cakes all came out very heavy and Bell couldn't remember whether she put the honey in before or after the butter. She was just about to chuck the batch out when she heard a noise coming from above. It was Marmalade, the cat that worked in the bakery. She must have been shut in the pantry the night before. She trotted over to the cakes, sniffed them and sneezed. Then, she walked over to the linen basket, had a quick dig among the towels and curled up inside it. 'It's the cat! Lift her up.' Underneath the cat was the recipe card. It was slightly bent at one corner and there was a bit of butter on it. There were also a couple of hairs on the card and a blue thread from the cat's collar. 'Well, you see, the cat wanted to take over the business and set up in competition with you.' 'Nonsense! Look at the pawprints on the card. She climbed up to the hook, pulled off the recipe, brought it down to the basket and made herself a nest. And she must have had a bit of butter on it, because look at that strip of cloth - she pulled it off the lining of the basket and hung it on the hook.' 'Well, you've solved the mystery.' 'Yes, and this time I'm going to pin the recipe up in a safe place.'

W003 · Science fictionRound 1 · Human · 306/300 words

Write a science-fiction scene about a gardener on a space station where sunlight is rationed. Aim for 300 words.

It was 0600 hours and the sunlight shutters would open in 12 minutes. Mara stood waiting under the greenhouse's glass roof, staring at her plants just on the other side of the no sunlight warning stripe painted on the ground. `` Ma'am you know that your allotment is already over, right?'' the station announced. `` Shut up'', she thought. She had managed to hide a few minutes in the time schedule. Her plants were already starting to show their appreciation: the leaves had turned a more vibrant shade of green and tiny droplets of water had started to show at the edges. A soft chime announced someone's arrival. To her surprise it was Jun, the youngest engineer in the station, carrying with him a small marigold flower. The poor thing had already closed its petals from the lack of sunlight. `` I know it's not part of the station's inventory but my grandmother sent it with me''. Mara looked at the time. There were only two more minutes left and both the flower and her tomatoes needed the sunlight. The station had enough ways to feed the crew without having to rely on sunlight but the fruits just did n't taste the same. She took the flower from the boy and placed it on the ground, right in the middle of the sunlight beam. The shutters started to close. `` Damnit'', she thought. There was still a minute left. She reached for the manual control switch. It would not go unnoticed but it did n't matter. The boy deserved it. The flower started to open again. Mara pushed the switch. The roof stayed open one minute longer. The alarms started to ring but she could n't care less. She laughed along with the boy, enjoying the last rays before the station returned to its eternal night.

W004 · FantasyRound 1 · Human · 252/300 words

Write a fantasy story about a bridge that asks travelers for a memory instead of money. Aim for 300 words.

IT ONLY APPEARS WHEN THE MOON IS THIN. I CAME UPON IT FLEEING FROM KING'S SOLDIER'S. AT THE MID OF THE BRIDGE, THERE WAS A BOOTH AND WITHIN THAT BOOTH, A LADY. '' WHAT IS THE FARE ?'' '' I HAVE NOTHING.'' '' I DO NOT WANT COIN, LAD. I WANT A MEMORY.'' THE SOLDIER'S WERE CLOSE. I THOUGHT ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD AND A VERY MEMORABLE SUMMER I ONCE HAD. I REMEMBERED THE SMILES, THE LAUGHTERS, THE CAKE MY MOTHER USED TO BAKE. '' TAKE IT.'' SHE TOOK IT AND THE GATE OF THE BRIDGE OPENED. HALFWAY THROUGH THE BRIDGE, I HEARD SOMEBODY BEHIND ME. I TURNED AND SAW A BOY IN NEED OF HELP. I DIDN'T KNOW HIM BUT I COULD FEEL IN MY HEART THAT I DID. '' PLEASE.. I HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE YOU'' I GLARED AT THE LADY ON THE OTHER SIDE AND SHE GLARED BACK AT ME. '' I.. I WILL GIVE YOU ONE OF MINE..'' THE BRIDGE STARTED TO TREMOR AND THE LADY'S HAIR STARTED TO GLOW. `` THE FARE IS MORE EXPENSIVE IF YOU WISH TO GIVE A SECOND MEMORY, LAD.'' '' THEN.. THEN PLEASE.. TAKE THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER. TAKE ALL OF IT..'' AS SOON AS THE BOY WAS HEALED AND THE COLOR CAME BACK TO HIS FACE, THE BRIDGE DISINTEGRATED. I WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING, NOT KNOWING WHY I WAS THERE. BUT THERE, ON MY PALM, WAS A BARK BOAT, FEELING AS IF IT WOULD TRANSPORT ME BACK TO THAT SUMMER.

W005 · Children's fictionRound 1 · Human · 105/200 words

Write a story for children aged six to eight about a turtle who wants to learn to dance. Aim for 200 words.

Tilly loves music. She wants to learn how to dance. Tilly tries and tries to learn to dance but each time it ends in a PLOP! Maybe she is to slow to learn how to dance, she sighs. Then one day, Tilly hears some music and to her surprise, her feet begin to move and her shell begins to sway. Tilly is dancing! She practices and practices and soon its time for a dance party! Tilly shows everyone how to dance and they all have a wonderful time dancing Tilly's special dance. Tilly couldn't be happier - she is dancing with all of her heart!

W006 · ComedyRound 1 · Human · 178/200 words

Write a funny account of someone trying to assemble a bookshelf with the wrong instructions. Aim for 200 words.

Here are the instructions for assembling your bookshelf. What's this? It's got a funny picture on it. A bike? That's odd. I'm sure it's a mistake. Step 1: *Insert handlebars into side of panel B*. Huh? I suppose I'll just skip this step, since I don't have any handlebars. And the next step is... *Insert front wheel into...* oh, for crying out loud! What sort of bookshelf needs pedals? And what does it mean by *Place shelf on seat*? There is no seat. And another bag of screws seems to have gone missing... Anyway, I had to phone up customer services and point out that they'd included the instructions for a kids' bicycle. As it turns out, putting the bookshelf together was pretty easy once I got the right instructions. And look, it doesn't even have any pedals! Well, I suppose I'd better put a book on it, and see if it holds up. Oh, look at that. It came with instructions for a bicycle, too. Maybe I'll unscrew a few bits, and take it for a ride...

W007 · DialogueRound 1 · Human · 183/150 words

Write a scene entirely in dialogue between two siblings deciding what to do with their father's old chair. Aim for 150 words.

`` Are you sure you want me to put this out?'' `` It's ruined, it's useless, it's worthless.'' `` But, you know, it was dad's.'' `` That's even worse, it's uncomfortable and ugly.'' `` Are you sure?'' `` Yes, yes, I'm sure. Really.'' `` Um, ok. What if we fixed it though?'' `` What would be the point?'' `` Because it was his, you know?'' `` I have no money to spare.'' `` It's ok, I have a bit put aside.'' `` You'd do that? For an old useless thing?'' `` Not if it's too much.'' `` But it stinks of smoke.'' `` He stopped smoking a long time ago.'' `` Then why does it stink?'' `` I don't know, maybe the house.'' `` Or maybe it's the chair.'' `` Besides, don't you remember how he used to...'' `` Oh, ok. I'll see what it'll cost.'' `` That's a good girl. Hey, can you make sure they don't try and steal any popcorn?'' `` Why would they do that?'' `` They're thieves, remember?'' `` Oh, right. Ok, I'll put it up a bit.''

W008 · Prose poemRound 1 · Human · 170/150 words

Write a prose poem about a city market after everyone has gone home. Avoid rhyme. Aim for 150 words.

Past midnight, and the market is closed. Crates are open, fruit spills from their confines and the smell of fresh vegetables is preserved beneath the awnings. Fruit scales sit empty, waiting for a handful of pears to land in their metal bowls and strike a perfect weight. Flour is spilled along one side of the butchers table and glistens as a white stripe in the otherwise dull darkness. Water drips from a hose and crashes against the plastic of a bucket, slowly filling with the remnants of the day before. All is quiet as the city slowly retreats back into their homes and the market is abandoned to the sounds of the night. Soon, before the crack of dawn, the market cleaners will arrive to sweep up the rubbish that has been scattered in their wake and life will go on. For now, the market rests among the sounds of the city and the soft breeze that blows through, carrying the scents of fresh food from land far, far away.

W009 · AdventureRound 1 · Human · 290/300 words

Write an adventure scene about three hikers escaping a gorge as the river rises. Give each hiker a useful role. Aim for 300 words.

It started with the smallest sign and grew to a torrent in an instant. One minute they were walking along and the next minute a wall of brown water poured around the bend. `` Everybody up! It's a flood surge!'' Three hapless hikers had taken a wrong turn and were trying to follow a river out of a gorge when the surge hit. Now the path ahead of them was gone and the river was rising fast behind them. `` There's a ledge up above on the west side'' the strongest among them said. `` We can make it if we use the rope.'' `` Once you're up there'' the navigator said, pulling out a map and compass, `` There's a ravine that should lead out.'' The one who had brought the climbing equipment secured the rope to a boulder and the strongest one started up. Twice she slipped but the rope held her and finally she made it to the ledge. With her helping from above the navigator made it up too. `` The surge is here'' he said, watching a log smash into the wall on the other side. `` I think I see the ravine. Go left when you come to a fork.'' And he pointed to a narrow opening between two large rock slabs. The last one was almost to the top when her footing gave way and she started to slip. `` Grab her!'' the first one yelled. Together they pulled her to safety. Without a moment's rest they scrambled up the narrow passage, taking the left at the fork as the ravine split, and minutes later tumbled out onto a pine covered hillside, soaked to the skin but safe from the rising flood below.

W010 · Historical fictionRound 1 · Human · 172/200 words

Write a fictional scene set at a railway station in 1910, from the perspective of a woman arriving alone in a new town. Aim for 200 words.

I stepped off the train and looked around, taking in my surroundings. The porter walked up to me `` Is somebody meeting you miss?'' I shook my head and he walked off, helping a family who had arrived with me. I took a deep breath, the steam from the train hazy around me. I was here, in a strange new town. What had I gotten myself into? I asked myself, looking towards the door and out onto the street, the clock showing that it was barely dusk, it being November. I was n't sure how long my money would last for. A news boy walked past me, shouting out his papers as he went. I took the address out of my glove and read it over, hoping that I would n't have far to go to find it. It was something, to know that I would have somewhere to sleep that night, however temporary. Lifting my valise I made my way out of the station, out into the world once more. Alone.

W011 · Gandhi historyRound 1 · Human · 521/500 words

Write an essay about Gandhi in South Africa, including his arrival, development of satyagraha, and limitations or controversies in his early views. Keep historical claims accurate. Aim for 500 words.

It's a story that is well-known in its broad outlines. When Mohandas Gandhi arrived in Durban in May 1893, he was a young lawyer who had been hired to help Dada Abdulla, an Indian merchant. He thought he would be staying only for a year, at most. It was only a few days later, when he was thrown out of the first-class compartment of a train to Pietermaritzburg that he became aware of the nature of racial discrimination in South Africa. But even then, he did not imagine that he would spend the rest of his life fighting against racial inequality in South Africa. It was only when he was about to return to India because the work he had been hired to do was nearly completed that he learned that the Legislative Council of Natal was about to pass a law curbing the right of Indians to vote. He helped mobilise opposition to this and thus decided to stay on. In 1894 he founded the Natal Indian Congress and began the long political struggle to remove discriminatory laws, largely on the grounds that Indians, both the merchants and the indentured labourers, had rights as British subjects. This may help explain why, during the Anglo-Boer War and the Zulu rebellion in 1906, Gandhi worked to enrol Indians to serve in an ambulance corps and as stretcher-bearers in support of the British Empire. Gandhi developed the technique of satyagraha – force of truth, or soul-force – in response to the Transvaal government's attempt to pass the Asiatic Registration Act in 1906. He hated the term "passive resistance", he said, because it was weak and seemed like merely a political tactic. At a mass meeting in Johannesburg in September 1906 the participants promised not to submit to the law, which required Indians to register and be fingerprinted. The battle to defeat this measure and others like it took many forms, including petitions, refusing to register and going to jail, as Gandhi did on several occasions. It also involved labour strikes by Indians, and in 1913 women joined the struggle. The most famous phase of the struggle broke out in 1913 and involved the protesting miners and others over a £3 tax that many former indentured labourers were forced to pay, as well as the government's refusal to recognise the validity of non-Christian marriages. It involved marches, strikes, arrests and severe treatment of the protesters. Eventually the government was forced to negotiate, and made concessions, including removing the tax. What is not well-known, however, is that Gandhi used racist language against Africans and held many of the racist stereotypes of his time. He worked largely to convince the South African authorities that Indians were different from Africans, and thus should not be treated as they were. This was, of course, within the context of the times, but it does cast a shadow on his legacy. Historians debate whether his views changed, or to what extent. But there is no question that South Africa was the place where Gandhi developed the technique of non-violent resistance to injustice that he later used so effectively in India.

W012 · Printing historyRound 1 · Human · 498/500 words

Write an essay explaining how printing changed the circulation of ideas in early modern Europe. Avoid presenting printing as the sole cause of social change. Aim for 500 words.

To what extent did the invention of printing transform communication in early modern Europe? In the fifteenth century printing by movable type became increasingly popular. This revolution in the process of making books made an important contribution to many aspects of early modern European society. It was possible to produce books in larger quantities and at a faster rate than with hand-copying. While this new invention did not make books cheap or even allow everyone access to reading, it opened up the possibility for ideas to be distributed and criticised more easily. This essay will consider the ways that the invention of printing transformed communication in early modern Europe. The invention of printing was important for the spread of the Reformation as it allowed the ideas of reformers to be distributed in the form of pamphlets and translated texts. An example of this was with Martin Luther. However, the invention of printing cannot be solely responsible for the spread of the Reformation as a range of factors influenced this. Luther's ideas were also influenced by the context in which they were presented and the reaction of the audience. This shows how print and oral communication still went hand in hand. Printers and booksellers also played a large part in the spread of the Reformation. The invention of printing also lead to an increase in the amount of writing that was produced in vernacular languages. With the availability of texts in languages that people could understand, it opened up the possibility for many more people to be able to read. Although not everyone could read, the invention of printing encouraged literacy. The invention of printing also lead to the standardisation of languages as spelling and grammar in the most frequently printed books became standard. However, the increase in vernacular texts did not always lead to unification as there was also an increase in competing texts between regions and confessions. The invention of printing also had an impact on the development of science. With an increase in the amount of books being printed, it was easier for scientific theories to be distributed. The circulation of books and letters by scientists lead to a larger network of people who could discuss and contribute to new ideas. The invention of printing also made it easier for theories to be criticised. With the availability of illustrations and tables it was possible for a theory to be proven or disproven by comparing it to printed evidence. The growth of the print trade also influenced censorship. An increase in the amount of books and pamphlets being printed allowed for the spread of a large range of ideas, many of which threatened governments. Many governments responded by introducing licensing laws to control the operation of printing presses, censoring books and punishing authors and printers. However, it was difficult for governments to completely censor the production and distribution of books. In conclusion, the invention of printing transformed communication in early modern Europe in a range of ways.

W013 · Ethics argumentRound 1 · Human · 407/300 words

Write an essay arguing whether keeping a promise is always the right thing to do. Include a serious counterargument. Aim for 300 words.

Is it always the right thing to do when you make a promise? A promise is something to ensure someone that you will do something they ask you to do. Sometimes it is right to break a promise, it all depends on the circumstances on what your promising. Making a promise doesn't always mean its the right thing to do. Sometimes you should break a promise. One example why you should break a promise is if your friend asked you to promise not to tell anyone, and they were going to hurt somebody. You should tell someone because not telling anyone would put someone in danger that could possibly get hurt. Also, somebody could be asking you to do something that isn't right in the first place. You shouldn't make a promise to someone if its not something that is considered to be the "right thing to do". It is sometimes the right thing to do not to keep a promise, you have to think if its really what your morally supposed to do or not. You have to consider if its what is right or not to not keep a promise. Most of the time you should break a promise. Even though most of the time its the right thing to do not to make a promise, some people think you should always keep a promise. They believe that once you make a promise, it doesn't matter how the situation is, you made a promise. Others think that some people will take advantage of other people by saying they will do something, and not doing it, to hurt them. People should make promises because that means that they should commit to doing it. Some people think you should always keep a promise. Although some people think that making a promise and not keeping it is the right thing to do, others think that once you commit to doing something, you should keep it. You should think before you make a promise, and think about if its really what you should be doing or not. Most of the time, you should break a promise. In conclusion, is it always the right thing to do when you make a promise? Most of the time it is, but not always. It all depends on what the situation is and if its really what you should be doing. Most of the time you should keep a promise, but not always.

W014 · Literary analysisRound 1 · Human · 295/300 words

Explain how the creature in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein complicates the idea of who the real monster is. Do not invent quotations. Aim for 300 words.

In the novel, Frankenstein, the creature is judged by many people because of his apprearance, those people include the family that he watched and grew an affection for. Even though they tried to communicate with the family, they rejected and resorted to violence to express their feelings towards him. Thus, teaching him that everyone would be like that, everyone would be his enemy. Yet, one could say that the creature was not always a monster, he wanted to communicate, he wanted to be a part of society, to learn and to be kind. On the other hand, Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the creature, could be said to be the monster. The reason why is because instead of helping the creature or at least try to take care of him, he rejected him and left him all because of his apprearnce. Victor is the reason why the creature turned out to be a monser in the first place. Why did Victor destroy the second creature when the first one was begging him to not do it, that he only wanted a friend, someone to be with? To say that Victor was the monster and not the creature is not entirely true, the creature did commit murder, and not only that, he murdered innocent people just for the sake of hurting and punishing Victor for what he did. But to say that the creature is the monster and not Victor, is also not really true. So then, who is the real monster? According to the author, the monster is not necessarily the one who has a hideous apprearnce, the monster could be hiding inside anyone. The monster is shown through actions, by the lack of help or compassion, through irresponsibility. So then, who is the monster?

W015 · Art interpretationRound 1 · Human · 192/200 words

Explain to a general reader why an abstract painting can be meaningful without depicting recognizable objects. Aim for 200 words.

Why is abstract paintings meaningful. Abstract paintings are meaningful in different ways for different people. This is because of the colors, shapes, texture, and lines used. Color is important in paintings because each color has a different meaning. Some people are affected by different colors. When they see that color it reminds them of something. Color is like music because it goes straight to how you feel. Not only color but the way the painting is put together is meaningful. The way the shapes, texture, and lines are in the painting. This gives you an idea of what the painting may be about even if there is nothing in it that you can relate to. Also abstract paintings are meaningful because of the different things the artist put in the painting. Such as the texture, the color choice, and even the way a shape is in the painting. This helps give you an idea on what the painting is about and the thought process of the artist. Abstract paintings are meaningful because the meaning grows with you as you look at the painting. No it doesnt tell you what to look at.

W016 · Language essayRound 1 · Human · 260/200 words

Write a short essay on what can be lost and gained when a poem is translated. Aim for 200 words.

My view on translation is based on the knowledge that there is a certain degree of loss which occurs between the original version of a poem and its translation. This is especially apparent when translating a poem from one language to another, as there may be phrases and idioms that do not translate well, and the musicality of the poem may differ when translated into a different language. Ambiguity is another potential problem when translating, as a word may have a double meaning in one language, but not in another. However, there is also something to be gained when translating a poem. Whether it is a poem that has been translated from one language to another, or a poem that has been rewritten in a different style, there are always new possibilities that can emerge when a poem is translated. A new side of a poem can be explored when it is translated, which makes the poem new again, and allows a poet to breathe new life into an old poem. Ultimately, I believe that when a poem is translated, something is both lost and gained. It is impossible for a translated version of a poem to encompass all of the features of the original poem, and it inevitably becomes a translation of the original poem, rather than the original poem itself. However, this does not mean that it is not a good poem. Rather, a translated poem is a new version of the original poem, and an interpretation by another poet of what they understand to be its meaning.

W017 · Philosophy vignetteRound 1 · Human · 182/150 words

Explain the difference between being alone and feeling lonely without treating either experience as universal. Aim for 150 words.

Being alone is simply the circumstance of being by yourself. It means you aren’t around or interacting with any other people. Sometimes people choose to be alone, sometimes they don’t, sometimes it’s for a short period of time, sometimes for a long period of time. Some people enjoy being alone, for others it’s no big deal, for others it may be uncomfortable or even unsafe. Loneliness is the feeling of disconnection. You can be by yourself and feel disconnected/lonely, or you can be in the middle of a group of people and still feel disconnected/lonely. You can even feel disconnected/lonely in a relationship. It’s common to feel lonely when your desired level of connection doesn’t match your experienced level of connection. Different people need different levels of connection. The two can certainly overlap, but one doesn’t always equal the other. For some people, enjoying solitude is really important and helpful. For others it can be really challenging. And while socializing may certainly help with feelings of loneliness, it’s not always the answer. It’s important to ask folks what they want and/or need.

W018 · Historical source readingRound 1 · Human · 148/150 words

Explain why a merchant's account book can be valuable to historians even when it says little about ordinary workers. Aim for 150 words.

The account books of merchants are key documents for a historian to uncover information about the economy of the time. Accounting books can inform us about what was purchased and sold, who the merchant owed money to, how much certain items cost, how items were shipped, and how businesses responded to shifts in supply and demand. Analyzing the accounting books of multiple merchants can also help us understand business networks and how items traveled across the country (or the world). How accounting books DON'T talk about labor can also be informative. Often, the way labor was recorded in a merchant's books can tell us a lot about how merchants perceived their workers. By looking at how merchants talked about their workers in conjunction with other documents, it can help us piece together what a certain type of labor was like. However, account books are not a complete picture.

W019 · Cultural criticismRound 1 · Human · 367/300 words

Write a balanced essay on whether museums should display replicas alongside original objects. Aim for 300 words.

Museums typically show only authentic objects, but there should be an option to display replications as well. The benefit of showing relica's is that it can provide an insight on how an object may have looked if it isn't in a good condition. It also makes the object more acessible if it is too fragile to be displayed. When an object is displayed that is a replica it could allow the viewer to handle it which can lead to a more engaged expierience. Another benefit could be it allows students to view an object to a better capability. An example could be that it would help blind students be able to feel and touch an object that they may be studying. A drawback to showing replicas may be that it could confuse the viewer. Sometimes viewers do not read or take in much information when they visit a museum and they may believe that they are looking at the real object. This can lead to a credibility issue if a museum is trying to show the history of an object and there is only a replica. Replicas could possibly take away from the reality of an object that is being displayed. For example when a person is viewing an object they may like to see how old it actually is, and view the real materials that it is made from. Viewers of a museum may also feel that it is not a genuine experience if they are viewing an object that is not real. A final con to displaying replicas is that it could take valuable resources that could be used for a better cause. Another negative aspect to showing replicas could be the that it may not be ethically correct to show a copy of an object. In conclusion, a museum could benefit from showing replicas but there are also a few downsides to this idea. Replicas should not be a replacement for the real objects but could be helpful in certain situations. If a museum were to show replicas they should properly label them and explain their reasoning for showing them. Overall showing replicas can help viewers appreciate the authentic objects in a museum more.

W020 · Memory reflectionRound 1 · Human · 240/200 words

Write a reflective essay about why ordinary household objects can become important family possessions. Aim for 200 words.

Do you have an object that is important to your family? It could be something as simple as a bowl, a tool, or even a lamp. Some may think that it is just an ordinary item, but to your family it could be special. These items are like that because they are used by your family, and could have some special meaning behind them. The object could also be special because it was used by someone very important to you. Maybe your grandfather, or even your mother. Seeing this object can bring back many memories to you. Whether it is something they said to you, or how they would use the object. Either way, seeing the object brings back some special memories to you. Having an object that is shared by your family is a really special thing. Many people in your family could have stories about the item, and what it has been through. Your family could also have some memories of how the object got some wear on it. Either way, your family has some stories to share about the item. An item like this could be special just for its' history. The item may not serve much of a purpose now, but it still has some meaning in your family's life. Having an object like this in your life is important. It reminds you of the love in your family, and what a special thing it is.

W021 · Climate explainerRound 1 · Human · 470/500 words

Explain the greenhouse effect, distinguishing it from ozone depletion and from short-term weather variation. Write for a curious adult. Aim for 500 words.

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, and so it causes the atmosphere and the surface to be warmer than they would be in the absence of the gases. The greenhouse effect is a good thing -- without it, the Earth would be frozen and life as we know it would not exist. The gases in our atmosphere that are responsible for this effect are referred to as greenhouse gases. The main greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Human activities, primarily the burning of coal, oil and gas, are increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide and methane. As a result, the natural greenhouse effect is being enhanced, more heat is being temporarily stored in the atmosphere and the Earth is warming up until it can radiate as much energy as it receives from the Sun. The oceans absorb much of this energy and are delaying the warming of the atmosphere. As the atmosphere and oceans warm up, they will influence many other aspects of our climate, such as rainfall. Other impacts of global warming include the loss of ice, rising sea levels and changes in extreme events like droughts and floods. Because water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the increase in water vapor that results from global warming due to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases causes further global warming. However, water vapor acts primarily as a feedback to global warming caused by other greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect should not be confused with depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. The ozone layer is located in the stratosphere, many kilometres above the Earth's surface, and absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Certain man-made chemicals, when they reach the stratosphere, destroy ozone. The resulting ozone depletion allows more ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth's surface. This may cause increased skin cancer in humans, as well as other harmful effects. Although ozone is itself a greenhouse gas, the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion are quite different phenomena. International agreements to control the emissions of ozone-depleting substances are leading to a recovery of the ozone layer. Confusion also often exists between variations in weather and climate change. Weather varies from minute to minute, day to day and week to week. Climate change, on the other hand, is detected in changes in the statistics of weather over longer periods, typically 30 years or more. Variations in winds, ocean currents and other factors may cause the weather to be cooler or warmer than usual in a particular place at a particular time. However, the greenhouse effect acts to change the overall energy balance of the atmosphere.

W022 · Machine learningRound 1 · Human · 569/500 words

Explain how a machine-learning model can perform well on training data and poorly on new data. Use a concrete example and discuss overfitting and data leakage. Aim for 500 words.

Why would a machine learning model work on training data but not on new examples? The goal of most machine learning models is to learn something about the data that generalizes to new examples of data. Sometimes this doesn't happen and the model only works on the training data. Imagine a simple example where we're training a model to predict whether a person will pay back a loan. We train the model using data from past loan applicants and it seems to work great: when we test the model on the training data, it predicts whether a person will pay back their loan 99% of the time. However, when we actually start using the model on new applicants the next year, the model doesn't work very well at all. Overfitting One thing that could have gone wrong here is overfitting. This happens when our model is flexible enough that instead of just fitting the trend in the data (people with high debt are more likely to default), it also fits the noise in the data (people with income 43211 and loan amount 12342 always default) or even just memorizing the data (record number 2312 defaulted on their loan). Then, when we try and apply this model to new data, it doesn't work because the noise or the specific instances from the training data don't show up in the new data. It's like studying for a test by memorizing the answers to the practice questions instead of learning the actual material: if you get the same questions again, you can just use the answers you memorized, but if the questions are slightly different, you're out of luck. We can detect overfitting by holding out a validation set or test set and seeing how well the model does on that data. If it does significantly worse on the test data, it's probably overfitting on the training data. There are many ways to prevent overfitting , but a good basic practice is to hold out a test set that you don't look at until the very end and to avoid using overly complex models or to use regularization to reduce the effective complexity of the model. Data Leakage Another thing that could have gone wrong is that we allowed data from outside of the model to leak in. For instance, one of the fields in our data might be "Was this account sent to the collections agency?" Since this only happens after people have already not paid back their loans, this is a great predictor of whether a person will pay back a loan. However, when we're actually making a decision on a new loan, this information won't be available. Leakage can also occur if you're not careful about separating your training and test data, like if the same person has two loan applications and one of them ends up in your training data and the other in your test data or if you include your test data when deciding which features to include in your model. Overfitting and data leakage are two very different problems, but either one can lead to a model that looks like it's working well on your data but doesn't actually work well in practice. Being careful about how you separate your data into training and test sets, especially if you have information about when the predictions will be made, can help prevent both of these problems.

W023 · BiologyRound 1 · Human · 322/300 words

Explain natural selection using antibiotic resistance as an example. Distinguish selection from organisms changing because they need to. Aim for 300 words.

Variations in antibiotic resistance exist in bacterial populations before the use of antibiotics. These variations occur through random mutations in the bacteria or through the uptake of genes from other bacteria. These variations do not occur in order to meet a need of the bacteria. When an antibiotic is used, it acts as a filter, increasing the likelihood that bacteria without the resistance will die, while allowing bacteria with the resistance to survive. After the non-resistant bacteria die, the resistant bacteria reproduce, passing on the genes for resistance. Also, the resistant bacteria can share their resistance genes with other bacteria. Over several generations, a larger and larger proportion of the bacteria will be resistant to the antibiotic, and thus the bacterial population will have evolved. This process is an example of natural selection. Antibiotics do not cause bacteria to develop the specific variation that confers resistance. However, when bacteria reproduce, random mutations can occur, just by chance giving the bacteria resistance to the antibiotic. The presence of the antibiotic increases the likelihood that bacteria with the variation for resistance will survive. It is important to realize that antibiotic resistance is not a “silver bullet” for the bacteria. The bacteria usually remain susceptible to other antibiotics, and the resistance sometimes is a detriment to the bacteria when antibiotics are not present. The best way to prevent bacteria from evolving resistance to antibiotics is to only use antibiotics when appropriate and to always take them as prescribed. An important point to understand about natural selection is that it does not act on individuals to make them change based on a need that they have. Rather, natural selection acts on populations. Natural selection increases the proportion of individuals in a population that have traits that allow them to better reproduce in a particular environment. Natural selection does not make individuals “better” in some overall sense, it only makes them better at reproducing in particular situations.

W024 · AstronomyRound 1 · Human · 326/300 words

Explain why the Moon has phases and why they are not usually caused by Earth's shadow. Aim for 300 words.

The Moon doesn't produce any of its own light that we can see. The Sun shines on the Moon, illuminating half of it at all times, while the other half is in darkness. As the Moon moves in its orbit around the Earth, we see different amounts of the illuminated side of the Moon. These are called the phases of the Moon. When the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, we can't see much of it, because the side that the Sun is illuminating is mostly facing away from us. This is called the "new Moon". As the Moon moves in its orbit, we see more and more of it - first a crescent, then at "first quarter", we see half of the side that's facing us illuminated. As the Moon continues to orbit, we see more and more of it, until at "full Moon", the entire side of the Moon facing us is illuminated. As the Moon continues its orbit, we see less and less of it each night, until it's back at the "new Moon" phase. It may seem like the shadow of the Earth is responsible for the phases of the Moon - it's not, though. The only time the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon is during a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up almost exactly, with the Earth between the Sun and the Moon. Most months, the Moon passes either above or below the Earth's shadow, because the Moon's orbit is tilted by about 5 degrees compared to the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Because of that tilt, the Moon is not in the Earth's shadow even when it's at the "full Moon" phase. That's why lunar eclipses don't happen every month, but the phases of the Moon do. The full Moon is full not because it's not in the Earth's shadow, but because of where it is in its orbit.

W025 · PhysicsRound 1 · Human · 220/200 words

Explain why a metal spoon feels colder than a wooden spoon in the same room. Aim for 200 words.

If you had a metal spoon and a wooden spoon in a room and they both had come to room temperature they would both be exactly the same temperature. However, if you touched them the metal spoon would appear to be colder than the wood spoon. This is because of the rate of heat transfer in the materials. Your skin is warmer than the spoons and heat always flows from warm to cold. Since metal is a good heat conductor, it conducts the heat away from your body very quickly. This causes a rapid temperature change on your skin surface and our nerves respond to that rapid change so you perceive that the metal spoon is very cold. Wood on the other hand is a poor heat conductor (it is called an insulator). So, when you put your hand on the wood spoon the heat transfer from your body to the spoon is slow. The heat transfer from your body decreases as the wood warms up and thus your hand does not cool as quickly and the spoon feels warmer to your hand. This is why metal in a cool room feels cold to your skin. When the metal is warm, it will feel hotter to your body than wood since it transfers heat to your body faster than wood.

W026 · StatisticsRound 1 · Human · 245/200 words

Explain mean and median using the numbers 2, 3, 3, 4, and 13, and show why the distinction matters. Aim for 200 words.

How can the mean and median of a data set be different? Suppose we had a data set of 2,3,3,4,13. To find the mean you would add up the sum of all the numbers which is 25 and divide it by the number of numbers which is 5. So the mean of the set is 5. The median on the other hand is the number in the middle of the data set when it is arranged in order. In our example data set the median would be 3. It is in the middle of the data set with an equal number of numbers below and above it in the set. The reason that the mean and median are different in this data set is because the number 13 is really high compared to the rest of the numbers in the set. I think that the median is a better representative of this data set simply because there are not very many numbers in the set. Whenever there is a really high or low number in a small data set I think that the median is a better representative of the set. Although I can see how sometimes the mean can be useful like if you needed to know how much of something that each person got then you would use the mean to find it. It really depends on what you are looking for when you are trying to find a representative for the set.

W027 · ComputingRound 1 · Human · 248/150 words

Explain what a computer cache does using an everyday analogy, then mention one way the analogy is imperfect. Aim for 150 words.

How does a cache work? Imagine a kitchen. Whenever you want to make something to eat, you need a bunch of ingredients. If you store all of your ingredients in cupboards or even go to the grocery store for every single thing you need, it'll take a while to get everything you need and start cooking. But if you have the things you need most often out on the counter, it'll be a lot quicker to get to them. A cache works in a similar way to having things out on the counter. If your computer needs a piece of information often, it will store a copy of it in a cache somewhere. That way it can get to the information much quicker than if it had to go to where it's actually stored. If your computer wants a piece of information that it doesn't have stored in the cache (a "cache miss"), it will get it from where it's actually stored and often store a copy in the cache so it will be quicker to get to next time. There are lots of different kinds of cache -- your web browser probably has one for images, and your processor probably has one for data, for example. This is not a perfect analogy, because a cache works a little bit differently. For one thing, a cache works automatically. For another, a cache only has so much space in it, so it has to replace things in it sometimes.

W028 · EcologyRound 1 · Human · 146/150 words

Explain why counting planted trees is not the same as measuring a successful urban forest. Aim for 150 words.

The number of trees we plant will not be the way we measure our success. After all, newly planted trees can die for a variety of reasons. Rather, we will measure our success by the type of trees we plant and where we plant them. The goal of this program is to create a diverse and resilient urban forest for the long-term, not just to plant many thousands of vulnerable trees. Part of this involves long-term maintenance, of course. Finally, we need to be thoughtful about how we are spreading these trees throughout our city, targeting areas that are in most need of a healthy tree canopy to improve heat and health risks, amongst other things. This is a complex undertaking that will need to be measured in a variety of ways to ensure we are providing equitable access to the benefits of a thriving forest.

W029 · Research designRound 1 · Human · 359/300 words

Describe a fair experiment to test whether moving recycling signs closer to bins improves sorting. Include a limitation. Aim for 300 words.

Start with several similar stations. Monitor them for a period of time (a week) and note the results. Next, group them into pairs of similarly performing stations. Randomly pick one of the stations in each pair and move the signs on that station to be right next to the bin. Leave the signs at the other station in the pair where they are now. The wording, size, and design of the signs should be the same at both recycling stations. The bins themselves should also be the same, as well as the schedule for collecting the materials in the bins. For the next several weeks, monitor the results at both sets of stations, making sure to compare “apples to apples” (weekdays to weekdays and weekends to weekends). You should monitor the bins the same way you would normally (perhaps by how well they are sorted or by how much garbage is mixed in with the recyclables). It might be beneficial to have the person who monitors the bins not know which bins had the signs moved, so that his or her opinion is unbiased. Compare the change in results from before the signs were moved at the stations where the signs were moved and the change in results at the stations where the signs were not moved. This will help cancel out any differences between the two sets of stations and any outside influences, such as a larger campaign to increase recycling. Before starting the experiment, you should also decide how you will measure success. For example, you could calculate what percentage of items in each bin should be in that bin. You should also take enough samples at each station to get an accurate result. Finally, you should take into account any outside influences, such as overflow of the bins, that could affect your results. If you do not include a certain time period in your results for one set of stations, you should not include that time period for the other set of stations. Keep in mind that the results of this experiment may not be widely applicable, and that the two groups may influence each other.

W030 · Scientific uncertaintyRound 1 · Human · 199/200 words

Explain the difference between an absence of evidence and evidence of absence with a practical example. Aim for 200 words.

Absence of evidence is the lack of finding evidence that proves that something is true. Lack of finding evidence that something is true does not mean that something is false. Evidence of absence is finding evidence that something is not present. This can be more or less convincing based on how thorough the search is and how likely the evidence would be found if it was there. For example if you think that you have a leak in your pipes you could look for a puddle of water on the floor. Not finding a puddle of water would be absence of evidence to prove there is a leak. It would not be strong evidence of absence since it is quite possible for a leak to not have a puddle of water on the floor. However, if you looked at the pipes themselves, inspected the walls for water damage, and measured the water usage with the water turned off inside the house with a reliable meter and found no water usage, then that would be strong evidence of absence that there is not a leak. It is important to know the difference between absence of evidence and evidence of absence.

W031 · Strategy memoRound 1 · Human · 536/500 words

Write a memo for a small repair shop considering evening appointments versus a second location. Recommend a reversible test and explain how to measure it. Aim for 500 words.

To: Shop owners Subject: Testing evening appointments before committing to a second location Test your assumptions and try both approaches for a time period with limited commitments. Expanding to a second location has many costs and is hard to reverse. Extending your hours in your existing location is relatively easy to reverse and should be tried first. However, extending your hours will not tell you much about whether you could be successful at a second location. Conduct a pilot trial for 8 weeks or so where you offer evening appointments two evenings per week at your current location. Make the trial as realistic as possible, offering the same hours and services you would if it was permanent but limit the number of appointments so you are not creating too much havoc with your current operation. Use your existing staff if possible but be aware of the extra cost of overtime. In addition, try to test the waters at the potential new location for two or three days offering limited service. Try to work with a local business or offer drop-off and pick-up only to avoid having to rent a temporary work space. Measure everything you can during the trial period. Measure the number of appointments asked for, booked, done, canceled and missed. Measure where your customers want the service done and if they are new customers, how did they hear about you and where do they live. Make sure you measure the additional revenue you are generating and track if you are just moving day-time customers to the evening or if you are getting new customers that would not have come in during the day. Measure the cost of doing the additional jobs including parts, labor, overtime, travel and any additional facility cost. The important thing to measure is whether you are generating an incremental contribution by offering the evenings and/or the second location. An accounting for all of the additional labor, parts, facility and other costs that are generated by the trial should be compared to the revenue generated by each of the approaches. Also consider if your regular day-time business is being impacted by either of the trials. Are your normal jobs being delayed? Are you taking longer to do jobs than normal or doing more re-work? Also track how many of the trial jobs result in another job, the number of customers that do not show up for their appointments and any other feedback you can get from your customers. Decide ahead of time what it will take for you to decide to proceed with either approach. Evening hours may need to show a positive contribution and attract new customers or customers you would not have gotten during the day. The second location may need to show that you can generate enough contribution to pay for the location each month. Make sure you have a margin of safety and not just break-even. You may want to review the results each week but make your decision at the end of the entire trial period. If one approach works and the other does not then consider extending your hours or gathering more information to help you decide about getting a lease for the second location.

W032 · Project proposalRound 1 · Mixed · 622/500 words

Propose a six-week pilot for a shared equipment booking system at a makerspace. Cover scope, responsibilities, success measures, and risks. Aim for 500 words.

Scope. This will be a six week pilot. It should start with 3-5 pieces of highly used equipment that already have safety procedures in place, trained members, and a way for members to report safety issues (like your laser cutter, 3D printer, CNC Router, etc). You don't want to include all your equipment; just leave the rest the way it is for the moment. How it'll work. All members will use a shared calendaring tool (either web or desktop) to make equipment reservations. The calendar will show: the name of the member making the reservation the equipment being reserved the time of the reservation an estimate of setup and tear-down time There will be set reservation lengths, limits on how far in advance a member can reserve equipment, and limits on how long a member can be late before the reservation is canceled. Members won't be able to reserve equipment until they've completed the training for that piece of equipment. All reservations will include time at the end for cleanup, and users will be required to leave the equipment in a usable state for the next reservation. Members will still be able to use equipment on a walk-up basis as long as it doesn't interfere with an existing reservation. Rules will be posted in a visible location next to each piece of equipment, as well as wherever the online booking tool is. Pilot timeline. Week One will be the selection of which equipment will be included in the pilot, the selection and setup of the booking tool, the drafting and posting of the booking rules, and a briefing to the membership on how the system will work. Weeks Two through Five will be the actual running of the pilot. The Pilot Coordinator will review how things are going at the end of each week. Week Six will be the review of the pilot with the membership and the recommendation on whether or not to continue the pilot. Roles and responsibilities. The Pilot Coordinator will be responsible for setting up the pilot, and reporting on how it's going at the end of each week. Equipment Stewards will be responsible for ensuring that members are properly trained on their equipment, that the equipment is ready to use, and that any safety or maintenance issues are addressed. Members will be responsible for using the reservation system properly, showing up for their reservations, following all safety procedures, and reporting any safety or maintenance issues. The Pilot Coordinator should designate someone who can update the booking tool in their absence. Pilot metrics. Conflict reduction (use your best guess or do a survey in Week One if you don't have historical data) % of reservations actually used # of conflicts with the reservation system # of no-shows Average wait time for each piece of equipment # of safety or maintenance incidents Satisfaction (survey members and equipment stewards on how easy the system is to use, how fair it is, and how much time it's taking to administer). A successful pilot will show reductions in conflicts over equipment use, reductions in wait times, good feedback from the membership, no increase in safety or maintenance incidents, and not take an excessive amount of time to administer. Things to watch out for: Making sure people don't over-reserve, or reserve and not use the equipment Make sure your booking tool is easy for everyone to use Making sure everyone has equal access to the equipment Make sure equipment failures are reported and dealt with Make sure people aren't using equipment without training or supervision Shut the pilot down if it becomes a safety issue Make a decision at the end of the sixth week on whether or not to continue the pilot.

W033 · Incident reportRound 1 · Human · 379/300 words

Write a fictional incident report about duplicate booking emails caused by a retry bug. No bookings or charges were duplicated. Include timeline, cause, and prevention. Aim for 300 words.

Some customers received multiple copies of booking confirmation emails on May 14. A total of 184 bookings made between 09:12 and 10:03 UTC received duplicate emails. There was only one booking created in our system for each reservation and all payments were processed correctly. At 09:12 UTC we deployed a routine update to the service that sends booking confirmation emails. After the deployment the service started taking longer than expected to respond. At 09:19 the service started retrying some of the emails it sent. While the emails were successfully sent to our email delivery provider, it took longer than expected for the provider to acknowledge receipt. This caused some emails to be resent. At 10:03 our monitoring system detected an increase in the number of confirmation emails being sent. At 10:11 an on-call engineer paused automatic retries in the service. The service returned to normal operation at 10:24. At 10:28 we received our first report of the issue from a customer contacting Customer Support. At 10:41 we posted a notice about the issue on our status page. The root cause of the incident was a bug in the retry logic of our email service. Because the service didn’t have a good way of suppressing duplicate messages, it sent both the original and the retried messages. Our booking and payment systems are separate from our email systems and were not affected by this issue. We have reviewed our booking and payment systems and confirmed that bookings and payments were not duplicated. We have also reached out to customers who reported this issue to Customer Support to reassure them that their bookings were not affected and provided instructions on how other customers can confirm that their bookings are ok. We have updated our email service to prevent duplicate messages from being sent and changed the retry logic to be safer. We have also added monitoring to alert engineers when the volume of emails sent is higher than expected. Before updating the service we tested it to make sure that it behaves correctly in the case of delayed emails. We will continue to monitor the service for the next 30 days to ensure that the problem doesn’t recur and to make sure that we can safely make further changes to the service.

W034 · Hiring descriptionRound 1 · Human · 352/300 words

Write a realistic job description for an operations coordinator at a small equipment rental business. Prior experience should be helpful but not required. Aim for 300 words.

Join our team. We are looking for an individual who wants to work in a busy and exciting work environment that is centered around providing quality service to our customers and helping them complete their projects. The Operations Coordinator is essential to the success of our small but growing operation. If you’re hard working, intelligent and eager to succeed we want to talk to you. We will provide all the training you need to be a success but previous experience in the equipment rental business is an asset. Typical tasks will include answering phones, responding to emails, preparing rental agreements, accepting payments, checking equipment in and out, coordinating delivery and pick-ups, operating a scheduling system, coordinating with our service team to ensure that our equipment is kept in the best condition possible, helping to move equipment around the yard as well as helping to load and unload equipment. The individual that we are looking for is organized and able to handle multiple tasks while keeping a smile on their face. Good communication skills and a desire to learn are essential as is the ability to keep good records and be able to operate a computer. A valid driver’s license would be an asset. The ability to stand and walk around all day is a must as is the ability to occasionally lift and/or move items. However we always have someone or something to help out with that! We will provide all the training you need to be able to perform your job duties to the high standard that we set for ourselves. The typical work schedule is Monday to Friday but we do require everyone to work a Saturday here and there to cover for others. Computer skills are a must as is the ability to learn. This is a full time position and we will pay based on your experience. We welcome applications from individuals with any work background including; retail, customer service, logistics, maintenance, etc. As long as you are reliable, have a positive attitude and the ability to work in a safe manner we want to hear from you.

W035 · Customer apologyRound 1 · AI · 135/200 words

Write an apology email to a customer whose replacement desk arrived without mounting brackets. The missing parts will ship tomorrow at no charge. Aim for 200 words.

Subject: We’re sorry your replacement desk was missing parts Hello [Customer Name], We sincerely apologize that your replacement desk did not come with the mounting brackets. We have already put together a package with the mounting brackets and they will be sent out to you tomorrow free of charge. Once the shipping label has been created, we will update you via email with the tracking information for the package so you can have the brackets as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter and we sincerely apologize for any trouble or inconvenience that this has caused you. If you have any further questions or concerns, please reply to this email and we will do our best to assist you. Thank you for your business! Sincerely, [Your Name] [Company Name]

W036 · Performance feedbackRound 1 · Mixed · 208/200 words

Write constructive feedback for an analyst whose reports are accurate but who gives late notice of delays. Include a clear next step. Aim for 200 words.

It is good that you are always accurate with your reports and it is very useful for us. However, you need to work on being able to update us if you feel that there will be a delay in providing the reports on time. When you tell us just before the time we are expecting your report, it does not help us plan for that time and we are unable to work efficiently. I request you to be more open with us and let us know as early as possible whenever you feel that you will not be able to provide us the report on time. Tell us the reasons for the same and the effect it will have on the report, provide us with an estimated time of providing the report if you are not able to provide it on time or if you are not sure, let us know when you will be able to provide us with an update. Till then, for our next deadline which is after a day, I request you to provide us with an update as to where you are with the report and if you are not sure, get in touch with us sooner so that we can plan better.

W037 · Meeting summaryRound 1 · AI · 119/150 words

Summarize a fictional meeting where a team agrees to test one onboarding email instead of three, while leaving reminder timing unchanged. Aim for 150 words.

Hi everyone, I wanted to follow up on our meeting about the onboarding email sequence. Based on the feedback Priya shared, we decided we should test a new, simpler version of the sequence. Specifically, we will test sending a single email to users in their onboarding sequence, instead of the three emails we send now. We will measure how this impacts activation (i.e. do users engage with key features after signing up?) as well as our unsubscribe rates. We decided not to change when we send reminders to users -- we'll keep that the same while we run this test. Once the test is over, we can review the results and discuss whether we want to make any changes.

W038 · Status updateRound 1 · Human · 142/150 words

Write a project update: warehouse label pilot begins Monday; six shelf mismatches remain; old codes stay visible during a five-day trial. Aim for 150 words.

There is a little bit more I would like to add. Firstly the start date for the new warehouse labels is set for Monday of next week. This will be a trial run of 5 working days so please could I ask for everyone's cooperation. There are only 6 shelves left that do not match up at the moment and these are being tracked down. Until the labels go live please continue with the current procedure you are using at the moment. Also, during the 5 day trial period the old codes will still be in place so that staff can cross reference them if needed so please could I ask that no one removes them. I will be relying on your feedback to see how successful this trial run has been and then will decide on the next course of action.

W039 · Procurement analysisRound 1 · Human · 330/300 words

Compare buying a cheaper scanner with testing a more expensive one. Discuss total cost and real-world performance without inventing vendor specifications. Aim for 300 words.

Are cheaper scanners better value? If you only need to scan on a relatively infrequent basis, and the material to be scanned is not challenging, and you don’t need either great speed or high quality, then yes, it may be a good idea to save money on the initial purchase of a scanning device. However, you should take into account not only the purchase price, but also the costs of setting up, running, maintaining, and any consumable items, as well as the staff time required to run and maintain the device, and to rectify any issues that might arise with the scanning. It may well be worth investing the time and perhaps money to test out a more expensive device to see if in fact it will offer you better value. Try it with actual material that you need to scan, in volumes that you will be scanning, with the software that you plan to use, and see how it works out for you. Yes, speed is an issue, but are you going to need to re-scan, will the output be what you require, will you be able to run it in batches, or will it require attention throughout the scan, etc. If you are scanning something that is not standard, make sure that you include some of the more challenging material in your test. Work out the total cost of purchase and running both devices, over the period that you expect to be using the device, and factor in the differences in labour and rework, etc., that you have experienced while testing the devices. If the cheaper device will give you what you require, then go ahead and purchase it; but if spending a bit more will make your staff’s lives easier, and ultimately save you money, then maybe you should go with the more expensive device. In the end, what you really want is a device that works well for you, and is the least cost to you.

W040 · Internal policyRound 1 · Human · 197/200 words

Explain a new meeting-room rule: release reservations after ten minutes unless checked in; exempt accessibility arrangements and scheduled maintenance. Aim for 200 words.

Starting now, all meeting room reservations will be released 10-minutes after the start of a meeting if the reservation hasn’t been checked in. To check-in, please use the system here: Please note, a reservation is only considered checked-in once you’ve checked-in using the process above. If you’re not going to make it to your meeting on time, please either check-in before the meeting starts, or contact the office team to assist. We’re doing this to ensure we’re not holding meeting rooms that are not being used. All meeting room reservations will be subject to this rule, including recurring reservations. Exceptions will be made for any reservations that are created for accessibility reasons. If you’ve made a reservation for accessibility reasons, please be aware your room will not be subject to the 10-minute rule. Additionally, meeting rooms that have been reserved for maintenance purposes will not be available during the time of the maintenance. If you’re unsure if your reservation qualifies as an exception to this rule, please contact the office team ahead of time to make arrangements. Thanks all, for helping us make more efficient use of our meeting rooms by checking-in as soon as you arrive!

W041 · Reported featureRound 1 · Mixed · 539/500 words

Write a clearly fictional feature about a monthly neighborhood repair cafe. Use invented named characters and show both its benefits and limits. Aim for 500 words.

Imagine having a broken toaster. You want to have fresh toast in the morning, but yours doesn ' t work. What do you do? Throw it away and buy a new one? No. You take it down to the Marigold Row repair caf. Every second Saturday of the month people bring their broken goods to the basement of the old library on Marigold Row and wait for someone to fix it. The repair caf was started by Inez Vale, a retired electrician, who didn ' t want to see all of the good things that people were throwing out. She organized a small group of people to help fix things. She convinced the local library to let her use the basement of the building, and now with the help of Tomas Reed, a local bicycle repair man, Nella Park, a clothes mender, and Dev Shah, a young tech wizard, the Marigold Row Repair Caf is up and running. Although it's called a caf, all that is served is instant coffee and some oranges. As you walk in the door of the basement you are greeted by the sounds of chatter and the smell of oranges. The main draw of the Marigold Row repair caf is that you can sit down next to one of the workers and learn how to fix whatever it is you brought in. If you brought in a lamp, you can learn how to fix it, and then if it ever happens again you will know what to do. There are even some kids that come down and watch the bicycle repair man at work. Some of the parents say that if it weren ' t for the repair caf they would have had to buy new bicycle wheels for their kids. With the amount of waste in the world today, having a place like the Marigold Row repair caf helps a lot. Not only are less things being wasted, but also people in the community are coming together and sharing what they have made. It's a wonderful place to bring in something that you have that is broken and maybe learn how to fix it. It's important to note, though, that not everything can be repaired. Sometimes people bring in phones, but without the proper equipment the workers cannot fix them. Sometimes people bring in broken microwaves, but if there is an electrical problem in them, it can ' t be fixed. Also, sometimes the parts that are needed to fix something cost more than just buying a new one, or the item can ' t be opened up without breaking it even more. And, finally, if you don ' t get there soon enough you might have to wait a while, or even not get your item fixed at all, due to a long line of people wanting their items fixed. This may be frustrating to some people, especially if they were really hoping to have something fixed, but sometimes it just can ' t be done. Despite these few problems, the Marigold Row repair caf is a wonderful place to bring your broken goods. While it may not save the world from the large amounts of goods being thrown out, it helps.

W042 · Investigative explainerRound 1 · Human · 453/500 words

Explain how changing budget categories can make public spending appear to double. Use a clearly hypothetical numerical example and distinguish recurring from one-time costs. Aim for 500 words.

In order to convince people that we're spending more money on something without actually getting approval for or spending more money, all you have to do is change the category. The simple act of changing the category of a budget item can give the impression that more money has been spent. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, let's imagine a city which has spent $100m on roads last year. That's the entire budget. Let's imagine that $80m is made up of regular costs (staff, annual maintenance contracts, etc) and $20m is made up of one-off expenses (a specific bridge which needs to be checked over and repaired). Now, until now, the city has presented this in a single category: let's call it 'Transportation'. Now, this year, the city decides it wants to be seen as supporting the fight against climate change. So, it decides to create a new category in the budget called 'Climate Resilience'. It then decides that the $80m in maintenance costs and the $20m in specific projects are all in support of climate resilience, so puts them in that category. It then publishes a summary of the budget which shows $100m for 'Transportation' and another $100m for 'Climate Resilience'. You, the citizen, might then add these two figures together and think that the city is spending twice as much money as it was before. However, if you look more closely, you'll see that the two categories overlap. The city isn't spending $100m on Transportation and a further $100m on Climate Resilience. Instead, it's spending $80m on recurring costs and $20m on specific projects. It could avoid the misleading impression by noting that the categories overlap, providing a crosswalk between the old and new budget, or simply providing a figure for total spend. The second part of this is noting recurring vs one-off costs. In my example above, the city could claim that it's now spending $100m on Climate Resilience each and every year. However, only $80m of that is recurring costs - the other $20m was for a specific bridge project which may not be needed next year. Alternatively, it could claim that it's spending $100m on Climate Resilience as a one-off, this year, and then next year it'll be back to spending $0. However, $80m of that is recurring costs for staff and annual contracts. Of course, if the city wants to genuinely spend more money, then it's free to do so. It can slap on a further $10m for new climate resilience barriers, for example, and then the total spend will be $110m. But, in order to compare new spend against old spend, you need to make sure that you're comparing like with like.

W043 · Local newsRound 1 · AI · 320/300 words

Write a fictional local news article about a public pool reopening after six weeks of repairs. Hours are limited by lifeguard shortages; pass holders receive extensions. Aim for 300 words.

The Maplewood Municipal Pool will finally be open for swimmers again this Saturday after being closed for six weeks while a number of repairs were made. In late May, it was announced the pool would be closed until needed repairs were made to the filtration system and deck. The city spent about $185,000, taken from municipal maintenance funds, to fix leaks in the underground return line and replace damaged sections of the deck. “The work took a little longer than we anticipated, but we wanted to make sure everything was done right and the pool was safe for our residents,” Parks Director Lena Ortiz said Thursday. The pool will operate on a limited schedule at first due to a shortage of lifeguards. The pool will be open from noon until 5 p.m. from Tuesdays through Sundays until the end of the month, and will be closed Mondays for maintenance work. Ortiz said that if more certified lifeguards come forward, the city may be able to add evening hours to the schedule. To entice more lifeguards, the city has offered a $500 hiring bonus to any lifeguard that gets certified and stays on until the end of the season. People interested in becoming lifeguards must be at least 16 years old. More information can be found on the city’s website. For residents who bought season passes, Ortiz assured them that their passes will be extended for the number of days the pool was closed. She said the passes will be updated automatically, and pass-holders do not need to take any action. The city will also extend the expiration date of the multi-visit swim cards for six weeks. With temperatures expected to reach the upper 80s this weekend, swimmers will be able to take advantage of the cool water, which will be tested prior to opening each day, and enjoy the pool, which has a capacity of 180 swimmers at a time.

W044 · ProfileRound 1 · Human · 298/300 words

Write a fictional profile of a watch repairer who values explaining uncertainty to customers. Include specific scenes without making the subject flawless. Aim for 300 words.

Mara Venn mends watches, and like most all watch-menders, she has a narrow shop crammed to the back of a unit, on Alder Street. `` I ca n't be certain, but from what I see, i suspect it might be a faulty contact, but it's possible it's a bad battery. There is also a crack here, very small, see, like a hair? I would suggest that we do n't replace any parts until I've carried out some tests, otherwise we might be wasting your money.'' Yes, that's what she tells them, and why should it be any different? Why should she promise anything else? But sometimes, she sees the disappointed look in her customers' eyes, and wishes she could say something else. She does n't, though. Why would she lie? And why does she always forget to take their phone number with her, so that she has to ask them to come back the next morning? And sometimes, she does n't quite say what she ought to, and comes across far too bluntly. It was n't her intention to make the girl cry with her lecture about the likelihood that the water damage might have progressed... And yet, it happened. It was n't her intention, but there she was, sitting next to her on a small stool, stroking her hair in silence while the rain battered the window of her shop. What she ought to have said? She did n't know. Maybe she ought to have said nothing at all. Mara Venn mends watches, and sometimes she takes a bit too long. She always informs her customers, of course. And she ca n't stand it when people call her meticulous. That's n't what she is. But she tries to be honest, and perhaps that's the next best thing.

W045 · EditorialRound 1 · Human · 273/200 words

Write an editorial arguing that transit agencies should explain route changes in plain language and evaluate the changes afterward. Aim for 200 words.

Transit routes change all the time for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is budgetary; sometimes it is due to a change in travel patterns; and sometimes it is due to new development in an area. Regardless of the reason, transit agencies should be doing a better job of explaining the changes in a meaningful and easily understandable way to the public. It can be very confusing for the everyday person to read a transit agency’s explanation of a route change and to look at the often complicated before and after route maps. Transit agencies need to be better about explaining in plain English why a change is occurring and give good examples of how the change will affect riders and how they can adapt to the change. In addition, it is extremely important to explain the specifics of how the change will affect riders i.e. How will they be able to get to where they need to go now? When is the new schedule going into effect? etc. This notice should be translated into other languages as needed and distributed at places where riders will see it before the new schedule goes into effect. Finally, transit agencies should evaluate route changes after they have been put into effect and report back to the public about the results of those changes. It is impossible to please everybody when it comes to route changes but at the very least the public should be informed in plain English as to why a change is occurring and transit agencies should report back to the public about the success of the change or changes that were made.

W046 · Arts reviewRound 1 · Human · 187/200 words

Review an imaginary exhibition of photographs taken in homes just before their occupants move. Include one criticism as well as praise. Aim for 200 words.

Last Light There’s always something left behind when you move out of a space: the faint outline on a wall where a picture used to hang, an old charging cable, or even a favourite mug. This exhibition explores the stages of moving out; the sometimes slow and subtle process of leaving something behind. The best thing about Last Light is that the photos are not overly sentimental; they don’t wallow in sadness. Instead the photographer has found a way to show the beauty in a space as the light shifts and changes, and has focused on small details – like scuffs on a floorboard, or how the light hits a curtain. The sequence of photos showing the gradual emptying of a hallway works particularly well. On the other hand, the photos are all taken in a very similar way: softly and centred. This doesn’t quite reflect the excitement and chaos of actually moving, and I think it would have been interesting to see a few photos that are less well composed. Overall though, Last Light is a beautiful and poignant representation of moving out of a space.

W047 · Sports reportRound 1 · Human · 196/150 words

Write a fictional match report: Northbank beats Westfield 2–1; Westfield scores first; Northbank's winner comes in the 83rd minute. Aim for 150 words.

Westfield began the game in fine style and put the visitors ahead in the 18th minute, as Liam Carter rose highest at the near post to divert a low cross past Sam Reed. The visitors continued to press for a second goal in the opening period, with Reed producing a fine save to keep out a certain goal prior to half-time. However, the Northbank boys came out of the blocks after the restart and they eventually broke the deadlock in the 61st minute, as Joel Bennett snatched a loose ball outside of the box and drove it towards goal. Even though the Westfield goalkeeper got a hand to the ball it still found its way past him. Both teams began to play more freely at this stage of the game and it wasn’t long before Northbank were able to grab the winning goal. In the 83rd minute Marcus Lee showed great composure to slip the ball into the far corner. Despite Westfield’s attempts to get the game back on an even keel, the Northbank defence stood firm and ensured the visitors took all three points back with them, much to the delight of the home support.

W048 · Public noticeRound 1 · Human · 105/150 words

Write a news brief about a fictional community center entrance closing Monday through Wednesday. Visitors should use the step-free Willow Lane entrance. Aim for 150 words.

The following is an example of how the City of Brookside might communicate that the front entrance to the fictional Brookside Community Center will be closed for a few days. Visitors should enter at the step-free entrance on the side of the building on Willow Lane. You will find signage from the sidewalk that will help direct you to the entrance. We expect that this will not impact any programs or services, but please allow a few extra minutes to find the entrance. If you require any assistance please contact the front desk. The front entrance is expected to reopen on Thursday of this week.

W049 · Interview Q&ARound 1 · Human · 310/300 words

Write a fictional Q&A with a community librarian about the value of libraries beyond borrowing books. Include one challenging question. Aim for 300 words.

Stuff they want you to think: What do you do? I help people borrow books. What we actually do: I help people use computers, fill out forms, find health information, practice for interviews, go to story times, learn new languages, join craft groups, study, etc. Why we do it: Because not everyone has access to the internet or a printer or a quiet place to work. Because there are lots of people out there who can help people with their problems, and if we aren't the right people, we can at least point people in the right direction. Stuff they want you to think: Aren't libraries useless now that all information is available online? The reality: Librarians are still needed to help people sort through all the information available online and find the good stuff. Also, not everyone has access to a computer or the internet. Stuff they want you to think: Why should we pay for libraries when so many people don't use them? The reality: You know all those people you're paying to have roads and fire departments and police departments and schools for? Yeah, most of them don't use those things either. But it's still a good idea to have those things available to people who do, and the same goes for libraries. Stuff we wish they'd think: If you don't know what you're looking for, that's okay. Come in anyway. We have a ton of stuff here that you might want, and even if you don't, that's okay too. You can ask us questions, or participate in one of our programs, or use the restroom, or just sit here for a while. This is a public space, and it belongs to you and everyone in our community, whether or not you borrow books from us. But we really hope that you do borrow books from us.

W050 · Opinion columnRound 1 · Human · 244/200 words

Write a nuanced column about the pressure to turn every hobby into an income source. Aim for 200 words.

There’s something very appealing about the idea of turning a hobby into a money-making venture. Whether it’s to supplement your income or a way to live the dream, it seems wonderful that you can make money doing what you love. Make some beautiful pottery and sell it, love playing guitar? Teach some lessons. But in a culture that’s obsessed with making money from everything we do, it seems like there’s pressure on us to turn every hobby we have into a business. If you’re not making money from your hobby – you should be! In fact, there are plenty of online platforms that make it easy for you to do so. In a culture like this, it’s hard to just do something for fun and not feel like you should be making money from it. And it’s not like you can make money from a hobby and then go back to doing it purely for fun – once you’ve brought money into the equation, it’s no longer just a hobby. Sure, you can still do it, but you’ve made an exchange – you’re doing something for money, and that changes things. So before you turn your hobby into a business, perhaps you should ask yourself what making money from it might mean for you. And, equally, what making money from it might mean for your hobby. Because some hobbies are meant to be unproductive. We shouldn’t need to produce anything from everything we do.

W051 · Travel narrativeRound 1 · Human · 493/500 words

Write a first-person travel narrative in which a missed express bus leads to a memorable local journey, but the destination is obscured by clouds. Aim for 500 words.

On my way up to Alishan I missed my express bus connection by a matter of seconds. As I ran up and out onto the plaza of the Chiayi bus station, I could just make out the tail lights of the express turning the corner, taunting me as it receded into the distance. I went back inside apologetically and explained my predicament to the ticket clerk. “ Not a problem,” she said with a sympathetic smile, “there’s a local bus that will get you there, it will just take longer.” I bought a paper ticket and sat and waited for my local bus, which belched a cloud of blue smoke as it turned into the station. It was an older bus, with slightly cloudy windows and a plastic peach hanging from the mirror, but I was still surprised that it was full. There were people sitting in every seat on the way up the mountain, each one of them had a basket, bag, or bundle of greens with them as they made their way along. The bus stopped constantly for people to get on and off, and with every stop a village whizzed by, in and out of my peripheral vision. Soon the passengers noticed me as the only foreigner on the bus and started to chat with me, one kind elderly lady in a purple sun hat even offered me a piece of guava from her bag and tried to correct my tones when I tried to speak Mandarin. The ride up was long and as the bus snaked its way up the mountain through tea fields the environment on the bus was very lively. People gave up their seats for the elderly, a boy who couldn’t have been more than ten standing in front of me was almost engulfed in his backpack, and the driver even stopped by a road side stand to buy a coffee and steamed buns for himself and one of the ladies on the bus. Despite my initial impatience, the ride was both pleasant and exciting. We made it to Alishan around noon and the scenery was beautiful. Clouds were rolling through the trees and the air had cooled down considerably, it was nice to finally have something other than concrete and building on either side of me. The view was even better now that the kind lady in the purple hat had left me with one of her oranges. The only problem was that the clouds had made their way up the mountain as well and despite being at Alishan I couldn’t see a thing. The mountains that I had traveled so far to see were hidden and the forest beyond the station was only visible in bits and pieces. Although I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to see the view (I had intended on taking the early bus for just that reason), the ride up was an experience in its own right.

W052 · Personal statementRound 1 · Human · 483/500 words

Write a fictional personal statement for a museum studies applicant whose volunteering taught them the value of careful documentation and acknowledging uncertainty. Aim for 500 words.

In my work cataloguing local history, I have often struggled with determining what to include in an object’s description and what to leave out. This confusion was especially prevalent in the first month of working at the Bellweather Local History Museum. On my very first day, the Collections Manager gave me a box of photographs donated by the daughter of a former local textile mill worker. One of the photographs included in the box had “Mill girls, 1911” written on the back. According to the donor, one of the young women depicted in the photograph was her grandmother, although she could not confirm with complete certainty. My instinct was to include this information in the photograph’s catalogue record, but I was worried that if I did not know for certain that the date and people listed were accurate, it was not right to include it as a factual statement. I asked the Collections Manager if it would be alright to include what information we did know in the catalogue record. I proposed that I add a note that we were unsure of the accuracy of the date and people listed, but that based on the inscription on the back of the photograph and the donor’s account, that was the best information we had at that time. I would also include as much information about the photograph as I could, including the building in the background, so that at a later date, we could potentially find more information. She agreed that this was the best way to handle the situation, and later, I found that the mill actually opened in 1914, not 1911. This experience changed the way I looked at documentation and cataloguing in museums. I now realize how important it is to be extremely thorough when describing an object, as well as to acknowledge any uncertainty about its origin or interpretation. When transcribing documents, I make sure to include misspellings as they originally appeared, and when there is a gap in information, I note that in the catalogue record. The process has also become a collaborative one with other volunteers, as we all work to create the most complete record possible for future use. Through my work as a volunteer at the museum, I have realized that there are many limitations to the research that I am able to conduct, but also many opportunities for creative and responsible research practices. I hope to continue this work when I study museum studies, and become more knowledgeable about how museums are responsible for documenting and caring for their collections, both historically and ethically. I hope to be a part of a museum that values thorough and complete documentation, even when there is incomplete information available. Although the photograph I initially struggled to catalogue is still not identified, I am proud of the way that the record represents what we do and do not know.

W053 · Learning reflectionRound 1 · Human · 255/300 words

Write a personal reflection on learning to draw and becoming more comfortable with mistakes. Use a specific incident rather than generic encouragement. Aim for 300 words.

I’ve avoided drawing hands for a while now. I tried to draw my left hand last tuesday. I tried and erased. Tried and erased. At first, my hand looked like a mitten. Then it had extremely long fingers and a misplaced thumb. When I accidentally drew a line too dark, I almost gave up, but I thought, “Well, what can I do with this? How can I make this mistake work for me?” And that dark line worked out to be a nice little shadow under my pinky finger, so I kept on drawing. The hand that came out on the other end was a little lopsided, but it was very much my hand. And some of those “mistakes” I made along the way turned out to be just what the picture needed. I love that my mistakes are still there – they’re a part of the process and I’m going to keep them, scars and all. This is something I’ve learned: it’s not enough to just draw. I also have to approach the drawing process with the right attitude, the right mindset. I have to go in open to being surprised, to the unexpected. I have to be open to finding a new way to look at something, to using a “mistake” to my advantage. Sometimes I get frustrated if I can’t draw what I’m looking for, but I’m learning to embrace the frustration, to work with it instead of against it. It’s pretty exciting to see where the drawing process takes me now.

W054 · Family anecdoteRound 1 · Human · 310/300 words

Write a warm family anecdote about a grandfather who labels every jar in his shed, including one containing parts of a long-gone bicycle. Aim for 300 words.

I will never forget the smell of my grandpa's shed. All the cedar wood shavings, mixed with the smell of machine oil and peppermint candy. There were numerous shelves full of glass jars. Some were full of things like buttons or short nails or screws. Either way, each of them had a label. Even the empty jars had labels on them. He used to play a game with my brother and I when we were little, he would have us guess what certain jars were for. One jar was filled to the brim with ``important bits,'' and another was full of ``not important, but you never know when I'll need this.'' One day, I came across a jar that had little bits of metal inside. I could see a few washers, a little bell, and some other little silver things. I could n't quite make out what the label said, so I went to ask him. It read: ``Old bicycle, mostly.'' I was confused, since I could n't remember him ever having a bike. All I could remember was an old, blue bike that always seemed to have a little bit of a flat in the front tire. That's the one he used to push me around on when I was little. ``Why do you keep this?'' I asked. ``Well, that there bike has been very useful. It's helped your mother to school, your uncle to the creek, and has helped me push you around the yard when your legs were n't long enough to pedal,'' he answered. He then proceeded to show me how to put something on the label myself. Even now, the shed is still there, full of its jars. Each time I go to visit, I get a kick out of reading all of the labels and hearing the stories that go along with each one.

W055 · Gratitude letterRound 1 · Human · 221/200 words

Write a thank-you letter to a friend who helped with a difficult move and left a meal in the refrigerator. Aim for 200 words.

Dear Sam, Thanks for Helping Me Move Sample Thank you so much for helping me move. My move was not exactly easy and without your help, I truly doubt that I would have been able to move. You were such a great help by helping me carry all of my boxes, as well as my sofa, and you did all of this even though you were pretty tired. You definitely made my move a little easier and a little bit more fun! On top of helping me move, you left something for me to eat in my refrigerator. That was such a great surprise because by the time I was done moving, I was absolutely exhausted and hungry. It was such a relief to find food in my refrigerator because I was done dealing with all of the mess that came with moving. It was great to have something delicious and home cooked to eat, too! You are such a great person for helping me move and for leaving food for me to eat. I truly appreciate all of your help and I will definitely help you out the next time that you need help. I hope that one day, I will be able to return the favor! Thank you so much for being such a good friend! With love, Alex

W056 · Complaint emailRound 1 · Human · 227/200 words

Write a firm but polite complaint about a missed Friday delivery window and an incorrect attempted-delivery status. Ask for a practical resolution. Aim for 200 words.

Email Subject Line: Your delivery status I am writing to complain about a delivery that you were due to make to my address on Friday. I was told that you were going to deliver between X and Y time. I was at home all day to meet the driver but you never turned up. I then got a notification to say that you had tried to deliver, which is completely incorrect. No one rang my doorbell, called me to say you were there or even put through my door a card to say you had tried to deliver. This has been really annoying as I was expecting my parcel and it was a waste of my time being at home all day. Please can you check your delivery driver was at my address and update your delivery status to the correct one. I would really appreciate it if you could deliver my parcel out again but at a specific time so I am not let down again. Please can you tell me what day and what time window you will be delivering to my address again. If you are unable to deliver to my address again please can you tell me what other options I have to receive my parcel. I look forward to hearing from you soon and an apology for getting my delivery status wrong.

W057 · InvitationRound 1 · Human · 88/150 words

Invite neighbors to a free Saturday walk, meeting at ten for about one hour. No registration; heavy rain means tea inside the community hall. Aim for 150 words.

You’re cordially invited to join your neighbors for a great walk around our neighborhood! Bring your friends, family, dogs and neighbors – everyone is welcome! It’s free! It will be on Saturdays at 10:00 AM. You simply show up outside the community hall, and we will walk for an hour. There is NO registration, and NO fee! Just come out on Saturday, dress appropriately, wear nice walking shoes and enjoy the walk! If there is heavy rain, we’ll just hang out and have tea inside the community hall!

W058 · Condolence messageRound 1 · AI · 170/150 words

Write a sincere condolence message to a friend whose grandmother died. Avoid religious assumptions and claims that you know exactly how they feel. Aim for 150 words.

I am so sorry to hear about your Grandma. It sounds like she was a wonderful lady and means a lot to you. I hope you are taking the time you need to remember her and grieve her loss. Please know that I am here for you. I know that you may not feel like responding to this or coming up with anything to say, and that is okay, but I would like you to know that I am here for you to talk if you ever want to. If there is anything that I can do for you, even if it is just to bring you a meal, run an errand for you, or just sit with you, please let me know. If you need time and space, I understand that too, but I want you to know that I am here for you, now and in the coming days. You mean a lot to me and I want you to know that you are not alone in this.

W059 · Diary entryRound 1 · Human · 215/300 words

Write a diary entry about finally clearing a cluttered desk and discovering that the main benefit is a place to rest rather than greater productivity. Aim for 300 words.

Dear diary, Today, I cleaned my desk. I wasn't sure if there would be anything left once I got rid of all the junk that had accumulated on it over the last few months, but there was. There was quite a bit of sorting and filing to do (mostly into the recycling bin or the garbage), and I kept quite a few things that I had no reason to keep, other than the fact that it would take more time to get rid of them. In the end, though, I managed to clean the entire thing off without doing any of the work that I had told myself I'd do once the desk was cleared off. It's funny, because I sat down at the end expecting to actually get some work done, but I didn't. Instead, I placed my hands onto the unfamiliar expanse of emptiness and felt how smooth it was. I put my forehead down on the cool surface and just basked in the feeling of a clean desk. It was one of the most peaceful times of my life. Maybe tomorrow I'll get something done, but for now, I'm just going to sit and enjoy what little peace I can find in my life. What can you learn from an empty desk?

W060 · Forum postRound 1 · Human · 211/200 words

Ask an online forum for advice on sharing one small workshop between sewing, model making, and general crafts. There is no space for another large table. Aim for 200 words.

I have a problem which I thought someone on here might be able to help me with. I have one workshop that I try to do all my hobbies in (sewing, model making and other crafts) however the room is full and I cant fit any more large tables in. Currently I use all the work surface for all the hobbies and so need to move a lot of stuff about to do any one thing. I need to use the main table for sewing, cutting, painting and assembling models aswell as storing the tools and materials for each hobby (which is a pain when it comes to the small bits for the models). Does anyone else have a multi use workshop and if so how do you make it flexible enough to do what you want. Do you have any ideas or suggestions that might help me make best use of the space I have available, or any ideas on what I can use to protect the surface with so I can use it for what I want. I am willing to change the way I store stuff or buy other stuff to help but would rather not spend more time setting up to do stuff than actually doing it!

W061 · Lesson planRound 1 · Human · 657/500 words

Write a 45-minute lesson plan for twelve-year-olds on distinguishing observation from inference using a closed box. Include timings and an assessment activity. Aim for 500 words.

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to distinguish between observations and inferences, support their inferences with evidence, and generate multiple inferences for a single set of evidence. Materials: For this activity, you will need a box that securely closes and is not see-through. Place a few small objects in the box (e.g., a wooden block, a metal spoon, etc.). You may want to have a second box for students to look at. You will also need to make copies of the observations and inferences sheet for each student, and give each student a pencil. Be sure to tell the students that the box will not be opened during this lesson. 0:00 – 0:05 | Starter Activity: Show the students the box that you brought in for this lesson, but do not let them handle it. Ask them what they can tell you about the box. Allow a few students to respond, and write down a few of their responses. After hearing several responses, ask the students if they are telling you what they are seeing or hearing, or if they are trying to explain what they are seeing and hearing. Explain that what they are doing is making observations and inferences about the box. 0:05 – 0:12 | Teacher Model: Model for the students the process of making observations and inferences by investigating the box yourself. You can gently tilt the box and listen to it, etc. Think aloud, and be sure to differentiate between what you are observing and what you are inferring (e.g., I am hearing a rattling sound. I am inferring that there are a few things inside of the box). Ask the students why you don’t know for sure what is inside the box. Make sure they understand that you need to describe what you hear before you infer what is making the sound. 0:12 – 0:27 | Team Activity: Break the students up into groups of three or four. Have the students take turns tilting the box gently and listening to it. They are not allowed to open the box, try to force it open, or throw it. Each student must make at least three observations and at least two inferences. You may want to have them use the observations and inferences sheet to help them keep track of what they are doing. Make sure each student supports his or her inference with evidence. Remind them that there may be more than one inference that can be made for a set of observations. 0:27 – 0:35 | Class Discussion: After all the groups have completed their investigations, ask each group to share one observation and one inference. Write these down on the board in two columns, one for observations and one for inferences. Make sure the students understand that observations should not include inferences, and that inferences should be supported by evidence. Have the groups compare their observations and inferences and discuss where they agree and disagree. Make sure the students understand that it is OK to have different inferences, as long as they are not treated as facts. 0:35 – 0:42 | Individual Assessment: Have the students complete the evidence check on their own. This will require them to write down two observations, two different inferences, and a sentence describing how the observations support the inferences. Then have them tell you whether the statement “I think that there is a coin in the box” is an observation or an inference. Collect the evidence checks to determine how well the students are able to distinguish between observations and inferences, as well as how well they support their inferences with evidence. 0:42 – 0:45 | Exit Activity: Have the students complete the sentence “One thing I know from making observations is ____________________. One thing I am inferring is _________________________________________.” Use their responses, as well as their evidence check, to determine which students need additional practice with observations and inferences.

W062 · Study guideRound 1 · Mixed · 580/500 words

Write a practical study guide for students preparing for exams that require explanations. Include retrieval practice, spacing, and a realistic weekly example. Aim for 500 words.

Many exams will contain questions which ask you to explain, compare or show how / why something happens. It can be difficult to know how to prepare for these types of questions. Here are some ideas to help you prepare for these types of questions. Turn your learning into questions and then answer them for yourself. Close your book or notes, get out some paper and then answer the questions you have set yourself. This could be about a particular topic which you feel you need to know or it could be a question which you think might come up in your exam, such as ‘Explain the process of photosynthesis’. Try to include as much detail as you can when answering the questions. Then check your answers back with your notes or textbook and put any changes you need to make, in a different colour. This process is called retrieval practice and is much more effective than rereading and highlighting your notes. As part of your revision practice explaining or comparing something which you need to know. Try to use the Claim, Evidence, Explain structure in your answers. When you have finished writing your answer, read it through and see if you think it is as good as it can be. Does it need editing? If yes, make those changes, but don’t copy everything out again, only the bits which you are changing. It is important to space out your revision over a few days. Research shows that it is more effective to study a topic for shorter periods of time on different days rather than doing it all in one go. When you have revised a topic, try to revise it again the next day and then again in three or four days time. Then revise it again the following week. If there are bits which you are struggling to remember you may need to revise these more frequently. Let’s imagine that you have a history exam next Friday. On Monday, after school, spend 25 minutes answering questions which you have taken from your notes for the work you have done that week. On Tuesday, spend 20 minutes testing yourself again on some of the same questions and write out an explanation on a cause for a particular event. Check your answer with your notes and make any changes you need to. On Wednesday spend 15 minutes looking at any questions you got wrong previously and then write out a comparison between two events from memory. On Thursday spend 25 minutes answering two questions which you think might come up in your exam. Put a time limit on yourself for this task. Check if you have used Claim, Evidence, Explain for each of your answers. On Friday morning, before your exam, try to remember as much as you can about the topic, but don’t try and learn a whole unit of work at the last minute! Break your revision down into small sessions and be very specific about what you are going to revise in each session. Try to keep your phone out of the way whilst revising and use a timer to help you to stay focused for each session. Revise regularly and spread it out over a few days. Use retrieval practice when you revise and always check your answers back with a reliable source. You will soon be an expert at explaining all about your topic and will be able to do so in your exam.

W063 · Classroom debateRound 1 · Mixed · 429/300 words

Write a balanced argument about letting students choose between an essay, presentation, and model when demonstrating learning. Explain when choice is inappropriate. Aim for 300 words.

Do you think it is appropriate to allow students to select how they will be assessed? For example, if you have set an essay, should you let students opt to do a presentation or make a model to show what they have learnt? Allowing students to show what they have learnt in different ways can be beneficial, a student may be able to show what they have learnt better in a presentation or a model than in an essay. Giving students a choice will motivate them to work hard to show what they have learnt and it will also encourage them to be creative. However, letting a student show what they have learnt in a different way may not be as effective in showing what they have learnt and a student may pick the option that they think will be easier, therefore not showing what they have learnt. Giving students a choice of how they want to be assessed can lead to unfairness, a student may appear more knowledgeable just because they are a good public speaker compared to another student who is nervous when speaking in public. Giving students a choice of how they want to be assessed is appropriate if you are wanting to assess the general understanding of a topic and each of the assessment options will be equally effective in showing what a student has learnt. Teachers should also make sure that each assessment option includes the same requirements and that a student has learnt what was intended for them to learn, this can be done by having a quick chat with the student or asking them to write a short reflection on what they have learnt. Giving students a choice of how they want to be assessed is not appropriate if you are wanting to assess a students ability in a specific area, for example if you are wanting to assess a students ability in writing an essay you cannot let them do a presentation instead. If a teacher is wanting to assess a students speaking skills then they must complete a speaking assessment and if a teacher wants to assess a students practical skills then they cannot design something instead of actually doing it. Giving students a choice of how they want to be assessed may also not be possible due to safety, accessibility, resources or if it is a formal assessment such as an exam. Overall, allowing a student to choose how they want to be assessed is only appropriate if it is a valid way of showing what they have learnt.

W064 · Museum interpretationRound 1 · Human · 287/300 words

Write an interpretive label for a fictional early-twentieth-century worker's wooden lunch box. Distinguish observable evidence from things we cannot know. Aim for 300 words.

Written by Teigan Page This lunch box was made at the beginning of the 20th century. It would have been used to carry lunch to work, as back then a lot of people worked away from home. It has been heavily used as you can tell by the handle, it is very smooth where somebody would have been holding it. It is made out of wooden boards and is a rectangular shape. It has a hinged lid with a metal clasp which is used to hold the lid closed. On the lid you can see many scratches which would have come from use. The inside of the lunch box is darker than the outside which again must have come from use. You can tell that it has been used a lot and it must have been a very useful thing to have for going to work. It would have kept lunch safe inside as being that it was made out of wood, it would have stopped it from getting squashed etc. I think that this lunch box would have been used regularly. Although we know that this lunch box would have been used to take food to work, we don't know who it belonged to or who made it. We also don't know what sort of food it would have held. We don't know if it belonged to multiple people or if it was just one person's lunch box. We don't know where this person would have gone to work or when they would have ate their lunch. Although this lunch box gives us some information about what people would have used to carry their lunch to work in, it doesn't give us a lot of information.

W065 · Student feedbackRound 1 · Human · 233/200 words

Give feedback on a student argument for two extra library hours each weekday. Praise its focus, ask for relevant evidence, and explain why weekend access belongs elsewhere. Aim for 200 words.

Overall I think you did a very good job of staying on topic and being clear on what you are trying to get done, which is 2 extra hours each day of the week for students to use the library. However, I do think that you should expand on the idea and include some relevant data in your argument in order to show why the library needs to be open two extra hours. For example, maybe you can include some data on the amount of students that visit the library right before it closes each day or how many books are checked out. You could also include data on how many students would actually benefit from this or even if there is enough staff members and money to actually keep the library open during these hours. Including this data will help strengthen your argument and will help you achieve your purpose of trying to convince the reader to give students two extra hours in the library each day. Also, I think you should not include your idea of giving students access on the weekends. This should be proposed in a different way because it is not part of the two extra hours you are trying to get. If you include this in your argument it will make your ideas less clear and will probably detract from the purpose you are trying to achieve.

W066 · Parent newsletterRound 1 · Human · 210/200 words

Write a parent newsletter about a primary-school project on material properties. Bringing an object is optional; no purchases, glass, sharp tools, or valuables. Aim for 200 words.

Dear families, This week in class we are starting a project on ‘properties of materials’. We will be looking at what materials objects are made from and then describing their properties (i.e. hard, soft, rough, smooth, flexible, waterproof, absorbent, etc). We will sort and compare materials, as well as discussing why certain materials are good for certain purposes. If you are able, can your child please bring into school a small safe object to talk about to the class. It is completely up to you whether or not your child brings in an object. Please do not feel you need to buy anything, and please don’t send in anything glass, sharp, valuable or difficult to replace. Please label your child’s object and don’t worry, we will look after it whilst we use it for learning! For children who do not bring in an object, we will have plenty for them to talk about. It would be great if, at home, you could support your child by looking at everyday items and discussing what they are made from, and why those materials are used for that purpose (i.e. a waterproof coat, an absorbent towel, etc). Please don’t send in any liquids or food. Thanks very much for your help with this.

W067 · Child-friendly explanationRound 1 · Human · 127/150 words

Explain how maps use symbols and omit details to an eight-year-old, including why different maps of the same place can be useful. Aim for 150 words.

A map is a small picture of a place. This map uses symbols. A blue line stands for a river. The green stands for a park. The picture of a house stands for a school. To find out what a symbol stands for, look at the map's key. A map will not show all the details of a place. There will not be room on the map. You may have seen a road map to help you get to a new place. You may have seen a map that showed where it would rain or be sunny. You may have seen a map to help you find your way around a park. Each map may show different details, but all may be maps of the same place.

W068 · Assignment briefRound 1 · Human · 158/150 words

Write a clear assignment asking students to compare two accounts of the same event and explain disagreements using evidence. Aim for 150 words.

In order to complete this assessment item you need to: Select two accounts of a historical event (could be from newspapers, eyewitness accounts, letters, photos with descriptions, from textbooks etc). Write an essay comparing the two accounts and discuss where the two accounts agree and disagree (include parts of the accounts that are only in one source). Make sure that you use evidence from both accounts to support your ideas and discuss why there may be disagreements between the two accounts. Be sure to refer to the sources that you have used. At the end of the discussion include your own ideas about what you believe to be facts about the event based on the evidence that you have looked at and what you believe to not be as certain. Make sure that your work is written in paragraphs and is in your own words (except for where you have quoted information from the sources you have chosen).

W069 · Assessment rubricRound 1 · Human · 315/300 words

Write a presentation rubric prioritizing claim, evidence, and reasoning over visual polish. Do not penalize nervousness by itself. Aim for 300 words.

To what extent do you think your presentation demonstrates each of the four performance indicators? Use the 4-point scale to rate yourself. Content: Claims, evidence, and reasoning (90%) Claims (30%): 4 - Progresses a clear and focused claim addressing the topic. 3 - Progresses a clear claim addressing the topic with minor lapses in focus. 2 - Progresses a broad or partly unclear claim that may laps in focus or is not maintained throughout the presentation. 1 - Progresses no claim or one that is extremely difficult to understand. Evidence (30%): 4 - Supports claim(s) with specific, credible evidence and identifies sources/examples when appropriate. 3 - Supports claim(s) with relevant evidence, but may need stronger support in some areas. 2 - Support claims with limited or uneven evidence that may be only loosely related to claim. 1 - Provides little evidence that is relevant to the claim. Reasoning (30%): 4 - Clearly explains how evidence supports a line or reasoning, uses sound reasoning to connect claims and evidence, and examines implications and/or counterarguments. 3 - Reasoning is mostly clear, but may not always clearly explain how evidence supports claim(s). 2 - Incomplete explanation or simply states conclusion without supporting reasons. 1 - A listing of ideas with little to no explanation of how claims and evidence are related. Organization and Access (10%) 4 - Sequences claims, evidence, and reasoning so that the presentation is easy to follow; uses effective delivery and/or text/visuals to enhance clarity and allow easy access to ideas. 3 - Organizes ideas so that the presentation is generally easy to follow, but may have minor lapses in sequence or some other elements that limit ease of access to ideas. 2 - Organization and/or presentation limit ease of access to ideas at times. 1 - Organization and/or presentation make it difficult to follow ideas. Don't grade down for nervousness, accents, speaking style, etc.

W070 · Teaching reflectionRound 1 · Human · 232/200 words

Write a teacher's reflection on a group activity that was lively but did not clearly demonstrate learning. Suggest a specific improvement. Aim for 200 words.

I liked the amount of energy that this group activity gave off. The students were very eager to participate and work on the group assignment. The large majority of the groups were fully engaged in the activity and were having great conversations about the assignment. However, I am not so sure if the students went away from this lesson with the intended learning goal. While most students were working together, I am not certain that they were working towards the learning goal or if they were just trying to complete the assignment and make it look good. The students were talking but they were not applying the main concept to their work. Although the students all completed the assignment, it does not mean that they all learned the concept. I would alter this group activity by providing a way for me to know that the students learned the concept. I would have each individual student complete a short assignment that would require them to apply what they just learned to a question and have them explain how they got their answer in a sentence. The students would also be provided with a checklist that includes what they need to have completed in order to be successful in this assignment. That way, I will know if each student learned the concept and if there is any re teaching that needs to be done.

W071 · Product launch planRound 1 · Mixed · 641/500 words

Write a launch plan for a fictional compact reading lamp with a physical switch and replaceable bulb. Avoid unsupported performance claims. Aim for 500 words.

Your new product, a small reading lamp, has a couple of key features that set it apart from the competition. It has a physical switch, not a touch-activated switch and the bulb can be replaced when it wears out. You’ve done your research and know that there are a lot of people out there that are looking for a lamp with these features. You want to ensure that your advertising is consistent with your message about the key features of the lamp. Before the launch, make sure you have all the facts about your lamp. What type of bulb does it take? Is there a maximum wattage? How exactly does the switch work? What are the dimensions of the lamp? What is the lamp made of? How is it cleaned? What safety certifications does the lamp have? Six weeks before the launch date, take some pictures of your lamp and write some captions to accompany the pictures. You might want to show the lamp in a few different settings to show how versatile it is. You should also record a video showing how easy it is to change the bulb and how the physical switch works. Draft a FAQ sheet about the lamp so that you have answers to potential questions that customers might have. Two weeks before the launch, start to roll out some information about the product. Post some of the pictures that you took online, on your web site, in an email, on social media, etc. Write a short blurb about the product and where people can find out more information. Send the product to some reviewers. Make sure you give them the same information sheet that you have posted online so that the message is consistent. Let them know that you aren’t expecting good reviews, but that if they do publish a review, you’d appreciate them mentioning that it was a sample. Keep an eye out for questions about the product and add any of them to the FAQ sheet. When the big day comes, post the information about your product on your web site. Include the price, dimensions, what type of bulb it uses, how it is cleaned, what the warranty is, how it will be shipped to customers, etc. Make sure you include some pictures on the product information page. You should also include information about how to replace the bulb. Send out one email to your email list letting them know that the product is now for sale. Post some information on social media highlighting the key features of the lamp. At this point, you should only be selling the lamp through your online store and maybe one or two other places. If you are selling it in bookshops, make sure they have a guide on how to set it up and some information to answer common questions. For the first month, keep an eye on how the product is selling, how many people are returning it, if you are getting any support requests about it, how many people are viewing the product information page on your web site, and what customers are saying about it. Also, keep an eye out for common questions that people are asking and incorporate them into your FAQ sheet. Don’t rely on click-through rates or social media stats to tell you if people like the product. If you run out of product, make sure you have a good idea of when it will be back in stock before you tell people. If you find a problem with the product, stop promoting it until you can resolve the issue and keep your customers informed. After the first month is up, evaluate how well the product launch went and make changes if needed. Make sure that you are still sending a consistent message about the key features of your product.

W072 · Brand storyRound 1 · Human · 399/500 words

Write a believable brand story for a fictional notebook company founded because attractive notebooks would not lie flat. Avoid claiming notebooks transform lives. Aim for 500 words.

I kept a notebook in my bag for years – whether to scribble grocery lists, jot down meeting notes or draw a chair I liked on the street. The notebooks I bought always ended up fighting me though, despite how great they looked on the shelf and how good the paper seemed to write on. The minute you opened them, the covers would spring back closed, making it hard to write in them. I always found myself having to hold them down, prop them up with books or find another way to keep them open, which made it hard to write comfortably. After speaking to friends about this problem, I found that it was something a lot of people struggled with but had just adapted to – writing at the gutter of the notebook, propping it up with something or just putting up with it. Working in packaging design, I found myself spending weekends testing out different constructions. I ordered a lot of paper samples, made some rough covers, worked with a bookbinder to create a few prototypes and figured out a combination that worked for me – allowing the book to stay open whilst also feeling nice and sturdy in the hand. In 2018 I launched Common Fold with one notebook, in 3 muted colours and a local printer, who I’m still working with today. It’s been a small but incredibly fun project to work on, always testing out the prototypes in the same way you would test paper at your desk to see if it worked for you. The first edition of the notebooks weren’t perfect, so I tweaked a few things (including changing the covers and the paper) to improve them, as well as adding a dot grid version which has been really popular with customers and more recently a lined edition. The range is small, but I hope to grow it slowly over time with customer feedback. Common Fold remains small for the time being, with limited runs of notebooks, but I am committed to the idea of making a high quality product that focuses on the finer details which makes a difference to the way you use it. It’s a notebook for people to write in – whether that’s taking notes, making lists, planning something, sketching or jotting down a thought you want to remember. I hope it ends up in your bag too!

W073 · Case studyRound 1 · Human · 365/300 words

Write a clearly fictional case study about a makers club trialing shared booking software for two workstations. Include a limitation and an adoption difficulty. Aim for 300 words.

Our club is a makers club (the name is made up for the purposes of this post - Harborlight Makers Club), with 12 members, and two pieces of equipment that we often need to book in advance for classes and other work - a laser cutter and a large format printer. Up until this spring we had been using a paper-based calendar to reserve sessions on the equipment. This spring we decided to give your system a try for 8 weeks, to see how it would work for us. It's been great having someone else (thank you!) set up the time that we can book, and it's been great to be able to book time via cell phone or computer when I'm not at the club. Messages and reminders are great, too. It's also been very helpful being able to limit how much time someone can book (we chose two hours per machine per week), and having it free up if someone doesn't use their slot. Overall it has been a good experience; it's been helpful to be able to easily see when the machines are booked, and we've had fewer instances of people booking over each other than in the previous two months. At least one member has been able to arrive with the right material for their project, thanks to the reminder. One issue we've encountered is that the software doesn't allow us to indicate when a machine is not available for use - for example if someone is still cleaning up from the previous session, or if a machine is in for maintenance. Another issue is that not everyone in our club uses their email very often, and several found it hard to use on their older cell phones. Some people still prefer to use the paper calendar that we keep, so we've had a volunteer setting up accounts for people, and also keeping the paper calendar up to date as a backup. At the end of the trial period we voted to continue to use the software, and are setting up an orientation and a shared tablet that will be available near the machines for people to use to book sessions.

W074 · Landing pageRound 1 · Human · 232/300 words

Write landing-page copy for a fictional service that helps small community groups schedule volunteer shifts. Explain value clearly without promising perfect outcomes. Aim for 300 words.

Organizing a community event without enough volunteers? Whether you’re starting a community garden, running a food pantry, organizing an event at your kid’s school, or cleaning up your neighborhood, Neighborly makes it easy to schedule volunteers. Simply create your event, add your shifts, and share your signup link. Your volunteers can quickly signup for the shift that works best for them – no need for a giant email thread or complicated signup process. Once your volunteers start signing up, your schedule will be easily accessible in one place with Neighborly. You can easily see who has signed up for what shifts, and make changes to your schedule as needed. Your volunteers will also be able to see the shifts they have signed up for, access information they need to know about the event, and receive reminders from you so that they don’t forget! We built Neighborly to help small community groups get their events staffed. Whether you are organizing a one-day event or a series of weekly shifts, Neighborly will help make your event a success. While we can’t guarantee that your shifts will be filled, we can help you easily invite potential volunteers, and keep your schedule up to date so your event goes smoothly. Setting up your group, creating your event, and getting volunteers to sign up is super easy. Here's how: Give Neighborly a try for your next event!

W075 · Product descriptionRound 1 · Human · 183/200 words

Describe a fictional folding desk organizer with three compartments and a removable tray. Be clear about its limited storage capacity. Aim for 200 words.

The Foldwell is not designed to hold all of your office supplies, but rather a few things that you use on a daily basis. It is lightweight, and when opened becomes a rather shallow, three compartment caddy. When you do not need the caddy out on your desk, it easily folds down and tucks away nicely by simply latching it up on the side. The three compartments are nice for a limited number of things. I have a couple pens, pencils, and scissors in one. Sticky notes, paper clips, and a small notepad in the next, and my phone charger, eraser, and a few other things in the last. The Foldwell also has a small tray that simply fits on the top edges of the compartments and can be removed at anytime if you wish. It is nice to throw a couple things on there that you use often, but again, the tray is small and not meant to hold heavy items. Overall, if you only need to keep a few things straightened up on your desk, the Foldwell is a great solution.

W076 · Welcome emailRound 1 · AI · 143/200 words

Write a welcome email for a monthly gardening newsletter aimed at people with small spaces. Include what to expect and a simple first activity. Aim for 200 words.

Subject: Welcome to Small-Space Gardening Hello, and welcome! Welcome to my gardening blog! Whether you’ve got a sunny windowsill, a tiny balcony, a doorstep or a few pots, I’m here to help you grow. Sign up to my monthly newsletter to receive small space gardening ideas, seasonal tips, easy plants to grow and how to look after them, along with lots of other ideas for different light and budget. No need for lots of expensive bits and bobs to get started! First things first, before we do anything else, take 2 minutes to check the light levels for your space (sunny patch?) Don’t worry if you don’t have a sunny patch, there are lots of herbs and other plants that will happily grow in less light. Thanks for joining me on my gardening adventure, let’s get started! Happy gardening and until next time,

W077 · Event promotionRound 1 · Human · 147/150 words

Promote a two-hour beginner bookbinding workshop. Materials are included, places require reservation, and large machines are operated by staff only. Aim for 150 words.

Step into our workshop and spend two wonderful hours learning how to make a book. You will learn the basic steps involved in creating a book and then you will make your own book to take home with you. This workshop is perfect for a beginner. All materials are included. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the process of making a book while we show you the ropes and give you some tips. Please reserve your spot ahead of time as space is limited. For safety reasons all large machines will be operated by staff during the workshop. Don’t worry, you will still be able to use them for the parts that are required for your project. We will show you how they work and you can experience them first hand under our guidance. Spend two great hours in our shop and learn how to make a book.

W078 · Survey invitationRound 1 · Human · 131/150 words

Invite customers to a three-minute survey about Saturday opening hours. Make clear that responses inform but do not guarantee changes. Aim for 150 words.

We are reviewing our opening hours on a Saturday and we’d like to know what you think. We have put together a very short survey to find out if the current opening hours work for you. It will take approximately 3 minutes to complete and we would really appreciate your feedback, regardless of whether you shop with us on a Saturday or not. You can take part in the survey here: [link to survey] We will use the information we gain from the survey to help us with our review but this does not mean that we will make changes purely based on the outcome of this survey as there are other things we need to consider. Thank you for helping us make the right decision for all of our customers.

W079 · Comparison copyRound 1 · AI · 375/300 words

Compare pocket and large sketchbooks made with identical paper and binding. Explain tradeoffs without claiming one is universally better. Aim for 300 words.

If we assume that the two sketchbooks have exactly the same type of paper and binding, there are a few differences based on size: The benefits of a pocket size sketchbook are: a. You are more likely to have it with you at all times b. You can pull it out in crowded spaces more easily c. It will encourage you to make quick sketches, notes, and small studies d. You may find that the small size of the pages makes it easier to work on, as the project seems smaller The drawbacks of a pocket size sketchbook are: a. It can be difficult to make detailed drawings and compositions in a small space b. The small size of the page can make it difficult to draw with a large gesture, or to make long lines c. Depending on what you want to draw, you may find that the small size of the pages limit what you can draw. Even if you want to draw a large complex scene, a small page will force you to simplify. The benefits of a large sketchbook are: a. You have more room on the page to make a large drawing b. You can draw larger, more expansive compositions c. It is easier to make detailed studies and diagrams d. You can experiment with size more easily e. You can draw with a more relaxed motion The drawbacks of a large sketchbook are: a. It is less likely that you will have it with you at all times b. It takes up more room on a table or on your lap c. It can be difficult to draw in when you are standing up or traveling Additional things to consider: a. A pocket size sketchbook will fill up much quicker than a larger one b. Drawing in a large sketchbook can capture the feeling of a scene, while a small sketchbook will force you to make choices about what to include. If you are looking for availability and portability, go for the pocket size. If you are looking for space to draw, go for the large one. It may be best to keep both available at all times, so that you can take advantage of the benefits of each.

W080 · Fundraising appealRound 1 · Human · 132/200 words

Write an appeal for six replacement tables for a community room. Promise to publish the invoice and explain surplus use; donations do not affect access. Aim for 200 words.

Hi! Thank you for checking out our project to get some new tables for our community room. The existing ones are in desperate need of replacement. Every bit we can get will be a tremendous help. Even if you cannot give anything that is fine, please feel free to share this or come and participate in the community room. No one will be excluded for not giving. We will be fully transparent and post the invoice for the tables when we purchase them. If there are any left overs we will explain what we do with them. This is a community effort to get 6 good sturdy tables for our community room. Thank you so much for your help! With it we will be able to get all 6 tables we need!

W081 · Travel packingRound 1 · Human · 527/500 words

Write a practical guide to packing for a five-day trip with one small bag, including choosing clothes and avoiding unnecessary duplicates. Aim for 500 words.

Five Day Trip Packing List How To Pack For A Weekend The most effective way to pack for a five day trip is to start with the bag. You need to know how big it can be in order to pack accordingly, especially if you're flying as many airlines have restrictions on the size of luggage that you can take on board. It's always best to leave some room in your bag in case you want to buy anything on your trip or pick up anything that you need while you're there. It's also useful to have a small backpack or a soft luggage bag that can be squashed into small spaces. Next you need to think about what to pack, starting with clothing. Check the weather forecast and also what you'll be doing on your trip. Choose a colour scheme for your clothing, ideally two or three neutral colours and an accent colour. Plan what you'll wear for each activity but make sure that the items can be mixed and matched so you can make different outfits from them. For a normal trip you should pack three tops, two bottoms, one extra layer and one outfit for a special occasion. You should also pack one pair of shoes, however it's best to wear these with you on the plane or train to save space in your luggage. If you need to pack another pair of shoes then wear the other pair. It's best to choose comfortable shoes that can be worn for a range of activities so you don't have to pack more than one pair. You should also wear a jacket if you need one. Try and choose items that can be mixed and matched and that you can re-wear. Pick clothing that doesn't need special care, that is easy to wash, dries quickly and is wrinkle resistant. You may want to pack a waterproof but try not to bring anything bulky that you may not need. You should also pack five pairs of underwear and socks, one set of clothing to sleep in and if you plan on exercising while you're away, pack an outfit for that, otherwise you should be able to do your exercise in normal clothing. Don't pack any extra outfits in case you need them. Lay out all of your items to make sure that you haven't packed anything that is similar, such as two similar jumpers or shoes. Only pack one set of toiletries and make sure that they are small. Also check to see if your accommodation provides any toiletries or a hairdryer so that you don't need to bring them with you. Pack any other items that you need such as a water bottle, charger etc. Finally, pack your luggage, putting the heavier items at the bottom and any items that you will need while travelling on top. Roll your clothes up and put them in packing bags to keep them separate and make the most of the space available. Pack any important documents, valuables etc. in an easily accessible place. Finally, check your luggage one last time and take out anything that you don't really need.

W082 · Photography tutorialRound 1 · Human · 508/500 words

Explain how a beginner can photograph a household object using window light and a sheet of white card. Include common mistakes and how to check the result. Aim for 500 words.

If you don't have a small studio with professional lights, don't despair. You can create some excellent images with some basic materials and a little knowledge. For this lesson, choose a small object, clean and with some shape. Put it on something nice, close to a window but not in direct sunlight, and turn off the nearest lamps. Traditionally you'll see your subject a couple of feet away from the window, but experiment with this as you go along. It's better to have the window to the side of your subject than behind you. If the sunlight is hitting your subject, move it further away or use a sheer curtain to soften the light. Place the piece of white card to the right of your object. Make sure that you place it so that it is just out of the frame of the image, because you'll want it to bounce some light back onto your subject. The beauty of this is that you can control it simply by moving it closer to or further away from your object. Keep some shadows, because they give the image depth, but try and get an even lighting to the whole piece. Check that you're not including the white card in reflections, though. Next, sort out your background. It's best if it's nice and tidy. When you take your first photo, try to leave a little space around your subject. Get the camera as close to the level of the object as you can, but try a few slightly from above, too. Make sure that you keep your phone steady when you take the picture. On most phones you can tap on the screen to set the focus, so touch your subject to do this. You should also be able to adjust the brightness of the image using the sun icon and slider. Try a few shots, just tweaking the brightness as you go along. Now take a look at the common errors below. The most common are photographing your subject in direct sunlight, having lamps on in the room and putting your object too close to the window. When using your white card, the usual mistake is putting it too close to your subject and making the image too flat. Other errors to avoid are messy backgrounds, not keeping the horizon straight, not focusing properly and having reflections in your image. One last thing to look out for is that, although you can change the white balance, your camera won't turn a plain background white if it isn't getting enough light. Each time you take a photo, look at it on your camera/phone to make sure it's in focus and not over-exposed. Check that you haven't cut any of the object out of the image. Also try to see if the shadow looks OK. Compare a couple of the photos that you've taken with and without the white card, and choose the one that you think best displays your subject. Try to look at the image on a larger screen, too.

W083 · Gardening guideRound 1 · Human · 272/300 words

Explain how to assess sunlight, wind, and drainage before starting a balcony garden. Avoid prescribing one watering schedule for every plant. Aim for 300 words.

Where is the Sun? Before you buy plants for your balcony garden, spend a few days observing when it is sunny and when it is in the shade. Check at various times of the day to see how much direct sun reaches your balcony. Even if your balcony seems shaded, nearby pale colored walls may reflect a lot of light. The amount of sun may also vary at different times of the year. Once you have a good idea about the amount of light that reaches your balcony, you can choose plants that will thrive in specific spots on your balcony. How windy is it? The corners of your balcony and the area above the roof tops may be quite windy. At various times, check how strong the wind is. This will help you decide where to position the containers so that they are not blown over. What is the drainage like? Make sure that your balcony has good drainage. The floor should be slightly sloped so that water runs towards the drain. Make sure that the drain is not blocked. You should not use saucers under your containers unless you can make sure that excess water does not run onto your balcony. Be a good neighbor and make sure that the water does not run onto other people's balconies. If you are in doubt about the drainage or the weight your balcony can support, ask the building manager. How often will you have to water? This will depend on many factors including the wind, the amount of sun, the type of containers you use, and the types of plants you select.

W084 · Home organizationRound 1 · Human · 293/300 words

Write an entryway organization guide for a shared household, focusing on real habits rather than maintaining a perfect appearance. Aim for 300 words.

1. Arrange it to fit in with your lifestyle, not somebody else's. Spend a week observing what comes into your house and where things are placed down. Put storage solutions in the best place for your family. 2. Work out where 'shared' items need to live -- coat hooks, a place for keys, a basket for items that need to go out of the house. If you have enough hooks, you could label them or give each member of the family a section. Have a couple of spare tote bags for things that need to go out of the house (library books, returns etc.). 3. Don't expect perfection. People are going to bring in shoes, so have a mat they can stand on to remove their shoes, and a bin to put them in. People will bring in wet things, so have somewhere for their brolly. Try to make it as easy as possible for your family to keep it as tidy as possible. 4. Agree on a few rules that the whole family can adhere to -- putting keys somewhere, bags on hooks, sorting through the mail once or twice a week etc. 5. Give it a quick reset when you take out the rubbish or do your weekly shop. If it's taking too long to do this, something isn't working, and you may need to make some changes to make it more practical for your family. If things are constantly piling up somewhere, that's a sign that what you have there at the moment isn't working, and you need to make some changes. Remember, the aim here is not to have a perfectly tidy entry, but to make it a little bit easier to leave and enter your house in peace!

W085 · Cooking methodRound 1 · Human · 249/200 words

Explain how to roast mixed vegetables, accounting for different cooking rates, overcrowding, and how to judge doneness. Aim for 200 words.

Heat the oven to 425F degrees (220C degrees). Cut vegetables into similar sized pieces based on when they should go into the oven. Hard vegetables like potatoes, carrots, squash, beets, etc. take a long time to cook. Softer vegetables like zucchini, bell peppers, asparagus, broccoli, etc. take a shorter time to cook. Toss the vegetables with enough oil to lightly coat them, and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, making sure to leave space between the vegetables. If you put them too close together, the vegetables will steam rather than brown. Use 2 baking sheets if necessary. Place the dense vegetables in the oven first. After about 15-20 minutes, turn the vegetables over and place the remaining vegetables on the same baking sheet (or a separate one if preferred, in which case check them earlier). Cooking time will depend on the size and type of vegetables you are using. Turn the vegetables over once to help ensure even browning. Don’t turn them over too often, though. The vegetables are ready when they brown and get crispy on the edges and are tender when you pierce them with a fork or small knife. Potatoes and carrots should be tender, but not mushy. If the outsides of the vegetables are browning but the insides are still too firm, turn the heat down a little bit and keep cooking. Remove the vegetables from the oven as soon as they are ready.

W086 · Product reviewRound 1 · Human · 196/200 words

Write a clearly fictional review of a travel mug used for two weeks: comfortable grip and useful size, but a lid groove that is hard to clean. Do not invent lab measurements. Aim for 200 words.

It’s a great size for a regular cup of coffee or tea and fits nicely in my hand. I mainly use it for short commutes and at work. Before I got it, I was curious as to if it would fit in my hand nicely and I’m pleased to say that it does. Although Bracken & Vale isn’t a real company, I do like the name! The lid is easy enough to put on and I’ve had no trouble drinking from it whilst walking, however I normally put it in my bag so it is upright at all times. I really like the design of the mug. The only thing that is slightly annoying is that the lid has a small groove in it and it’s quite narrow so when I’ve had coffee in the mug, bits of coffee go into the groove and it takes a bit of doing to get them out. But I don’t see this as a problem, it just takes a bit more effort to clean that’s all. After using the Brewith mug for two weeks, I think that it is a great mug to use at home or when commuting.

W087 · Craft directionsRound 1 · Human · 121/150 words

Explain how to make a paper accordion with evenly spaced alternating folds. Include one troubleshooting tip. Aim for 150 words.

How to Make an Accordion 1 Measure and draw on your paper. First, you need to choose how big you want your accordion to be. Then, you should take out a ruler and mark your paper at equal distances along one of the long edges. Do the same on the other side and connect your dots with straight lines down your paper. 2 Fold. Now, it is time to fold! Starting at one end, you should fold over towards yourself and press the crease with your fingernail. Then, turn it over and fold it the other way. Continue doing this until the end of your paper. Erase off any marks and you're done! Troubleshooting If your accordion is not even, then:

W088 · TroubleshootingRound 1 · Human · 207/150 words

Explain what to check when a shared printer accepts a job but produces no pages, and why repeatedly resubmitting can cause problems. Aim for 150 words.

Is your printer on or offline? Does it have enough paper in the correct paper tray? Is the correct paper size and type loaded? Does your printer have any errors on the display such as paper, jams, toner or maintenance? Does it have jobs sitting in the printer that are waiting for something, like a different paper size or a secure release code? Look at the print queue on your computer, are you sending your document to the correct shared printer? Is the printer server or network connectivity in question? Are other people having the same problem? Check with your printer administrator to see if they can look at the shared print queue and see if there are any issues with the print spooler. Try to print something once you have resolved any issues. The most important thing to not do, is keep sending your document to the printer. You may just be sending it into a queue that is having delays for some reason and you are just using up the resources on the print server. When the queue starts to work again, you may have 10 copies of your document print out, which can waste paper, supplies, and cause issues if the document is confidential.

W089 · Repair decisionRound 1 · Human · 306/300 words

Write a balanced guide to deciding whether to repair or replace an ordinary household object. Discuss uncertainty and usefulness, not just purchase price. Aim for 300 words.

Should you fix or replace it? When something at home breaks, you often have to make a decision: should you have it fixed, or should you replace it? There are a number of things to think about when deciding what to do: How important is this thing to you? How often do you use it? How much will it affect your life if it isn't fixed? Is it easy to borrow or find a replacement while it is being fixed? Do you have a warranty? How much will it cost to fix or replace? Is it easy to get parts for it? Is it easy to find someone to fix it? Is it easy to know what is wrong with it, or will you have to pay extra to find someone to work out the problem? Is it likely that there will be other problems that weren't noticed before, making it more expensive to fix? How long do you expect it to last for if you fix it? Is it old and likely to break down again soon? If you decide to replace it, how will you decide which new one to buy? Are all new products the same? Or are some better quality, or more reliable, or easier to fix, or more energy efficient, or easier to get parts for? What are some of the benefits of fixing things, rather than replacing them? What are some of the dangers or difficulties of fixing things, rather than replacing them? What should you do if something is dangerous? If you are not sure what you should do, what could you do to make a decision that isn't very risky? What are some of the things to think about when you are deciding whether to fix or replace something? How will you decide which is the best option?

W090 · Beginner hobbyRound 1 · Human · 235/200 words

Give a beginner advice on starting a small stamp collection, recording uncertainty, and avoiding the assumption that age alone determines value. Aim for 200 words.

Here are some suggestions for starting your collection: Consider collecting stamps of a specific subject or region. Start small. You may be interested in collecting stamps depicting birds, space related stamps, or even stamps from a certain country. For beginners it is best to start with a few inexpensive stamps from a reputable dealer, local club, or even from a collector who may want to help you start a collection. Whatever stamps you collect, handle them carefully, preferably with stamp tongs, and store them in a dry location in stamp albums or archival quality stock pages. Keep track of your stamps. It is a good idea to have a place to record information about your stamps. Consider noting the country of origin, date of issue, description, condition, source of acquisition, cost, and your source for this information. It is better to note that something is “possibly” a certain way rather than to guess when you are not sure. Take a picture of your stamps with your cell phone so you can refer to them later. Be aware that old stamps are not necessarily valuable. There are many factors that go into determining the value of a stamp. Many very old stamps are quite common. Some newer stamps are quite valuable. Be cautious of prices you see on the internet. Collect stamps because you enjoy it, but do your homework before spending a lot of money!

W091 · Policy briefRound 1 · AI · 486/500 words

Write a policy brief proposing a six-week evening-library-hours trial. Assess new access, costs, and displacement of daytime services rather than just visitor counts. Aim for 500 words.

Public libraries extend hours to meet public need. My proposal is to allow a six-week trial period at one branch of your choice (selected in consultation with the community) to extend opening hours for eight hours a week for six weeks (48 hours) during evening hours chosen by a short survey. The eight hours could be split over two evenings a week, when the library would stay open until 9pm. This would not affect your daytime opening hours or services in any way. The key here is that this would target users who are not catered to by the current opening hours. To prove this, you would need to take some measurements. You would need to take a four-week baseline of current opening hours before the evening hours begin to assess how many people use the library in daylight hours, how the library is used, staffing levels and how often it closes. You would need to record how many people use the library in the evening hours, how many of these are distinct and how many of them are not catered for by current opening hours. This can be assessed by a short survey and anonymous counting of library users. You also need to record how the library is used during these hours and how accessible the library is for people using it in the evening (disability access, safety, etc). You will also need to record the entire incremental cost of opening the library during these evening hours, to make sure that it is open with enough staff to operate safely. You should record the total cost of opening the library for these hours as well as the cost per hour. It is also important to record whether the evening opening hours are affecting daytime users. You can do this by comparing the effect of the evening hours on opening hours, staffing, cancelled programs, service use, etc with your four-week baseline, as well as by comparing these to a similar library that has not extended its hours. At the end of the six-week trial period, you should record how many people the evening opening hours have catered for, how the library has been used by these people, how much the extended opening hours have cost and whether extending the evening opening hours have had an effect on daytime library users. If the evening hours have catered for people not served by current opening hours, haven't adversely affected daytime users and you can find the money in your budget to continue it, you should extend the evening opening hours. If the library isn't being used very much in the evenings, you should investigate whether this is due to the days you've chosen to open, a lack of outreach, the location of the branch, etc. Whatever your decision, you should publicise the result of the trial and take on board people's opinions on what you should do next.

W092 · Evaluation summaryRound 1 · Human · 431/500 words

Evaluate a fictional four-week community shuttle pilot with 480 passenger journeys and high use on market mornings. Costs exceeded estimates; avoided car trips were not measured. Aim for 500 words.

It is good to see the Shuttle service has had a good take up during the four week trial period. The timing of the Shuttle service seems to have been a big factor especially on Market mornings which is to be expected so perhaps a more focussed service at these times would have worked better if running a service at other times of the day did not have as good a take up. A total of 480 passenger journeys over a 4 week period gives an average of 120 per week so if this could be sustained then it has to be a good thing. My concern is the cost of running the Shuttle service as it seems to be higher than expected so unless this can be controlled then it will make it more difficult to make it a sustainable service. It would be useful to know the actual cost of running the Shuttle service and what it was expected to cost. It would also be useful to know the number of passenger journeys each day to see if it correlated with the cost. Another thing to consider is the number of car journeys the Shuttle service has replaced as this was probably one of the main reasons for introducing the service in the first place. It is difficult to say how many car journeys it has replaced but to assume that each passenger journey was a car journey is probably incorrect although it may have stopped some people from using their car. Statements such as "The service will help reduce carbon emissions and traffic congestion in the town" may be a little premature at this stage. Overall I think the Shuttle service has had a reasonable impact on the community so perhaps extending the service for a while longer to gather a little more information would be a good idea before making a final decision on its future. Knowing the following information may be helpful:- a) How many people used the service on a weekly basis and if they used it week after week. b) Why people used the service, c) Did they find the service accessible, d) What the expected weekly cost was and what it actually cost to run the service, e) How much it should realistically cost to run and how this can be achieved. f) How many people used their car instead of using the Shuttle service. Once this information is available then a more informed decision can be made on whether the service is a success and whether it should be continued or not.

W093 · Consultation responseRound 1 · Human · 309/300 words

Respond to a proposal to add benches to a town square. Support the aim but request a temporary layout trial and clear maintenance responsibilities. Aim for 300 words.

Dear Sir/Madam I am writing to inform you that I think adding benches in our town square is a great idea! I think that it will benefit a lot of our town and I also think that it will make our town square more accessible. I know that there will be a lot of people with different opinions on the subject, and to solve this maybe you could create a trial period. The trial period would mean that you lay out the square with some benches that can easily be moved. That way if there is any objections the council can see whether or not the benches will be a problem. It would be best to put the benches in a number of different places and get the views of the public. This way the council can check whether or not the benches are obtrusive to footfall, access for those in wheel chairs and also whether or not they will be a problem when events are held in the town square. You could put up a number of surveys, that can easily be filled in and displayed in the town, to see if the placement of the benches is correct and if they need shade etc. Also while the trial period is ongoing you will need to make sure that you keep the access routes clear and that they are step free so that you do not exclude anyone from using the town square. Once the trial period is finished and you are going to add the final benches to the square you will need to decide who will be responsible for looking after them and making sure that they are always in a good condition. I hope that with the addition of these benches the town square will become a fantastic place to sit and relax. Yours Sincerely

W094 · Accessibility reviewRound 1 · Human · 288/300 words

Write a fictional accessibility review of a step-free hall with obstructive chair storage, unclear signs, and staff unfamiliar with hearing equipment. A single visit is not certification. Aim for 300 words.

Access Information The Hall is step free from the main entrance to the Auditorium. The doors to enter the hall were easy to open. There is a lift available to get to the rooms on the upper level of the hall, however I didn't test this out. There is an accessible toilet on the ground floor, however if you weren't looking for it you wouldn't have known it was there. To be honest I had to ask where the Auditorium was as there were several signs up but they were all slightly different, some said 'Events', others said 'Main Hall' so I wasn't sure if it was all the same or not. If there had been a simple sign, perhaps on the way in and then again at the turns, it would have made it easier to find. The way to the Auditorium was all on the level, but there were several chairs sat on one side of the way in. In one place it was really tight and I don't think a wheelchair user would have been able to get past. It would have been better if the chairs had been in a specific place where they wouldn't have obstructed the way. The hall does have equipment for those who are hard of hearing, however the staff didn't know where it was or how it worked, which is a shame as they were really nice and tried to help out. It would have been nice to know if it was chargeable or not. Please note: This review is based on one visit at a particular point in time. It is not a formal audit nor does it confer any form of certification regarding access at this venue.

W095 · Public speechRound 1 · Human · 205/200 words

Write a short public-meeting speech asking for quieter play options and shaded seating in a new playground, without opposing replacement of worn equipment. Aim for 200 words.

I appreciate being able to speak tonight. I am glad that the city is replacing the playground equipment as it is quite worn and difficult to use at this point. I would like to ask that the city consider providing a few options for quiet play. Not all children enjoy climbing or spinning or playing in a busy, noisy area. It would be great to provide a small sensory garden, water/sand table, musical options, or other quiet areas for play. This would allow children who may have a need for this type of play to enjoy the playground, and it would be great for any child or adult that just needed a break from the busy, loud area as well. It would be a great asset to allow a wider population of people to use the playground and feel welcomed. Also, it would be great to add some shade and seating for the adults/grandparents/children to enjoy the playground in a more comfortable manner. These things can be added without interfering with the replacement of the more active play equipment, and will only serve to enhance the comfort of the playground for all of the users. I appreciate your consideration in adding these items. Thank you.

W096 · Budget explanationRound 1 · Human · 268/200 words

Explain a community garden budget's distinction between operating costs, one-time improvements, expected donations, and reserves. Aim for 200 words.

In the Community Garden Budget, we break down funds into different types of expenses, so that it's clear how money is being spent and when. 1) Operating Costs: These are regular, ongoing expenses that the garden will have in order to operate. In our example, these include water, seeds, soil, tool repairs, insurance, permit fees, etc. Operating expenses are the things you'll need to spend money on every season or year in order to keep the garden running. 2) One-Time Improvements: These are investments the garden will make in itself in order to improve it. They may be fairly expensive, but are not meant to be recurring expenses. One-time improvements might include building new raised beds, building a shed, creating accessible paths, installing an irrigation system, etc. After these improvements are made, they should not need to be repeated for many years, if ever. 3) Expected Donations: These are donations that you expect to receive, but which you can not count on. They may be cash donations, in-kind donations (e.g. compost, lumber, tools) or in-service donations (i.e. people donating their time to work in the garden). Don't count on these donations in order to pay for the bills - if they don't come through, you'll need to find another source of funds. 4) Reserves: These are funds that have been set aside for unexpected expenses or future expenses. They should not be spent on regular expenses or be used to balance the operating budget. Rather, they should be used in cases of unexpected expenses, like a sudden increase in the water rates or the need for new equipment.

W097 · Volunteer orientationRound 1 · Human · 176/150 words

Welcome reading-room volunteers and explain referring unknown questions to a coordinator, respecting visitors, and making concise handovers. Aim for 150 words.

Welcome to working in the reading room. Thanks for helping out. Being in the reading room you are the first point of contact for visitors. It is important that you are friendly, approachable and helpful. If someone asks you a question that you are unsure of it is completely ok to say you don’t know! Just let the person know that you will need to check with the coordinator. It is better to let the coordinator answer certain questions than to possibly give the wrong answer. It’s important to be respectful of visitors whilst you are working in the reading room. Everyone is different and you need to be mindful and considerate of this. If you are unsure of how to deal with a situation ask the coordinator for help. When your shift is finished, make sure you give a quick but concise handover to the next reading room volunteer. It doesn’t need to be long, just say anything that is relevant that will help the next volunteer with their shift. Thanks again for helping out!

W098 · Service updateRound 1 · Human · 170/150 words

Explain that a fictional tool library is changing its opening hours for a four-week trial and wants feedback from both users and people unable to attend. Aim for 150 words.

To best serve the needs of our community, the Tool Library will be running on a trial timetable for the next 4 weeks. We would love to hear from you about how you think this is working. Are you able to get to the Tool Library to borrow and return tools at the times it is open? How is this working for you? Do you have any suggestions about how we could improve this? If you are not able to make it to the Tool Library at these times, please let us know. Perhaps you have never been able to make it to the Tool Library at any of the times we have been open? We’d love to hear what times would work for you. You can either provide your feedback in person, or you can use the form below. At the end of the 4 weeks, we will review all the feedback we have received, and make a decision about what times we will be open in the future.

W099 · Impact reportRound 1 · AI · 306/300 words

Write a cautious impact summary for a fictional tool library with 140 members and 620 loans. Do not infer money saved or waste avoided directly from loans. Aim for 300 words.

We have a 620 loans and 140 members at our (fictional) tool library. How many tools have we saved from being bought, and how does that help the environment? It sounds like a simple calculation, 620 tools that might not have been bought - except that isn’t quite right. For one thing we don’t know how many of those loans would have ended in a tool being bought, people might have had tools they could have used, or they might not have done the job that needed the tool at all! We also don’t know how many of our members already have tools, and how often they have borrowed things instead of buying them. It could be that all our members have drills and saws, and the 620 loans are for things they didn’t already own. There are also all sorts of other issues to consider if we want to look at the environmental impact. If we don’t know how many tools are in circulation how can we know how many we have saved from being produced in the first place? Or from the emissions of transportation and manufacture? Or from going in the trash at the end of their life? It’s very hard to say. So what can we say? Well we know we have 140 members and 620 loans - that’s a great start! We know people are using what we have, and we can find out more by asking them - are they borrowing things they wouldn’t have otherwise, are they bringing things back time and time again? We can also look at the tools we have, are they being repaired or replaced, and again ask our members how having access to the tools has helped them. This is a great start - we just need to remember not to assume too much!

W100 · Community mediationRound 1 · Human · 230/200 words

Write a neutral summary of a disagreement between neighbors over a shared garden's quiet hours, identifying common ground and a practical trial agreement. Aim for 200 words.

Your neighbors may have different expectations about acceptable noise levels in the garden. You may need it to be quiet earlier in the evening so that you can read, rest or enjoy having your windows open. They, on the other hand, may want to use the garden for talking with visitors or just to relax after a hard day's work. While neither of you is necessarily wrong, the lack of clear guidelines about what is acceptable and what isn't may be causing problems when one of you perceives the other as being too loud. There are areas where you are able to find agreement: It might be possible to compromise by agreeing that after 8 pm on week nights, you will both keep the volume of conversations down, refrain from playing music (or playing it very low - no amplification) and end any get togethers by 9 pm. On weekends, you might allow for longer get togethers until 10 pm, as long as the person hosting the gathering gives the other person advance notice so that he/she can plan accordingly. Try out the new guidelines for four weeks and then reevaluate to see if either of you needs to make any modifications. If you have a problem with the new guidelines, bring the problem up directly with the other person in a calm manner and work together to resolve it.

W101 · Literary storyRound 2 · Human · 547/500 words

Write a story about a night cleaner in a concert hall who discovers an unfinished letter under a seat. Build toward a difficult decision without revealing a hidden celebrity connection. Aim for 500 words.

It was 2am and Nessa was doing her usual rounds cleaning up the concert hall. She worked her way methodically through the rows from back to front. Usually she would find lots of things dropped under the seats; coins, cough sweets, gloves, you name it. But this time when she knelt under seat G-14 her mop got caught on some folded up paper. The paper was creased in quarters and soft around the edges, it had been folded like this for a while. There was no envelope and no name written on the outside. Technically Nessa should have taken the letter to the lost property desk, but curiosity got the better of her and when she picked it up the letter opened up in her hands. `` Dear Ruth,'' Nessa began to read, `` I have tried to write this letter so many times and I really do need you to know that when you left I told everyone it was your decision to go, it was easier at the time than admitting that I was the one who...'' Nessa quickly folded the letter back up again. The concert hall seemed a lot bigger now that it was after midnight. A work light was still on over the stage, shining down on a forgotten music stand, alone in the darkness. Nessa could just picture someone huddled up in seat G-14, writing this letter by the pale glow of the stage light, leaving before they ran out of courage to deliver it themselves. Nessa decided to take the letter to the security office, Mr. Vale was busy at the desk logging up a lost scarf when she arrived. `` What are you going to do with it?'' Nessa asked. `` Well its just a piece of unsealed paper, I suppose Ill keep it for a month and if no one claims it then it'll go in the confidential bin.'' `` Even if there is an address on the back?'' `` You know the rules Nessa, if there is a name and address then Ill contact the owner. We ca n't read lost property and we ca n't deliver it, people leave all sorts of stuff behind you know.'' Nessa knew that Mr. Vale was right but it did n't make it seem right. She could clearly make out an address scrawled in small neat writing on the back of the letter. In her mind she saw it sitting on a plastic tray for thirty days before ending up shredded in the confidential bin. Or maybe she saw someone desperately awaiting the contents of this letter. Or maybe she imagined the recipient reading a painful confession that they did n't want to know. Nessa thought of a letter she had in a kitchen drawer at home that she had been meaning to send to her brother for three years. `` Do you want me to log it in?'' Mr. Vale asked holding up a clear evidence pouch. Nessa looked back towards the darkened rows of seats, the concert was over and the writer was gone. The words were now her burden to carry. `` Yes please,'' Nessa said as she slipped the letter into the evidence pouch, `` and if anyone asks what it says then dont tell them.''

W102 · MysteryRound 2 · Human · 580/500 words

Write a fair-play mystery about a village seed library whose rare bean seeds disappear. Plant two relevant clues before the solution and avoid a supernatural explanation. Aim for 500 words.

It must have happened during the night, for when I arrived at work on Tuesday morning, the packet of Ashcombe Speckled Beans was gone. `` It could only have come out of the seed library's cabinet,'' I said, `` and that was definitely locked when I left.'' There was a window at the back of the cabinet, but that was securely locked as well. Besides, even if someone had got in that way, there was nothing else missing. `` They were rare beans,'' Tom Bell, who kept the books for the library, said, `` so someone must have gone out of their way to steal them. Perhaps they had a key.'' He looked enquiringly at the rest of us. `` They were the only remaining strain we had locally, so we should make every effort to find out what's happened to them,'' said Mrs Vale, our oldest volunteer. Well, that went without saying. It was quite a tussle to find out who had a key; it turned out that Tom had the key with him all the time, and Mrs Vale had one as well. I had a spare in the village office. It was a relief when we'd questioned the two gardeners, because neither of them had keys. They weren't the type to lie, either. Checking the visitors' book, it seemed that only Tom had been into the library on the Monday to count the packets and Mrs Vale had popped in to water the window boxes. There were two strange things about the whole affair. Looking into the cabinet, there was a patch on the shelf where the beans had been kept, quite free from dust. Yet there was a thick layer of dust all around it, but undisturbed, so it seemed that the beans had not been taken recently. That didn't make much sense to Tom, for he'd counted them the day before. The second thing was when Mrs Vale asked whether anyone had checked if the beans had been tested for germination. `` Tested?'' Tom asked, looking puzzled. `` What do you mean, tested?'' `` Well, you know, for germination,'' Mrs Vale said, her mouth tightening a little. `` I remember reading somewhere in the notebook that they had been tested.'' We looked in the notebook, but there was nothing about germination. All it said was that the beans had been stored in a cool, dry place, written in Mrs Vale's hand. I remembered that the cabinet was somewhat damp when it rained, and that Mrs Vale had often told me how dry her pantry was, with the little stove next door. We didn't accuse her of anything, but asked if we could look in her pantry, which we found just above the flour tin. There were only a dozen or so, but Mrs Vale looked very uncomfortable when I found them. `` I was going to return them, only the cabinet seemed so damp, and I was afraid that they'd go rotten in there.'' `` But why not tell us?'' I said. `` Well, you know the regulations; there must be at least one packet in the library at all times, so I thought I could return them before anyone noticed. Then I worried in case they hadn't been tested properly, and I'd have to tell someone.'' Tom was quite happy to take them back to the library, and we comforted Mrs Vale by telling her how we'd be planting them in the community plot.

W103 · Science fictionRound 2 · Human · 239/300 words

Write a scene on an underwater research station where two colleagues must allocate their last hour of communication with the surface. Make their competing priorities understandable. Aim for 300 words.

`` 16:00:00, starting hourly countdown: 00:59:59'' `` You need to send the pressure readings. `` `` The pressure readings ca n't wait a few minutes. My daughter's birthday is tomorrow, and I promised I'd call her. `` `` Well, you ca n't promise her more than you've got. You can message her in 5 minutes. `` `` I've been messaging her for six weeks. She wants to hear my voice. `` He glanced out the porthole at the black void beyond, as a stream of bubbles rose idly by. The comm console chirped, indicating that only 53 minutes remained. `` You know, if those pressure seals give out we could lose the upper lab, maybe even the entire station. `` `` And if we lose this uplink, they wo n't know. `` `` They'll get the readings. `` `` Is that all you care about, your precious readings? `` `` It's not just the readings; these findings may be enough to secure continued funding for the project. `` `` So it's either my daughter's birthday or your career. `` She paused for a moment. `` How long will it take? `` `` Ten minutes? `` `` Fine. I'll queue up my recording for next time. `` `` You what? `` `` You heard me. Take your ten minutes and tell your daughter you love her. `` He smiled as the countdown clock hit 46:12 and pressed the record button.

W104 · FantasyRound 2 · Human · 329/300 words

Write a fantasy story in which a town's bell can erase one regret each winter. Follow a baker deciding whether to use it, and make the cost clear. Aim for 300 words.

It's a tradition in Bellweather, every winter, under the blue moon, a bell will ring for those who wish to rid of a regret. Just go to the tower, ring the bell and tell the bell your regret. The next day, the regret will no longer exist. So will the memories. My regret is.. Let's just say it happened 12 years ago. My brother was running from the burning house and the fallen wood managed to pin him down. I was strong enough to lift it but I chose to run for help. By the time I came back with the neighbours, the roof had collapsed onto him. Every winter I try to go to the tower, but I never can bring myself to do it. So this year I took a bread with me and gave it to the man in charge of the tower. He accepted it and let me go into the tower. I went all the way to the top where the bell was and put my hand on it. `` My regret is.. I let my brother die'' The bell shivered and started to ring. And I saw his face start to fade away, how he laughed, his crooked teeth when he grinned, I quickly removed my hand from the bell. And it stopped ringing. If I did n't have the regret, I might not do the things I do for him. I might not remember him as much, if at all. The bell might be able to erase my regret, but it ca n't erase my love for him. So I went down the tower and saw the people waiting for the next day to come. I went back home, and my regret was still there. Just like his name. And the next day the town woke up to a nice snowfall and I opened my bakery and let the smell of honeybread fill the streets. And maybe in that smell, he's laughing.

W105 · Children's fictionRound 2 · Human · 210/200 words

Write a story for children aged seven about a small fox learning to ask for help while building a kite. Show a concrete setback and how another animal helps. Aim for 200 words.

Once upon a time there was a fox who wanted to build a kite. He found some sticks, some paper, and a piece of string. `` Hey, I'll just do this myself," he said. So the fox began to build the kite. First he put the sticks together and then he put the paper on, but when he pulled the string one of the sticks broke! The fox was very sad. He tried to tie the stick back together, but each time he tried to tie it a knot the string kept slipping. He tried to pull the string tighter but then the paper ripped. Just then his friend, the turtle, walked by. `` Would you like to help me, turtle?" asked the fox. `` Of course," said the turtle. The turtle got some reeds out of her basket and showed the fox how to tie the stick to the reed using strong grass. After that they patched up the paper together. Before long the kite was done and the two friends went up to the top of the hill to fly it. The kite went sooo high! `` I'm really glad I asked you for help, turtle," said the fox. `` I'm really glad you did," said the turtle.

W106 · ComedyRound 2 · Human · 250/200 words

Write a comic scene about someone rehearsing an acceptance speech for an award they have misunderstood. Let the misunderstanding emerge through action. Aim for 200 words.

He practised in front of the bathroom mirror, holding a bottle of shampoo in the shape of a famous statue. `` Thank you, thank you... It's been a great journey and I'd like to thank everyone who's been there for me...'' He nodded to himself, satisfied, and moved a folding chair into the living room. `` I'm going to need something to sit on when I give my acceptance speech.'' `` Why do you need to bring your own furniture?'' asked his wife. `` Well, I've been nominated for Best *Supporting* Actor, and it's really important that I support everyone.'' He demonstrated by leaning all of his weight on her shoulder, using a wall for support. `` There. Is that OK?'' `` Martin, that's not what it mea-'' `` Great, you're very welcome! I'm always here for you, no matter what. I never complain.'' He fetched a cushion and put it behind her back. `` And I'd like to thank the rest of the cast for letting me support them.'' On the night of the ceremony, he arrived at the theatre with a stack of cushions, and asked the usher where he should put them. The usher said, `` Oh, you're one of the nominees? Here are your seats.'' `` No, no, I'm here to provide back support for the talent. I'm nominated for a *supporting* role, after all.'' `` Er, I don't think that's necessary.'' `` Oh, come on, everyone could use a little *lumbar* role in their life.''

W107 · DialogueRound 2 · Human · 205/150 words

Write a dialogue-only scene between two neighbors negotiating ownership of a tomato plant growing through their shared fence. Give each a distinct voice and reach a compromise. Aim for 150 words.

"Excuse me, but your tomato plant is on my property." "Good morning, neighbor. You're quite right." "But it is your plant, isn't it?" "Well, that's what this is all about. It's a bit of a legal mystery, and I could use some help figuring it out. Got a few minutes? I'll buy you lunch." "Look, I don't want to get involved in a dispute over a tomato plant." "Of course not. That's why I thought you might be able to help me figure out what to do without getting into a dispute. I really did plant the thing, you know. I even talked to it when I watered it." "You talked to it? What did you say?" "Never mind that. What do you think? How about if I keep the root end and you keep the fruit end?" "Sounds fair to me. That is, as long as you don't spray it with anything." "Sure thing. Oh, and I'll be sure to bring you a big tomato when they're ripe." "Thanks. In fact, why don't you bring me two? That way we can both share the harvest." "Sounds like a plan to me. I'll be sure to tell the plant that you two have joint custody."

W108 · Prose poemRound 2 · AI · 179/150 words

Write an unrhymed prose poem about a laundromat just before sunrise. Use specific sounds and textures without ending with a general lesson about life. Aim for 150 words.

The flickering blue light of the laundromat blares in the pre-dawn darkness. It illuminates the dark windows and the slow, bumping rotation of the dryer. Its rhythmic, muted thump is accompanied by the irregular clicking of coins churning from the change machine and the occasional rushing and gurgling of water as it slides through the pipes. The woman in the red coat carefully folds the warm towels on the plastic table. The towels give off a faint smell of soap from the cotton. The young boy presses his finger against the glass of the dryer, watching the tumbling of the socks as they travel in and out of view. Above them buzzes the fluorescent tubes and strewn across the floor is a single thread and a once full cup of coffee. A delivery truck hisses at the curb outside, shining it’s bright headlights across the washers. The woman carefully stacks the towels, pats them into a neat pile and lifts them to her chest. The dryer continues to turn, fogging and clearing the round window like a shifting moon.

W109 · AdventureRound 2 · Human · 282/300 words

Write an adventure scene in which two canoeists and a park ranger retrieve a floating supply box before dusk. Give each character a necessary role and keep the physical sequence clear. Aim for 300 words.

It looked like their only chance of getting the supplies was to go around the bend and try to grab them before they washed up on the rocks in the next rapids. `` Be sure to get below them, and use the current to your advantage,'' the ranger told them, pointing to an eddy. They took off, paddling to the other side of the river, making sure to avoid any obstacles in the water. It took some time, but they slowly made their way below the supplies, edging closer and closer to the rocks. The ranger had an idea though. He took his rescue rope, ran to the end of the gravel bar, tied it to a small tree and then threw it to them. They managed to grab it and tied it around the middle of the canoe. This held them in place, but they still were n't close enough to the supplies to grab them. Using the current to their advantage, the woman paddled closer and closer to the box while the man carefully maneuvered it away from any obstacles. Finally, the box bumped into the canoe. The woman braced herself for the impact while the man grabbed a hold of it. `` I think I can pull it in,'' he said. Using his strength, and with the help of the ranger and the woman, he got the box into the canoe and placed it safely behind him. The ranger then pulled them in to the shallow part of the gravel bar, saving the day and their supplies in the process. The sun was just setting, but they were glad to have all their supplies, none the worse for wear.

W110 · Historical fictionRound 2 · Human · 238/200 words

Write a scene set in a British seaside boarding house in 1932, following a young postal worker delivering a letter she recognizes. Evoke the period without naming famous people. Aim for 200 words.

'Only one, sorry.' She brought her foot up to stomp the sand from it before bringing the postbag down again to deliver the next. In this miserable place it was a wonder that post still came through at all. The damned wind was always blowing sand all over the place and the beach was hardly a glittering jewel with the grey sky and small breakers taking on the groynes constantly. 'Is there anything for you Mrs Pritchard?' It was the handwriting, it was always the handwriting. The heavy capital letters with the hooked, rounded final letters. It was just like the letters that came for her mother when her brother was in prison. 'It's for Mr Vale in room 7 miss.' A man stepped from the doorway, the sounds of a gramophone and chatter flowed out into the cold night air. He was a slight looking man, dressed without a collar and looked like he had just come in from outside. His hair was damp as if he had gone for a stroll along the seafront. He stopped dead when he saw the envelope in her hand. 'Is it, is it from the office?' She could have lied. It would have been easy. Instead she simply handed it to him. He looked at the postmark and brought the letter up to his chest. 'Why thank you miss.' She turned and left, the salty wind blowing in her face.

W111 · Gandhi historyRound 2 · Human · 475/500 words

Write an essay on Gandhi's experiences in South Africa between 1893 and 1914, emphasizing how his political methods changed. Discuss limitations and exclusions in his early views; do not invent quotations. Aim for 500 words.

Mohandas Ganda came to south Africa to work on a court case in Natal and ended up fighting the discrimination of indians. He was thrown of the train in the city of Pietermaritzburg for being in first class while having a ticket. He saw how south Africa treated indians and it motivated him to fight for the greater rights of indians in the British empire. Gandhi begin fighting for indian rights in 1894 by forming the Natal Indian Congress. At first he fought for the rights of indians in a constitutional way by forming petitions and meeting. These efforts highlighted that indians were part of the British Empire and some of the indians were educated and well-off. He fought the laws that took away the right to vote for indians and also fought the laws that controlled the movement of indians. During the Boer War he helped form an Ambulance core with Indians to help in the war. In the beginning of his fight it was focused on indian merchants and not on the indians that were indentured. Also he fought for the rights of Indians not for equal rights among races. In his early writting he used the same incorrect and derogatory terms that the european colonists used towards Africans. Gandhi was against discrimination but he believed that indians should not be classed in the same category as Africans. This shows that Gandhi was a product of his time and believed in a racial hierarchy. He also did not work with any african organizations during his struggle. During his stay in south Africa his tactics of fighting for change began to change. At first it was all in a constitutional manner but in 1906 he called for nonviolent resistance. This new tactics was called satyagraha and was a nonviolent form of resistance that would not retaliate even when faced with violence. This was born after the Transvaal government passed a law that all Indians had to be registered and fingerprinted. People followed Gandhi by burning their registration certificates, crossing borders with out permits and going to prison. In 1904 Gandhi and his supporters established the Phoenix Settlement and in 1910 he bought Tolstoy Farm to promote a simple lifestyle. Also in 1913 for the first time Indian women joined the fight to have there marriages recognized. Miners and other Indians went on strike over the poll tax and other laws. Gandhi helped lead this march and was imprisoned. Their action helped lead the government to pass the Indian Relief Act of 1914 which annuled the poll tax and recognized Indian marriages among other things. In 1914 Gandhi left south Africa but had a big impact on how Indians were treated, even though it was still not equal to others. Gandhi was an advocate for the rights of Indians during his time in South Africa.

W112 · Printing historyRound 2 · AI · 556/500 words

Write an essay explaining how inexpensive newspapers affected public discussion in nineteenth-century Britain. Discuss literacy, transport, advertising, and limits on access without treating printing as the only cause. Aim for 500 words.

The statement that 'Inexpensive newspapers were solely responsible for the widening of the public discussion' is partly true. Yes, newspapers had an impact on the increase in public discussion in the 19th century, but many other factors were also responsible. Firstly, the increase in literacy amongst the working classes helped to increase the readership of newspapers. A greater proportion of the population had been exposed to some form of education during the 19th century, whether this was through Sunday school, adult education classes or through self improvement societies. The fact that more of the population could read by the end of the century than at the beginning, led to an increase in readership of cheap newspapers. However, the fact that literacy rates were still not high at the beginning of the 19th century, limited some people's access to newspapers. On the other hand though, many people would read to others who could not read for themselves, or share the paper with others, so illiteracy did not always exclude people from reading a newspaper. Secondly, the improvements to the transportation network helped to make newspapers more accessible, as they could be distributed further and faster. From the beginning of the century, the railway network grew rapidly and helped to bring newspapers from London and other large centres of newspaper production out to the provinces. The improvements to the road network also helped people to receive newspapers quicker. However, in more remote areas of the country the lack of an efficient transportation network meant that distribution of newspapers was not as convenient. Improvements to the telegraph network from the middle of the 19th century also helped to distribute news quicker, though not actual newspapers themselves. Also, the rise of advertisement helped to make newspapers more inexpensive, as this was a source of income for the newspaper. A greater number of people reading a newspaper was good for advertisers, who wanted to reach a large audience. In turn, the greater amount of advertisements in the newspaper allowed them to be sold more cheaply to members of the public, as the cost of the newspaper was covered by the income made from advertisements. However, the fact that income was needed from advertisement made the newspapers more commercial, and so could influence what was written in the newspaper. The repeal of the stamp duty on newspapers in 1855 and the paper duty in 1861 also helped to make the rise of the cheap press. However, the fact that a newspaper still needed to be bought limited the access for some, especially for the poorest members of society. Also, the limited access that some people, such as women, had to education limited their access to newspapers and public discussion. Also, the fact that the newspaper often represented a specific point of view, and the fact that who owned the newspaper could influence what was written in it, limited the views that the newspaper gave on social and political issues. The official charges, such as the stamp duty and the paper duty, before they were scrapped, meant that newspapers were not always cheap. Also, the laws that were in place at the time limited some of what could be written in the newspaper. Overall, inexpensive newspapers did help to increase the amount of public discussion, but many other factors also played a role.

W113 · Ethics argumentRound 2 · Human · 423/300 words

Write an argument about when it is justified to keep a friend's secret. Address a serious objection and distinguish ordinary embarrassment from a credible risk of harm. Aim for 300 words.

Should you keep you're friend's secret, well there are some reason why you should keep it. First of all there are some reason's why you should not tell you're friend's secret. There are some secret's that should be kept in between friends. If you were to tell you're friend's secret it could ruin you're relationship with them and push them away. Also if you were to tell you're friend's secret it may make them feel like they can't come to you for help in the future. Most secrets that are being shared between friends are not dangerous to anyone so there is no reason to disclose the secret. Also secrets that are shared between friends can be something that the friend may not want anyone else knowing. It can be something the friend may know that is not "bad" but may make people think differently of them so they have no reason to let anyone else know. It can be something that may be embarrassing to the friend so there is no reason for other to know about it. It can be something the friend is getting ready to tell someone and they told you ahead of time so they shouldn't be disclosed to anyone else. Even though there are some reason's why you shouldn't tell you're friend's secret, there are also some reason's why you should tell you're friend's secret. If your friend is doing something that may be dangerous to himself or someone else you should tell someone. It may not be dangerous to anyone but if it can seriously harm your friend you should tell someone. Like if your friend is going to do something that may be harmful to themselves you should tell someone. When telling someone about your friends secret it has to be something that can seriously harm someone. You have to have some good reason's why you are telling the secret. When telling someone about the secret you should tell the friend first and try to get them to do something about it. If you can't get the friend to do anything about it then you should tell someone that can help. If the situation is bad enough that you have to act quickly then you should go straight to someone that can help or authorities. When telling someone about the secret only tell them what is necessary to keep someone from serious harm. So as you can see there are some reason's why you should tell your friends secret and some reason's why you shouldn't.

W114 · Literary analysisRound 2 · Human · 356/300 words

Analyze the tension between reputation and moral judgment in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Use concrete events from the novel and do not invent quotations. Aim for 300 words.

In the novel Pride And Prejudice, the author shows us how a good reputation does not always reflect a person's character. When Elizabeth first encounters Wickham, she believes that he is a great person after conversing with him, she had heard that he was mistreated by Darcy. However, when she learns the truth from Mr. Darcy's letter, she is shocked to find that Wickham tried to elope with Mr. Darcy's sister, only for her money. In contrast, Darcy seems like an arrogant and prideful person, but after reading his letter, Elizabeth realizes that he is not a bad person and that she herself acted without morality. A good reputation is not based off of a person's good character, it is based off of what other people think. When Mr. Wickham runs off with Lydia Bennet, it tarnishes the good name of all the Bennet sisters. Mr. Darcy helps the Bennets out by paying Wickham's debts and by arranging for him to marry Lydia, thus restoring the family's good name. However Wickham and Lydia are not good people; Wickham is greed and Lydia is very promiscuous. The author also shows that this book takes place in a society that is not equal between men and women, this is because Wickham is not shamed for his actions. Reputation is very important in this novel because of how people see one another. This is shown when Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collin's simply for money, she does not care about his character, all she wants is for a good living. Another example of how important social status is can be seen in Lady Catherine, she believes that she is better than everyone because she is wealthy and from a good family. She does not want her nephew to marry Elizabeth Bennet because she is not of a high enough class. In conclusion, a person's reputation is not an indication of their moral character. Judging others without knowing them is not a moral action, this is why at the end of the novel Elizabeth and Darcy's opinions of each other change, because they act differently when Elizabeth learns more about them.

W115 · Art interpretationRound 2 · Human · 222/200 words

Explain how two viewers can reasonably interpret the same abstract painting differently. Discuss visual evidence and personal associations without claiming that every interpretation is equally supported. Aim for 200 words.

Can art be interpretted differently by different people? Explain how this can be possible. Yes, art can be seen differently by different people. The painting can be abstract and it has different shapes and colors in it. One person could see one thing while the other could see something else. They can both be right though. One might see a stormy ocean while the other sees a bustling city. Both of the people could see different aspects of the painting that help them come to their conclusion. The person that sees the ocean might know that oceans can be rough and is probably a deep blue color. The person that sees the city, might know that cities look a certain way at night, and knows the colors of the city. They might both be right because they can both see something in the painting that makes sense to them and something that they can relate to. Although, their interpretations can't just be anything. Their idea has to come from some sort of reason in the painting. Such as the way it is colored, or the way it is drawn, etc. Their idea has to have some basis in the painting, even though their ideas can differ. Some ideas might be better than others too, but people can have different opinions on things.

W116 · Language essayRound 2 · Human · 276/200 words

Write a short essay about what can be lost and gained when translating humor. Give a concrete invented example and explain the translator's tradeoff. Aim for 200 words.

Humor is one of the trickiest things to deal with when translating from one language to another. This is due, in part, to the fact that a lot of humor depends on the sound of the words, the grammatical structure of a sentence, or even cultural aspects that may not exist in the target language. Thus, if the translator is too literal, the humor will be lost on the reader. On the other hand, if the translator modifies the text so that it becomes funny in the target language, it may not end up sounding the same as the original. For example, let’s imagine that you are translating a comic from English to Spanish and come across the following: “Can you make dough?” “Well, I can make money, but I’ve never baked bread in my life.” The joke here relies on the fact that dough has two meanings in English: 1) a mixture of flour and water used for making bread and 2) an informal term for money. If you were to translate this literally into Spanish using the word masa , the reader would have no idea what you were talking about. One possibility to deal with this would be to use the word pasta , which in some Spanish-speaking countries is used to refer to money: “Pasta, sí. Pero solo la que se come.” However, in doing so, the text may not sound as the original. Thus, the translator must sometimes choose between staying faithful to the source text or staying faithful to the intent of the author. Sometimes, this means that the joke simply will not be as funny in the target language.

W117 · Philosophy vignetteRound 2 · Human · 131/150 words

Explain the difference between being patient and being passive using an everyday example. Acknowledge that the same outward behavior can have different motivations. Aim for 150 words.

If you’re waiting for a bus, and it’s not there when it should be, if you’re patient you will understand it’s delayed and wait for it’s arrival. If need be, you will act to resolve the situation and find another way to get to your destination. If, however, you’re passive, you will just sit there and wait, as you feel you have no other choice. Being patient is allowing things to happen in their own time, without becoming frustrated. Being passive is giving up, not doing what you should be doing. Of course, you can be motivated to do the same thing for different reasons; you can sit and wait for a bus because you’re patient, or because you’re passive and the two may appear the same to the outside observer.

W118 · Historical source readingRound 2 · Human · 181/150 words

Explain what a historian could and could not infer from a nineteenth-century household shopping list. Distinguish recorded purchases from assumptions about who ate the food. Aim for 150 words.

Using shopping lists to find out what people ate in the 19th century There are some things that a 19th century shopping list can tell us. By looking at what someone bought or was going to buy at a particular time in their life, we can get some idea of their affluence at that time. And, by looking at the quantities of food, the prices, comparing lists at different times and seeing what items are repeated, we can perhaps get some idea of changes in their diet. What a shopping list does not tell us What a shopping list does not tell us, is what someone actually ate. Here's why. Firstly, and most importantly, there is no way of knowing who ate what . Even if you have a list of what was bought, you can't be sure that everything was eaten by everyone in the household. Yes, you may be able to piece together some information from other sources - diaries, cookbooks, household accounts, records about servants etc. But you will never be completely sure what any one person ate.

W119 · Cultural criticismRound 2 · Human · 361/300 words

Discuss whether museums should display damaged objects after repair. Consider visibility of repairs, authenticity, accessibility, and honest labeling without assuming one rule suits every object. Aim for 300 words.

I think in most cases, if something that was damaged in a museum is fixed, they should show it. Depending on what the object is and how it was fixed, it may be best to not show the object. But, it would not lose value if it was damaged and fixed. The object may be very important to history or a certain culture, so not showing it can be taking away something important. Also, the damage to the object may play an important part in its story. Depending on the object and how it was fixed, it may or may not be good if the fixes are easily seen. It may be important for people to see how it was fixed, but it may also be better for the fixes to not be easily seen. It all depends on the object and what would be more beneficial. If the fixes are very visible, it can take away from the object and people will be more focused on how the object was fixed then the object itself. But, if the fixes are not visible, it can seem like the object was never damaged and that can take away from the object as well. How the fixes are shown should depend on the object and what would be most beneficial. Even if something is fixed, it can still be authentic. Things are always changing and being changed. If something is fixed, it can just be seen as a restoration to help preserve the object. Of course, if too much of the object is not original, it can take away from its authenticity. So, it would be important to make sure people know how much of the object is new and how much is original. If something cannot be shown, it may be beneficial to show a picture or a replica of the object. Or, a digital version of the object could be shown. Also, the museum should make sure that they are being honest when labeling the object. They should make sure to include if it was damaged and fixed. Ultimately, it depends on the object and what would be the most beneficial.

W120 · Memory reflectionRound 2 · AI · 201/200 words

Write a reflective essay about finding an old handwritten recipe whose instructions are incomplete. Explore family memory through concrete details rather than general claims about nostalgia. Aim for 200 words.

I found the recipe in my mom's old book. At the top, in grandma's distinctive blue ink, it says "two cups of flour, a little salt, and just enough milk." Underneath that it says, "bake until it's ready." That's it. No temperature, no time, no name. There's a stain of butter at the top and a little drawing of a star. I know she measured it like this when I was little and helped her in the kitchen. I could watch her work, but she never let me near the knife. I tried to make it last Sunday. The dough was too wet at first, so I kept adding flour until, like grandma used to say, it felt like it knew where it was going. When it came out of the oven uneven and crisp on the edges, my mom took a bite and told me what it was. We talked about it for a while, whether or not she put sugar in it, how she always seemed to make enough for whoever was around. The recipe doesn't tell me how much of anything to use, but between the lines, I can see how much room she made at her table.

W121 · Climate explainerRound 2 · AI · 523/500 words

Explain the difference between the greenhouse effect, global warming, and urban heat islands for a general reader. Describe mechanisms and avoid implying that every hot day proves a global trend. Aim for 500 words.

WHAT is the Greenhouse Effect? The Greenhouse Effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere. Solar radiation reaches Earth's surface and warms land and ocean waters. That energy is radiated back toward space as infrared radiation (heat). Some of this energy is absorbed by greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane, among others. That energy is subsequently radiated in all directions. This process effectively reduces the rate at which Earth's atmosphere loses energy and causes it to be warmer than it would be in the absence of an atmosphere. Human activities, such as burning coal, oil and gas, as well as deforestation and agriculture, are enhancing the natural greenhouse effect, leading to global warming. WHAT is Global Warming? Global warming is the increase in average temperature of the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere since the mid-twentieth century, and is expected to continue. Global warming is caused primarily by the enhanced greenhouse effect due to the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In common speech, "global warming" may also refer to observed increases in surface temperatures since the mid-twentieth century (as reflected in the land-ocean temperature index), and may even include longer-term temperature changes such as those occurring during the mid-twentieth century cooling and the preceding Little Ice Age. Although the entire troposphere is warming, the general term "global warming" is often used to refer to the warming of the land and ocean surface temperatures, which are most relevant to humans. Warming may cause other changes, such as increases in extreme heat events and a shift in the amounts and patterns of rainfall and drought, as well as changes in the amount of ice and snow stored in the mountains and on the land, and warming of the ocean. WHAT is the Urban Heat Island Effect? The Urban Heat Island Effect is a region (usually urban) that is significantly warmer than its surroundings (usually rural). This phenomenon may be caused by human activity and the replacement of natural land cover with large areas of dark surfaces (such as roofs and asphalt) that absorb more sunlight during the day and radiate more heat than natural vegetation. The urban heat island also results from the reduced availability of water for evaporation in cities, since vegetation is removed and covered over with solid surfaces. Heat produced by vehicles, air conditioning, and industry also contributes to the urban heat island effect. In addition, cities often have a reduced air flow which prevents the dispersion of heat. The effect varies depending on weather conditions, land use, and urban form. It can be mitigated through the use of green roofs, parks, trees, and other cooling technologies. HOW are these things related? The greenhouse effect is caused by gas. Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect. Urban Heat Island Effect is caused by global warming. HOW do we know it's not just a particularly hot day? It's similar to knowing that someone is sad versus them just being in a bad mood one day.

W122 · Machine learningRound 2 · Human · 593/500 words

Explain training, validation, and test sets using a system that predicts bicycle demand. Discuss temporal leakage and why repeatedly consulting the test set can mislead evaluation. Aim for 500 words.

Let's illustrate this with a case study. Let's say that you work for a bike sharing company and you'd like to predict the bike demand in each neighborhood for each hour of the day. You have historical information about the number of bikes rented, as well as information about the date, the meteorological conditions, holidays and so forth. In order to evaluate your system, you will split your data into 3 sets: Training set: it's the set of data that you will use for training your model. This is the data that your model will use to "learn" the factors that influence the number of bikes requested. The parameters of your model will be adjusted to the data present in this set in order to minimize the error on this set (for example, by minimizing the difference between the actual number of bikes and the number predicted). You should also use this set to fit any transformation that you want to apply to your data (for example, to normalize your data). Validation set: this is the set that you will use to make choices in your modeling. You will use it to choose the best algorithm, to determine the complexity of your model, to select the features that you want to use, etc. Your choices during the development of your model will be driven by the performance that you obtain on this set. Therefore, you are indirectly "adjusting" your model to this set, which will give you a slightly optimistic vision of the performance of your system. Test set: this is the set that you will use to evaluate your model at the end of your development phase. You should use it to give a final estimation of the performance of your system. In the case of forecasting the bike demand, it is preferable to separate your data temporally, with the oldest data being used for training, more recent data for the validation set, and the most recent data for the test set. This way, you will be closer to the real problem that you want to solve (using the past to forecast the future). Depending on the problem, you can also use several time periods in a row to evaluate your system (for example, train on the past and forecast the next period, then train on the past and forecast the next period, etc.) Watch out for temporal leakages: If you separate your data randomly, you might end up with a situation where your training set contains data from a Tuesday, and your test set contains data from the next Wednesday. Those two periods are very close to each other, so the conditions will be almost duplicated between your training and test sets. This will also be true for your validation set. Another thing to watch out for is including a feature that takes information from the future (for example, the number of bikes requested for the day if you are forecasting for a particular hour of the day, or a rolling average that takes the next periods into consideration). Finally, as I mentioned above, you should only use your training set to fit the transformations that you apply to your data. Avoid using the test set iteratively: As you are developing your system, use your validation set to evaluate your choices. Only use your test set when your development is finished, as each evaluation and modification based on your test set will transform it into a validation set and will give you an optimistic estimation of the performance of your system.

W123 · BiologyRound 2 · Human · 356/300 words

Explain how vaccination can create immune memory. Distinguish antibodies from memory cells and avoid suggesting that every vaccine prevents every infection. Aim for 300 words.

Vaccines work by exposing your immune system to something that your immune system can use to learn what a target germ looks like. It could be a weakened germ, killed germ, part of a germ, or something that instructs some of your body’s cells to make a protein that the germ makes. When your immune system sees this, immune cells work together to create a immune response. Some B cells turn into plasma cells, which make antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that target and bind to certain things. Antibodies can neutralize germs by blocking them from getting into your cells, flag them to be destroyed by other immune cells, and do other things. Antibodies are not memory cells, and eventually the amount of antibodies in your blood will go down (although some plasma cells can stick around for a long time and keep making antibodies). Other B cells turn into memory B cells, and some T cells also turn into memory T cells. Now, if your body sees that germ again, the memory cells can turn into other immune cells that respond faster and stronger to the germ. For example, the memory B cells can turn into new cells that make antibodies to target the germ, and the memory T cells can help other immune cells target the germ or help destroy your own cells that the germ has gotten into. This faster immune response can often stop you from getting sick, or make you less sick and not as long if you do get sick. Some vaccines are really good at stopping you from getting sick, others are really good at stopping you from getting severely ill but less effective at stopping you from getting infected/spreading the germ, and others are really good at stopping you from getting infected but not always, etc. That is why sometimes you need a booster shot, to remind your immune system what the germ looks like. Antibodies are more the “action” part of your immune system (although they are not cells), and memory cells last a long time to help your immune system respond faster to things in the future.

W124 · AstronomyRound 2 · Human · 290/300 words

Explain why Earth has seasons and why the northern and southern hemispheres have opposite seasons. Address the common misconception about distance from the Sun. Aim for 300 words.

The seasons are caused by the 23.5º tilt of the earth. As the earth revolves around the sun, sometimes the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. When this happens, sunlight hits that side of the earth more directly (it also has more hours of daylight during that time of the year). This makes it warmer on that side of the earth. Six months later, the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, and now it receives the majority of the sun's light and energy, and it is warmer there. When a hemisphere is pointed away from the sun, it receives less intense radiation from the sun (it also has less hours of daylight during that time of the year), and it is colder. This causes winter. In between these two times is spring and autumn. When it is summer on one side of the earth, it is winter on the other side. This is why in June, it is summer in the United States, but winter in Australia. In December, it is winter in the United States, but summer in Australia. In March and September, both sides of the earth are equally as far from the sun, so the day and night lengths are the same. Something that many people believe is that the seasons are caused by the eliptical orbit that the earth travels. At certain times of the year, the earth is farther from the sun than it is at other times. However, the seasons are determined not by how far the earth is from the sun, but by the tilt of the earth. At any one time, the northern and southern hemispheres are the same distance from the sun, however they are usually in different seasons.

W125 · PhysicsRound 2 · Human · 215/200 words

Explain why a thick blanket can keep a person warm without generating heat. Discuss insulation and clarify why wrapping an unheated object does not automatically make it hotter. Aim for 200 words.

A blanket will keep you warm by inhibiting heat loss. Your body generates a certain amount of heat as part of its metabolism. If there was nothing inhibiting heat transfer then this heat would escape your body and you would be at the same temperature as your surroundings. By placing a blanket over yourself you trap a layer of air close to your body which cannot circulate freely. Air is a relatively poor conductor of heat and so by having a layer of air which can not convect the rate at which heat is lost from your body is reduced. The blanket also reduces the amount of radiant heat lost from your body. The blanket itself does not heat you, you remain at roughly the same temperature. It simply stops your body heat from escaping. If you wrap something which is not generating heat in a blanket it will not heat up. The blanket is not a source of energy. If the object was cooler than its surroundings it would heat up more slowly than it would have done had it not been wrapped in a blanket. Likewise if it was warmer than its surroundings it would cool down more slowly. Nothing heats up unless there is a source of energy to heat it up.

W126 · StatisticsRound 2 · Human · 255/200 words

Explain why a correlation between umbrella use and traffic delays does not prove umbrellas cause delays. Discuss a plausible confounder and what additional evidence would help. Aim for 200 words.

While there may be a corrolation between umbrella use and traffic delays, it doesn't mean that there is a causal relationship. It could very well be that a third variable, not umbrella use, causes both the increase in umbrella use and the traffic delays. For example, rain. It could be that rain makes people use umbrellas, and the rain makes it harder to see, makes the roads more slippery and makes people drive more careful, leading to traffic delays. Of course there are plenty of other possibilities as well. If we want to actually test for a causal link between umbrella use and traffic delays, we would need to find two places (or two time periods in the same place) where all of the variables are the same except for the amount of umbrella use. If in both places it rained equally much, if the traffic was equally high, if the roads were in equal shape, if there were an equal amount of car collisions and road closures due to other reasons, etc., but in one place more umbrellas were used than in the other, and only then we could see whether umbrella use makes a difference. Of course this would need to be done with a large amount of data, from many places and days. Better would be an actual controlled experiment, but that would probably be too difficult to do without causing more traffic delays itself. Until then we can't conclude anything from the mere correlation, other than that there is a correlation.

W127 · ComputingRound 2 · Human · 176/150 words

Explain a database index using a library analogy. Include one way the analogy is limited and one cost of maintaining indexes. Aim for 150 words.

A database index is like a library catalog. Without the catalog, you would have to walk around the library and check every book to find the one you want. With the catalog, you can look for the title or author and be directed to a reference where the book can be found, allowing you to walk straight to the shelf on which it sits. A database index has a similar effect; it stores some of the information from a table, along with pointers to the rows from which the information was taken. Note that there are some differences between a database index and a library catalog; specifically, a database will use indexes automatically, and only for certain queries. Indexes also need to be updated whenever the data they index is changed, and can take up a significant amount of storage space. Because of this, using too many indexes can slow down the updating process and use a large amount of diskspace. For this reason, indexes should only be used when needed to speed up frequent queries.

W128 · EcologyRound 2 · Human · 213/150 words

Explain why restoring a wetland involves more than planting vegetation. Mention water flow, species, maintenance, and how success might be observed over time. Aim for 150 words.

The next step is the actual restoration of the wetland. There are a number of things that are required at this stage. First, the water needs to be brought in to the wetland. The water levels need to be correct, and the right amount of water must flow through the wetland at the correct times of the year. This may mean restoring the natural water channels that were there before the wetland was drained, or removing barriers to water flow. It may also mean changing the drainage on the land so that it floods at the right time of year, and does not dry out or flood all of the time. Secondly, the correct species of plants need to be planted. These need to be native species, suited to the local environment, and also suited to the type of wildlife you want to attract to the wetland. Thirdly, the wetland will need to be maintained, to keep it healthy and viable. Finally, the project needs to be monitored, to see if it has been a success or not. Evidence of success will include the wetland staying in good condition, and improvements in the local environment, including increased wildlife, better water quality, and a reduction in the amount of invasive species in the area.

W129 · Research designRound 2 · Human · 396/300 words

Design a small study testing whether reminder postcards increase attendance at a community workshop. Explain allocation, outcome measurement, consent or privacy considerations, and a limitation. Aim for 300 words.

Getting started: Contacting potential participants Contact people who register for a community-based workshop, indicating that they are ok to be contacted. Inform them that you will be testing whether a reminder postcard increases their likelihood of attending, and that they do not have to take part if they prefer not to. Tell them that all registrants will receive the usual confirmation of registration and information about the event. Randomly assign each person to one of two groups. The simplest method is to use a computer to generate a random list. Several days prior to the event, send one group of registrants a postcard with a brief reminder about the event. The second group of registrants does not receive a postcard, but will receive the usual information about the event. If the number of registrants is large, and they vary by where they live or when they registered, it may be best to randomly assign people within each location and registration date. The postcard should simply include information about the event, such as date, time, place, and a contact person. Determining whether participants attended: The most direct way to measure the impact of the reminder postcard is to compare the proportion of registrants who attended the event in each group. Event staff can record which registrants attend, either by name from a registration list or by a registration code. Even if participants in the postcard group do not receive or see their postcard, include them in the group to which they were randomly assigned. It is useful, however, to know the number of undeliverable postcards. Although a small pilot project may not be able to reliably detect a small impact of the postcards, it can at least provide some indication of whether a larger project would be worthwhile. Protecting participant privacy Collect and store only the information you need for the project. Keep the list of contacts separate from the information on who attended the event, limit access to the information, and eliminate it when it is no longer needed. Give people the opportunity to opt out of future mailings. Avoid including any personal information on the postcards, since others may see them. Limitations of this approach This approach only includes people who registered for the event and agreed to be contacted. These people may differ from the general population in how they respond to a postcard.

W130 · Scientific uncertaintyRound 2 · Human · 278/200 words

Explain why two well-conducted studies might obtain different estimates of the same effect. Distinguish sampling variation from differences in populations or methods. Aim for 200 words.

It could simply be due to chance. The two studies provide different estimates of the effect. The estimate of the effect is not the same as the effect itself; it is based on the particular set of patients (or other units) in the study. If we could repeatedly sample from the population of interest and conduct studies in exactly the same way, the estimates of effect would vary slightly from study to study. This is called sampling variation. It is reduced by increasing the sample size but cannot be eliminated entirely. By considering the confidence intervals , we can get an idea of the range of estimates that are reasonably likely, given the data from each study. There may be other explanations for the differences between the two studies. The two studies may have sampled from different populations. For example, the patients in the two studies may have been of different ages or had different risk factors for the condition of interest, and the effect of the intervention may differ for these different groups of people. The methods used in the two studies may have differed in important ways. The outcome may have been measured differently, for example. Other aspects of the studies may have been different, such as the way in which the intervention was given, or other methodological features of the study. Think about how the study results compare, both in terms of the estimates of effect and the uncertainty around them. If they differ more than you would expect due to sampling variation, think about whether there is a sensible explanation for the difference in terms of differences between the study populations or methodological differences.

W131 · Strategy memoRound 2 · Human · 465/500 words

Write a memo for a bicycle repair shop deciding whether to offer mobile repairs or extend weekend opening. Propose small reversible tests, relevant costs, and decision criteria without inventing market-size statistics. Aim for 500 words.

What would you do? Here's what I'd do If you have a vehicle and available staff you could try running a limited mobile service for a few weeks. Limit the service area and the type of work, maybe limit it to one or two days and a limited number of jobs that need to be booked in advance with a deposit to limit no shows. Limit the distance you are prepared to travel and make sure you have the parts available to limit repeat visits. Keep detailed notes of enquires, jobs booked, jobs done, jobs cancelled, travel time, job time, parts availability, repeat visits etc etc. Then work out the cost of running the service including staff time, mileage, parking, vehicle costs, tools, consumables, payment costs etc and decide if it was worth doing. Similarly you can extend your opening hours for a limited time on a rota basis without incurring overtime and without affecting normal shop opening. Advertise the extended hours and keep a record of the business generated, did it capture people who would have come in during normal hours or were they additional? How much work was done, how much was sold, how much work was taken on but not done, what were the incremental staff costs, employer costs, utility costs, payment costs, security costs etc. Then decide if it was a useful exercise or not. The key thing is decide before you start what the outcome has to be to justify continuing and how much you are prepared to spend on finding out. Work on incremental contribution from both labour and parts rather than just revenue. Compare and contrast the two on a number of basis, incremental contribution, incremental contribution per staff hour, your time, managers time, customer satisfaction, repeat business, disruption to normal running etc. Don't forget to differentiate between one off costs and running costs. The key thing is to keep it small scale and reversible, you don't need to buy a van or sign a lease or commit to any changes until you know it is worth doing. If possible do them separately, if you do them together make sure you advertise them separately and use different booking codes so you know which business came from which source. Also make sure you allow for seasonality, weather, holidays and any other influences that might affect your normal business. If at the end of the day each trial generates a positive incremental contribution at a level you can support and there is evidence to suggest that there is enough on going business from satisfied customers then you can make a decision to continue, if not pull out whilst you still can. Remember its better to know now than wait until you have committed to something that you cannot reverse easily.

W132 · Project proposalRound 2 · Human · 524/500 words

Write a six-week proposal for replacing a small charity's shared filing system. Include roles, migration checks, access permissions, training, measures of success, and risks. Aim for 500 words.

Moving to a new system The simplest solution to the problem is to move to a secure document management system, which can be accessed from anywhere. This should be done in a methodical way, with a small project team, including a sponsor (trustee or senior manager), project coordinator (senior manager with responsibility for operations), technical lead (system administrator or external supplier) and representatives from each team within the charity. The charity’s data protection lead should also be involved. Although it is important to involve staff in identifying their needs, there should be only one person making the final decisions about the folder structure and who has access to what. Week 1 The project coordinator should review the current folder structure, to identify who ‘owns’ each folder, who needs access, the types of documents involved and any current issues. They should also identify which documents need to be kept, particularly any personal, financial or safeguarding data. Week 2 Research and select a new system. There are many document management systems available, so you should identify what you need and then look for one or two that fit that need. You should choose a system that provides security, including individual user accounts, multifactor authentication, version control, audit logs, good recovery facilities and encryption. The project team should then decide on the folder structure, file naming convention, document retention period and how staff should request access to the new system. Week 3 The technical lead should set up the system and test it. They should set up the appropriate permissions, so that each member of staff has access only to the documents they need. For example, finance records should be accessed only by the finance team and safeguarding records only by those specifically designated. The technical lead should set up individual user accounts with multifactor authentication and not allow the use of common accounts. They should also set appropriate permissions for each user, and not allow files to be shared with external users unless appropriate. Week 4 Migration should take place in a series of batches, starting with the most organised and actively used folders. Files should be pruned at the same time, with duplicates and out of date files removed (this should be done in conjunction with the data protection officer). The original system should be made read only and kept for reference during the migration. Care should be taken to make sure that the number and size of files is the same on both systems, and that the appropriate permissions are in place. A full record of the migration should be kept. Week 5 Training should be provided to all staff on the new system. This can be done in a series of short sessions, tailored to each group of staff and supported by a one-page guide to the most common operations. Week 6 Once the migration is complete, the original system can be retired, after a suitable period with it held for reference as a read-only system. Consider how you will measure the success of the move to the new system. What could go wrong and what can you do to mitigate any risks?

W133 · Incident reportRound 2 · Human · 424/300 words

Write a fictional incident report about duplicate appointment reminders sent during a software update. Give a consistent timeline, distinguish confirmed facts from hypotheses, and describe corrective actions. No appointments were lost. Aim for 300 words.

On the 14th April 2025, Northstar Clinic’s scheduling service (this is a made up name for the purpose of this example) experienced an issue where some patients received duplicate appointment reminder messages during a scheduled software update. At 08:00 our engineers started a scheduled software update of our patient reminder service. At 08:17 the service had completed its restart, and began processing the queue of patient reminder messages it needed to send out that morning. Between 08:19 and 08:36 some of our patients received two appointment reminder text messages, usually within two minutes of each other. At 08:41 our support agent identified that some patients had received multiple reminder messages. At 08:48 our operations team suspended all SMS reminder messages. At 09:12 our engineers had completed rolling back to the previous version of the service, and began processing the reminder message queue again after verifying its integrity. At 10:05 we completed our reconciliation of all appointments with your appointment management system, and have confirmed that all appointments are still scheduled correctly. Our logs indicate that the software update caused the service to retry sending part of its message queue, without recording that it had already sent those messages. We are still investigating why it didn’t record that the messages were sent. Our engineers believe it may have been caused by a timing conflict with the database connection being reset, but we have not yet confirmed this. There is no indication that any appointment or contact information was changed by this issue. We have sent, or will send by 11:30 today, a follow up text message to the affected patients to explain what happened, and confirm that their appointments are unchanged. We have provided your support staff with a script they can use to respond to your patients. We’ve also asked your clinic locations to check in with their patients to confirm their appointments are still correct. No action is required from your patients. We have made a change to our service to stop it from retrying messages when it restarts. We are also implementing additional checks to make sure that it compares the message queue to its record of which messages it has sent before it sends messages again. We are currently testing some other changes, which will make our software update process more gradual, and alert us if the service does send duplicate messages in the future. Our engineers will complete their root cause analysis by the 18th, at which time we may have a better understanding of what exactly caused the issue.

W134 · Hiring descriptionRound 2 · Human · 281/300 words

Write a job description for a part-time coordinator at a community pottery studio. Include practical duties, essential versus optional experience, and an accessible application process without exaggerated culture claims. Aim for 300 words.

We are looking to hire a part time coordinator to help out the members, classes and instructors of our busy pottery studio. Some evening and/or weekend hours will be required. Specific hours and pay will be discussed upon hire. Day to day tasks include: answering questions in person and via e-mail, processing registrations for classes and studio bookings, greeting studio visitors, keeping track of studio supplies, preparing studio space for classes, managing cleaning tasks and general upkeep of the studio, as well as helping to track and communicate firing schedules and procedures, among other tasks. You must be able to follow studio safety procedures, which require standing for long periods, light lifting, and other tasks. Reasonable accommodations can be discussed. Required experience/skills: You are organized, responsible, a good communicator, computer literate and able to work independently, but know when to ask for help. You are eager to learn and follow procedures, especially related to health and safety. No pottery experience is required. It would be an asset if you have experience working in a ceramics studio or other arts, community or customer service oriented work environment, with booking and inventory software, and/or with people of varying levels of pottery experience. To apply, please send a brief description of your experience and why you are interested in the position. A resume would be helpful but is not required. Send to: [email protected] or ask at the front desk for other ways of applying. Requests for accommodations in the application or interview process are welcome, simply let us know. Short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview and will be given further details about the next steps in the hiring process. Good luck!

W135 · Customer apologyRound 2 · AI · 194/200 words

Write an apology email for sending the wrong replacement part. Confirm that the correct part will ship Friday at no charge, provide placeholders for tracking, and explain how to return the incorrect part without blaming the customer. Aim for 200 words.

Hello [Customer Name], Hi, first of all I am sorry that we sent you the wrong part for your replacement. We are working on getting you the right part and it should be shipped this Friday. There will be no charge to you for this part. Your tracking info is below: Tracking Number: Tracking Link: We would like you to send back the part that we did send to you. We will send you the return label with this email. Just put the part that we sent in the box it came in (or any box for that matter as long as it is secure) and tape the shipping label on and drop it off with . If you have any questions or need any help with this just reply to this email and we will be happy to help. Until we get the return label ready you don't have to do anything. Again there will be no charge to you for the shipping label. If you have any questions please feel free to reply to this email. Again we are very sorry for the mix up. Best, [Your Name] [Company Name] [Contact Information]

W136 · Performance feedbackRound 2 · Human · 205/200 words

Write constructive feedback to a colleague whose careful analyses often arrive after agreed deadlines. Recognize the strength, explain the impact, and propose a check-in process without inventing a specific missed project. Aim for 200 words.

I wanted to speak with you about the analyses you've been providing. First of all, I really appreciate the care that you take in your work and the quality of analysis that you provide. The issue I'm raising is that sometimes your work doesn't come in until after the deadline that we'd agreed on. Can you understand how that might impact some of the other people who are involved in the process? Even if you let us know that it won't come in on time, that would be helpful. What do you think about setting up a process where, when we agree on a deadline, we also agree on a time when you can give us a quick status as to how you're doing in relation to the deadline. That way, if you're finding that the deadline we agreed on isn't going to work, we can discuss how we're going to adjust. What do you think about that? I'm really confident we can find a way for you to continue the quality of work you're doing and also to provide it in a timely fashion. How does what I'm proposing sound to you? Do you have any ideas about how we might make this work?

W137 · Meeting summaryRound 2 · Human · 169/150 words

Summarize a fictional meeting decision to test a shorter registration form for two weeks. Keep payment steps unchanged, assign monitoring to the operations team, and state what evidence will determine whether to retain it. Aim for 150 words.

Hi team, To follow up on our discussion last week, we should test your theory that the registration form is too long. Let’s make the changes you’ve suggested and run a trial for the next two weeks starting on the next release. For now, let’s keep the payment steps and information the same so we can focus on just the registration. I’ll ask the ops team to monitor the trial for us and let us know the results at the end of two weeks. They can compare the registration completion and abandonment rates, errors, and any customer support questions related to this to what we’ve seen recently. They can also compare the trial to users who are still using the existing form. At the end of the trial, we can decide whether we want to keep the shorter registration form or not depending on the results. If the trial is successful, we can keep the new registration form. If not, we can always update it or change it back.

W138 · Status updateRound 2 · Human · 83/150 words

Write a project update: the archive move begins Tuesday; nine boxes lack destination labels; labeling needs two working days; other boxes can move as scheduled. Make the dependency and next action clear. Aim for 150 words.

We are due to start moving our archive this Tuesday and most of our boxes are ready for this. There are, however, 9 boxes for which I do not yet have labels to indicate where they are going. I will therefore not be able to move these boxes to their eventual destination until I do have labels to stick on them. This will take 2 working days so I had best start on this very soon. What do we need to do next?

W139 · Procurement analysisRound 2 · Human · 426/300 words

Compare renting and buying a projector for a small organization with uncertain event frequency. Discuss total costs, reliability, support, storage, and information needed before a decision. Do not invent prices. Aim for 300 words.

When to rent or buy a projector For a small organization that is unsure of how many events they are likely to put on in the future, the flexibility of being able to just rent a projector for an event, and not having to commit to buying one, can be a good idea. On the other hand, buying a projector may be cheaper in the long run. To compare the two options you need to think about all the costs involved in buying a projector, including any accessories you'll need, maintenance and repair, replacement, and any financing or insurance you decide to take out. When comparing the cost of renting a projector you may need to consider the cost of having it delivered and picked up or setting it up, or even the cost of extending the rental period or of getting a projector at short notice. A projector hire company may be able to provide a reliable service, but there is always the risk that they may not have the type of projector you want when you need it, or they may be delayed delivering it. On the other hand, if you have your own projector it will always be there when you want it, but you'll be responsible for making sure it is in good working order. You may be able to get good technical support from whoever you hire a projector from, but it's something you should check out. If you buy a projector you'll need to consider the warranty and how easy it will be to get it fixed if something goes wrong, and how long it is likely to last. If you hire a projector you don't need to worry about where you are going to store it. If you buy a projector you'll need somewhere safe to put it. To decide whether to rent or buy a projector you need to consider how often you think you'll need one in the future, compare this with quotes you get for hiring one, and think about all the other costs of owning a projector. You'll also need to think about what type of projector you need, how big an image you need to project, how bright it needs to be, where you'll be projecting, how you'll transport the projector, who'll be using it, and what will happen if it breaks down. If you're very unsure of how often you'll need a projector in the future, it may be best to hire one for the time being until you have a better idea.

W140 · Internal policyRound 2 · AI · 232/200 words

Draft a shared-kitchen policy asking users to label refrigerated food and remove it by Friday afternoon. Exempt clearly labeled supplies for approved weekend events and explain a fair reminder process. Aim for 200 words.

Please label all food in the refrigerator with your name and the date you put it in there. All food in the refrigerator must be removed by Friday afternoon of each week in order to keep the refrigerator clean for everyone. The only exception to this rule is food for an approved weekend event. Those items must be labeled with the name of the event, the name of the person putting them in, and the date they will be removed. Event items need to be removed promptly after the event is over. Please note that there will be a consistent reminder process in place before removing food. On Friday mornings a reminder will be posted next to the refrigerator and to the individuals who have food in there, if possible. On Friday afternoon, any food that is still there will be labeled with the date and put into the other location (if we have one). That food will have until the next business day to be picked up, at which point it will be thrown out if it isn’t picked up or if it has gone bad. If food is in there and we aren’t sure who it belongs to, we will post a notice before throwing it away if at all possible. If you need more time or you are storing food for an approved event, please contact the kitchen coordinator.

W141 · Reported featureRound 2 · Human · 590/500 words

Write a clearly labeled fictional feature about a neighborhood clothing swap held each season. Include concrete scenes, named fictional participants, practical benefits, and logistical limitations without claiming measured environmental savings. Aim for 500 words.

This is a fictional feature On a Saturday morning, a crowd of individuals from a housing community gathered to participate in a clothing swap. People were sorting, hanging up and labelling their clothing donations for others to peruse. The different articles of clothing were sorted into categories. There were tables to lay out the clothing on, there were baskets for scarves and other small items and there was a small area for people to put their shoes. The event was organized and run by the residents of the housing community and it was held four times a year to coincide with the changes in seasons. People were able to bring in clothing that they had outgrown or no longer needed and in exchange they could take home whatever they liked from the clothing that others had brought. No money was exchanged at the swap and people were not required to bring anything if they did not wish to. There were some simple guidelines for what could be brought to the swap. Clothing could not be stained or broken and underwear was not permitted. People were only allowed to take what they needed. Participants at the swap seemed happy with what they managed to find. ``I needed a new cardigan for my daughter'' explained one woman ``her old one had become too small and this will last her until the next swap.'' A retired elderly woman was trying on a jacket and deciding whether or not she wanted to keep it. ``I'm not sure if this is my style yet'' she said with a smile ``but now that I've tried it on, I know that it is.'' People attended the swap for a variety of reasons. Some needed clothing for themselves or for their children. New residents attending their first swap often needed a coat to help them through the upcoming season. Other participants brought in clothing to be rid of it or to simply see what was available. Through the swap, people were able to meet their neighbours and create new friendships within the community. The swap was a small affair with a limited amount of racks for people to hang their clothing on. Often, certain items such as winter coats and clothing in popular sizes would be taken very quickly while other items such as formal wear and clothing in unusual sizes would not be taken at all. Clothing that was not taken at the swap could not be kept for the next one. Often the organizers of the swap would contact a shelter to see if they wanted any of the clothing. Any clothing that the shelter did not want would be brought to a collection point and any clothing that could not be collected would be disposed of. As the swap was a very small operation, it was subject to a number of limitations. There were a limited number of resources available for the swap and it was not uncommon for something to go wrong with the event. In the past, there have been problems such as volunteers falling ill or the venue leaking. However, the organizers of the swap have managed to overcome these problems and make the swap a success despite the limitations that it has. The participants at the clothing swap seemed very happy with how the event went and they are already looking forward to the next one. No matter what the clothing swap may have for them next time, it is sure that they will walk away with something that they need.

W142 · Investigative explainerRound 2 · Human · 530/500 words

Explain how changing the denominator can make the same public-service performance look better or worse. Use a clearly hypothetical numerical example, show both calculations, and distinguish misleading presentation from evidence of misconduct. Aim for 500 words.

It’s all in the denominator How can two different performance rates for the same service both be correct? Let’s start with an obvious point, a performance rate is a fraction, it has a numerator and a denominator. The numerator is the number of cases meeting the performance target. The denominator is the number of cases you want to measure the performance for. Example Let’s take an example in a hypothetical call centre serving the public. In a given month, 100 people ring the call centre for assistance, and 90 of them get connected to an agent within five minutes. The remaining 10 people get impatient and hang up without getting through to an agent. If you define the denominator as the number of people calling in to the call centre, you can report that 90% of callers get through to an agent within 5 minutes. But if you define the denominator as the number of calls answered by the call centre, you can report that 100% of calls are answered within five minutes. In both cases, the numerator is 90. Is one of these performance measures incorrect? Or is one of them misleading? You could argue that the second performance measure makes the call centre look better than it is, and therefore it could be considered misleading. However, there are many legitimate reasons why the denominator might be different from the total number of cases a service receives. Perhaps some cases are duplicate records which need to be excluded. Perhaps some cases are outside the authority’s jurisdiction. Perhaps some applications are withdrawn by the applicant before they can be processed. The important thing is that whatever the definition of the denominator, it should be defined ahead of time, applied consistently, and disclosed to the public. And when the denominator changes, that needs to be disclosed as well, so the public know that performance in the previous year isn’t directly comparable to the performance in the current year. Probably the best approach would be to disclose both performance measures – “90% of callers get through to an agent within five minutes, and 100% of calls answered by our call centre are answered within five minutes.” You could also report the number of calls that were abandoned, and give some definitions to clarify how you’re calculating the performance measures. Generally it’s useful to report counts along with performance measures, as it gives the public some additional information to help interpret what the performance measures mean. Finally, is it wrong to choose the denominator that makes your service look the best? That’s a hard question to answer. It may simply be an error, or it may be a reasonable technical definition that you’re applying, or it may be that your industry has a standard definition for the denominator that you’re following. On the other hand, if you’ve deliberately changed the definition of the denominator to hide the fact that your performance has slipped, or if you’re not disclosing important exclusions from the denominator, or if you’re not applying the definition consistently, or if you’re claiming an improvement in performance that isn’t supported by the underlying data – then yes, that would be wrong.

W143 · Local newsRound 2 · AI · 401/300 words

Write a fictional local news article: a town opens a temporary reading room in the old station on October 12; it operates Wednesday through Saturday; entry is free; a six-month trial will be reviewed. Clearly identify invented quotations as fictional. Aim for 300 words.

A temporary reading room will open Oct. 12 in the old railway station in town. Open from Wednesday to Saturday, entry to the Reading Room will be free for all. The town is offering the space as a place where people of all ages can come and enjoy some quiet time in a nice setting. It will also give the town a chance to see if they can put the now disused station to good use over the next six months. The Reading Room will contain donated books, newspapers and magazines, as well as tables for students and other seating for those who want to sit back and read. People will also be able to bring their own books with them to read. Over the next six months there will also be a small schedule of activities put on to encourage the whole community to make use of the space. Mara Ellison, Community Services Coordinator for the town of Bellwether said, “We thought it would be good to put the space to use and provide a venue for people in town.” This is a fictional quote. The old railway station has been out of service for a number of years now and has been used sporadically by the town for storage purposes. The town has spent some time and money cleaning up and doing some basic repairs to the building and a group of volunteers has spent a lot of time sorting through the books and getting the inside of the building ready for opening. The town has decided to operate the Reading Room for six months to see how it goes and will then make a decision as to whether or not to continue with the project. They will ask for feedback from the people in town over the six months via comment cards at the Reading Room and through a town survey. Town council member, Peter Vale said, “If people use it, then we’ll have to consider continuing with it.” This is a fictional quote. The town has not made any announcements yet as to what will happen after the six-month trial period. Details of the opening hours and any activities will be posted at the Reading Room and on the town’s web site. Everyone is invited to check out the Reading Room when it opens to the public on October 12th. No membership or library card is required.

W144 · ProfileRound 2 · Human · 305/300 words

Write a fictional profile of a watch repairer teaching an apprentice. Use specific observed actions and a moment of uncertainty; avoid portraying the subject as flawless or inventing awards. Aim for 300 words.

Every morning at nine, she unlocks the door. `` No, Joel, not like that. Slower... yes, just like that.'' She watches the boys young hands carefully remove the back of the clock. `` Good, that's a start. Now, watch here.'' She carefully removes her own tool and shows him how its done. `` See? You have to be careful, not too fast, but steady. It has to be straight.'' She removes the back with a practiced pop and sets it aside. Over the years, she's taught the boy a thing or two. He's a quick study, very careful with his work. He picks things up easily, and learns her little techniques. `` Now be careful with these, they go everywhere.'' She laughs as he drops one of the tiny screws, and they both scramble to find it under the bench, moving baskets and tools out of the way until they spot it gleaming on the floor. Its not always easy, though. Sometimes, even she has trouble. `` Hmm.. what could be wrong with this one?'' She pauses, staring at the tiny innards of the wristwatch. `` It cant be that... no, theres something there, but Im not sure what yet. Lets have a look together, hmm?'' Carefully, she studies it alongside him, letting him fix it when they find the problem. `` Thats it! Great job, Joel!'' Every night when they close, he winds the clock above the door. Every night, she shrugs when he points out that its not quite right. `` Well, we'll see about that tomorrow.'' (( This is a general roleplay, feel free to PM me to be Joel or to interact with the shopkeeper, Mara Venn. Feel free to bring your own characters in! Also, this will be rather slow paced, as clock fixing isnt a speedy thing. ;3 ))

W145 · EditorialRound 2 · AI · 282/200 words

Write an editorial arguing that a council should explain changes to recycling collections clearly. Address residents without internet access and suggest a way to assess whether the explanation worked. Aim for 200 words.

To ensure that everyone is informed about changes to the recycling collection service, the council needs to communicate effectively. Without effective communication, people may be confused and put their recyclable materials into the general rubbish or their recycling may be rejected. Either of these outcomes would have a negative impact on the council’s ability to meet its environmental objectives. To communicate effectively, the council should explain clearly (and in plain English) what changes are being made to the recycling collection service, with plenty of examples. This information should be available on the council’s website, however not everyone has access to the internet so it is important that the council uses a range of communication methods to make sure that everyone is informed. The council could print and distribute leaflets to all houses in the area, include the information on the recycling collection calendar, put up posters at the local library and community centre and provide a phone helpline for people to call if they have any questions. It would also be a good idea to provide this information in a variety of formats and languages to make sure that it is accessible to everyone. The council should also find out whether their attempts to communicate have been effective. They could conduct a postal, telephone or online survey of a representative sample of residents to find out if people know about the changes. They could also look at the number of missed recycling collections and the rate of contamination and compare these figures to previous years. If it appears that people are still confused about the recycling collection service, the council will need to try communicating the message again in a clearer way.

W146 · Arts reviewRound 2 · Human · 201/200 words

Review an imaginary exhibition of charcoal drawings of kitchens. Describe two specific works, one strength, and one weakness. Keep the tone balanced and identify the exhibition as fictional. Aim for 200 words.

This exhibit is a collection of drawings and all are of kitchens. In “After the Kettle,” for instance, the space seems small with a very narrow counter along one wall with a darkened window above it. There’s the kettle itself, drawn quite darkly and with almost no detail. In front of it, the artist erased a small patch of white onto the darkened paper to give the effect of a stream of steam, and next to that is a mug, although it’s hard to tell in the shadows. In “Sunday Sink,” there is an entire countertop of dishes, and the artist has used all kinds of shades of charcoal, from soft to scratchy, to create plates and a colander and a dish towel on the counter near the sink. The artist has drawn a little white border around the faucet to draw your eye to that part of the picture and to provide a little contrast with all the darkened tones of the rest of the piece. Although this exhibit was fairly good (the artist shows a sensitivity for detail), it was also a bit samey to me. However, if you like subtle, low-lighted views of kitchens, it’s worth a visit.

W147 · Sports reportRound 2 · Mixed · 159/150 words

Write a fictional match report: home team Eastbank led 1–0 at halftime; visitors Hillcrest equalized in minute 62; Eastbank scored the winner in minute 88. Preserve the team roles and sequence exactly. Aim for 150 words.

The home fans were delighted as Eastbank started the game well, pressing high up the pitch and using their width to great effect. Their efforts were rewarded when, in the 23rd minute, midfielder Jonah Vale found striker Marcus Reed in the box, who smashed it past the keeper and into the back of the net, leaving Eastbank 1-0 up. Hillcrest upped their game in the second half, playing quick, effective football. However they were met with a stiff defence and it took until the 62nd minute for winger Tomas Bell to squeeze a shot past the keeper through a mass of legs to pull one back for Hillcrest. The game opened up as the teams both looked for a winner. It was Eastbank who got the win though, as sub Eli Mercer headed in a corner in the 88th minute. Hillcrest tried to mount a late comeback but Eastbanks defence stood strong and the home side took the win.

W148 · Public noticeRound 2 · AI · 162/150 words

Write a notice that Cedar Street's pedestrian bridge closes from Tuesday through Thursday for surface repairs and reopens Friday morning. Direct pedestrians to the step-free crossing at Maple Road and avoid implying it is the same bridge. Aim for 150 words.

Our Cedar Street pedestrian bridge is closed for surface repairs Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The bridge will reopen Friday morning. Please use the existing, step-free crossing at Maple Road to cross the road during this closure. We would like to remind customers that the crossing at Maple Road is not another entrance to the Cedar Street pedestrian bridge, but is its own separate crossing. Please follow signs to use the crossing at Maple Road, and please allow additional time for this detour. Please respect the closure of the Cedar Street pedestrian bridge and do not go around the barriers, as we must keep the bridge closed to ensure the safety of all pedestrians and our crews performing the work. We thank you in advance for your patience while we complete this important work. Please plan accordingly as the Cedar Street bridge will not be open for use until Friday morning, at which time we anticipate it will be ready for use again.

W149 · Interview Q&ARound 2 · Human · 343/300 words

Write a fictional interview with a community radio producer about local reporting. Include a challenging question about editorial independence and a substantive answer. Keep questions and answers natural. Aim for 300 words.

How do you stay independent when your sponsors are the people you’re reporting on? Me and a fellow journalist at Harbor FM have been putting out a local news show for the past six years, and I get a lot of tips from the community. It can be anything from local council, local schools, health, etc. I think this is important because even the small things can affect a community. Is there any way of verifying the tips so that I know they’ll be good for a show? I try to get multiple sources and make sure that I’m getting all sides of a story. It doesn’t always turn into a story though. The kicker is, our show is sponsored by some local businesses and our local council. How do I make sure that our audience knows that we’re independent and not influenced by our sponsors? It's okay to be upfront with your audience that there may be pressure to not report on certain things because of your sponsors. In my opinion, it's your job as a journalist to not give in to that pressure. I had a similar experience where a business that was regularly advertising on our show asked me to drop a story that I had done about unsafe work conditions at one of their sites. I refused and they stopped advertising with us, and while that put a dent in our budget, I think it would have hurt us long-term to change the story and lose the trust of our audience. That said, it can be really tricky when one of your major sponsors is also one of the main things you report on, like in your case with the local council. It might be helpful to find other ways to fund your show so that you aren't reliant on them, and also be very transparent with your audience about the relationship. One of the hardest things about reporting locally is that you’re often going to run into your sources at the grocery store. Be kind, but not timid!

W150 · Opinion columnRound 2 · Human · 206/200 words

Write a nuanced opinion column about turning every walk into a fitness target. Acknowledge the appeal of tracking while defending room for unmeasured enjoyment; avoid claiming tracking harms everyone. Aim for 200 words.

There's something enjoyable about seeing how far you've walked. Monitoring the number of steps you take can be good to set goals, to look back at your weekly graph and see that you're doing well, or for general motivation and competition. However, the times you take longer to walk home because you're out with your dog and you're both having a nice time sniffing things; the walks you take where you choose a different route and see something new; the times you take a stroll with a friend -- do these need to be quantified? Does enjoying a walk mean that it needs to be measured? Sometimes, quantifying a walk makes it into a task rather than an enjoyment. This isn't to say that you shouldn't use fitness apps and enjoy monitoring how much you walk. Rather, it's nice to have the choice: sometimes you can enjoy a nice, brisk walk and feeling satisfied at how far you've gone; other times you can enjoy a walk simply for how nice it is, without feeling the need to measure it. While our technological devices can measure how far we've walked, they can't measure how much we enjoy a walk. It's good to enjoy walking for both reasons!

W151 · Travel narrativeRound 2 · Human · 572/500 words

Write a fictional first-person narrative about missing a ferry and spending an unexpected afternoon in a harbor town. Include a specific conversation, a practical adjustment, and mixed feelings rather than a perfect travel lesson. Aim for 500 words.

As I round the corner and sprint down the final hill towards the ferry I see it pulling away from the dock. I skid to a halt, the force stopping my momentum, my backpack thuds against my spine as I turn to face the direction I came from. I watch the people on board wave to the man at the pier, he waves back and then notices me standing there watching him. A sorry smile on his face as he waves a hand in my direction to signify *'yeah sorry about that'*. 'When is the next one?' I ask '4'o clock' He says pointing to a chart behind the counter. 'Fuck! Is there any way to get on earlier? Maybe you know someone who owns a boat?' I say desperately 'Well if you know someone who owns a tugboat, I'd love a ride on it too, but I'm afraid these things run on a schedule, bud' 'Yeah, schedule...right' I say in a defeated tone, a laugh escaping my lips, reluctantly I walk up to the window and buy a ticket for 4'o clock. Frowning at my ruined plans for the day I turn and head into the town to while away the time until the next boat. It's only 10 in the morning and I had planned on being on the bus heading back home by now. The town is quite nice, I eat in a little cafe by the harbour, lots of cute shops and fishing nets piled up in corners. The lady who owns the cafe is quite nice, very no nonsense, I enjoy chatting to her about my sandwich, which surprisingly is amazing, the cheese in it makes all the difference. 'Are you waiting for someone?' She asks wiping down a table. 'Why do you ask?' 'Because you look like someone who is waiting for someone. And you know what they're like? Never turn up when you're waiting for them.' I chuckle at her comment. 'Actually I am waiting for something, I missed the ferry to the island and the next one isn't until 4'o clock' 'Sorry to hear that, they're always late that one so you may have a longer wait than you think.' She says with a wink. I finish my lunch and head out again, the weather has turned a bit and its started to rain, my phone is almost out of juice and I don't dare go out walking along the coast as it's quite steep and the weather doesn't look like it's going to improve. I do some last minute shopping and find somewhere to charge my phone up, in the end I end up in the local library, which is nice, I manage to plug in and read a book for a while. It's always good to adapt your plans if they don't quite go to plan, you have to be able to change with the flow. Eventually the rain clears up and I go for a short walk along the pier and watch a few kids flying kites, it's nice. At 4 I hop on the ferry and head back, I'm glad to be on my way again, although I am still a bit annoyed that my plans have been disrupted, but on the whole I'm glad I got to see a bit more of the harbour town, although I'm glad I won't be coming back here and waiting all day again.

W152 · Personal statementRound 2 · Human · 450/500 words

Write a fictional personal statement for a conservation training program from someone who volunteered cataloging a local archive. Show a concrete mistake, how they corrected it, and what they still need to learn. Do not invent prestigious awards. Aim for 500 words.

Why am I interested in archiving? Why do I want to take archiving more seriously? I ask myself these questions often. When I first volunteered at the Cedar Street Historical Archive my intentions were pure, I wanted to help preserve the history of my town. I thought I would be reading a lot of old letters, but, as time has gone on, I have come to understand that without proper cataloging, the entire collection would be useless. I was primarily tasked with cataloging a box of photographs that had been donated by a former local newspaper. I wrote down all the information I could find about each photograph, such as a title, date, location, and condition, and input it into the archives database. I had a lot of material to go off of as each photograph had come in an envelope with information scrawled on it, as well as a handwritten inventory of the entire collection. As I was cataloging the photographs I made an error. I cataloged a photograph based only on the information that had been written on the envelope and not on the inventory. A week later, while I was helping a researcher who was interested in photographs of when the towns town hall was renovated in the early sixties, I noticed a photograph that seemed to match what they were looking for. It was the photograph that I had previously mis-cataloged. After looking at the envelope again I noticed that it had been reused and that underneath the more recent writing there was an older piece of an envelope attached that I had not noticed before. I immediately notified the archivist that I had been working with and we amended the record of that photograph to make it more vague so that it would not mislead any future researchers. After I had made this mistake I realized how important it is to be very thorough and careful when it comes to cataloging. If what is written in the archives database is incorrect, then it can have a detrimental impact on the integrity of the collection. While I think that I have a fairly good understanding of what goes on in an archive, I know that I have much to learn when it comes to conservation. I feel that I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to how to best preserve an object, or what factors are most influential when considering an objects stability. This is something that I am very interested in learning more about, and know that I must become more educated in if I want to pursue a career in archiving. I think that I can be a valuable asset to the field

W153 · Learning reflectionRound 2 · Human · 343/300 words

Write a first-person reflection on learning to bake bread after several failed attempts. Describe a specific adjustment and distinguish improved skill from simply feeling more confident. Aim for 300 words.

I used to struggle with bread for a long time. No matter what I did, my loaves would turn out dense with a pale crust and a gummy center. Every time this happened, I would blame some variable, like the flour or my oven or even the weather, and I'd try to change something when I baked the next loaf. But the next loaf would often turn out badly too, and since I was always changing multiple variables, I never knew what I was learning. Slowly, I started taking notes and changing only one thing at a time, and eventually, I figured out that I just needed to let the dough rise for longer. Now when I make bread, I always let the dough rise longer than the recipe says because I realize that the timer in the recipe is just a guide. Now I know to look for other clues that the dough has risen long enough, like the fact that it's grown in size, or that it seems airy, or that when I poke it, it slowly springs back. And if the dough doesn't act like it should, I realize that maybe it's because my house is cold today and the dough needs more time. With my latest loaf, I realized that my bread was better, but I wasn't necessarily a better baker. I was more confident, certainly, because I wasn't as nervous when I mixed up the dough, and I believed that if I baked again, I could probably make a good loaf. But that's not the same as skill. My skill increased because I could bake a good loaf, explain how I did it, and do it again. I might still add too much flour when I knead the dough, but now I know that I do that, and I know that next time I knead dough, I'll work on not doing that. It's funny how learning to bake bread has taught me so much about learning in general, and how even small changes can make a big difference.

W154 · Family anecdoteRound 2 · Human · 297/300 words

Write a warm fictional anecdote about an aunt's habit of saving small paper bags. Build around one incident that changes the narrator's understanding without making the aunt a caricature. Aim for 300 words.

Have you ever wondered why your auntie kept all those small bags? Well, when I was younger, I wondered it too. When I was a teenager I remember asking her about it, thinking it was one of those weird habits people get as they get older. I remember asking her about it, and she told me to throw some of them out. Well, a few years ago, when I came to stay with my auntie again, the super of the building had just gotten out of the hospital and was moving slow. Well, his daughter was helping him with some groceries, and was struggling with the bags, so my auntie grabbed a few of her small bags. She was able to divide up the groceries and put them in the small bags and make it easier for the super to get them into his place. Well, when they were leaving, the super pulled out a small bag of his own to give to my auntie, and said he was going to get her some muffins when he got around to making them. And she put the bag in with the rest of them. Later, on the way home, I asked her if she had always saved the bags for the neighbours. And she said no, that when she first moved in, the super's wife used to bring her soup when she was working late, and she used to put it in a bag so it would be easier to carry on the bus. And, from what she said, it seemed like it was nothing, like it was just the natural thing to do. And, ever since then, when my auntie starts to smooth out a bag, I make sure not to throw it in the recycle bin.

W155 · Gratitude letterRound 2 · AI · 179/200 words

Write a letter thanking a friend for looking after houseplants during a long trip and leaving a welcome-home meal. Include concrete appreciation without inventing a crisis or leaving template headings in the body. Aim for 200 words.

Thank you so much for watering my plants while I was away on my trip. It was a huge relief to see that they were well taken care of! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it that you made me a meal as well. When I walked in the door, I was surprised to see that you not only had taken care of my plants, but you were also thoughtful enough to make me a meal. It was so nice to be able to just heat up a meal and enjoy it after coming in from my trip, instead of having to worry about getting something to eat. It was a great way for you to welcome me home! You were so kind to do these things for me, and I really appreciate it. If there is anything that I can do for you, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to return the favor. Thanks again for being so thoughtful and for being a great friend and helping me out while I was gone.

W156 · Complaint emailRound 2 · AI · 213/200 words

Write a polite but firm email about a parcel marked delivered that has not arrived. Request a delivery-location check and an update by a specified placeholder date. Do not accuse the driver of theft. Aim for 200 words.

Subject: Request for Delivery Location Check, Parcel [Tracking Number] Dear Customer Service Team, Message * I am writing in relation to parcel with tracking number [Tracking Number] which according to the tracking information was delivered on [Delivery Date]. I have thoroughly checked all usual delivery locations at the delivery address and I cannot find the parcel. I have also checked with all members of my household and neighbours in the area and no one has taken it in for me. Could you please check your information and let me know where the parcel was delivered? It may be that it has been delivered nearby or to another location. I understand that on occasion a parcel may be scanned as delivered prior to it being left in a location, so could you please also let me know what the next steps are if the parcel cannot be found. Please update me on the progress of this investigation by [Date You Would Like An Update By] even if you do not yet have all the information. I am happy to provide any information that will help you resolve this issue. Thank you for your help with this issue. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, [Your Name] [Address] [Phone Number or Email Address]

W157 · InvitationRound 2 · Human · 128/150 words

Invite neighbors to a one-time Sunday afternoon book exchange in the courtyard. Participation is free, bringing a book is optional, and no registration is needed. Include placeholders for date and time. Aim for 150 words.

Hi Neighbor! We’d love for you to stop by for an afternoon in the courtyard exchanging books with other neighbors. It will be a one-time event on Sunday, [date] from [time]. Bringing a book to share is optional, but encouraged. Of course, participating in the event is completely free. If you’ve read a book you’d like to share with other neighbors, bring it! If you’re looking for a new book to read, come pick one up! If you just want to recommend a book you’ve enjoyed to your neighbors, that’s great too! There’s no need to register or RSVP; just stop by and hang out for as long as you’d like. All ages and all types of books are welcome! We hope to see you in the courtyard!

W158 · Condolence messageRound 2 · AI · 93/150 words

Write a brief condolence message to a colleague whose father has died. Offer one practical form of help, avoid religious assumptions, and make clear that a reply is not expected. Aim for 150 words.

I was so sorry to hear about your dad. I can’t imagine what you and your family must be going through. Would it be helpful if I covered the team meeting on Thursday and sent you a summary at the end of the day? That way you won’t have to think about work at all. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help. No need to reply to this email, I just wanted you to know I am thinking of you and I am here for you.

W159 · Diary entryRound 2 · Human · 366/300 words

Write a diary entry about spending a rainy day at home without completing a planned list of chores. Let the narrator's feelings change through small experiences; keep it private in tone rather than addressing readers. Aim for 300 words.

It is raining today, it started before I got out of bed. I had made a list of things I was going to do, things I should do. There's laundry to do, I need to vacuum, buy some groceries and I really should clean the bathroom. At first, I revelled in the fact that I didn't have to be anywhere. I made some coffee, sat by the window and watched the birds scurry about trying to keep dry. I took my time with my coffee and decided I'd get started after breakfast. After breakfast I did start, I did put the laundry on and then I found a book I had forgotten I owned and before I knew it, an hour had gone by and all I had done was read. I felt a little guilty like I had let someone down, but no one was there. While the laundry dried, I listened to the weather report and found out that it was going to rain some more. The clothes dried easily and I folded all of them except for the towels, I could do that later. At noon, I was going to go out and get some groceries but I couldn't be bothered to put on my wet shoes so I had some toast and the rest of the cheese for lunch. Now it is late afternoon and the list still sits there on the table. I haven't cleaned the bathroom, I haven't vacuumed and I still need to get groceries but instead of feeling bad about it, I feel like I have done something good for myself. It was a nice day to do nothing, a nice day to be kind to myself and realise that the world will still be there tomorrow if I need it to be. It won't fall apart just because I didn't do what I was supposed to do, at most it'll be a little dusty and I'll have to use wet towels until I get around to folding them. For now, I'm going to turn on my little lamp and wait until tomorrow, when perhaps I'll do something. Perhaps not, but that's ok too, because today was enough.

W160 · Forum postRound 2 · Human · 159/200 words

Write a forum post asking how to set up a painting space in a small rented room. State that walls cannot be drilled and furniture must be protected. Ask focused questions about storage and ventilation without asserting technical safety advice. Aim for 200 words.

I want to convert a small room in the house I rent into a painting space. I can't drill in anything, and I want to keep the existing furniture and floor clean. Do you have any recommendations for a small painting space, particularly in terms of storage and display (without drilling holes)? What do you put your easel on? What do you put your painting supplies on? How do you store your paints and painting materials? How do you store paintings, in particular larger paintings and delicate drawing paper? Do you have any advice or product recommendations for covering existing desks or the floor to keep them clean while painting, but that can be easily removed and won't damage the underlying surface? I am also wondering about ventilation, and whether that is something to consider in terms of where you put your easel and other painting supplies. Any other ideas for a small painting space are more than welcome!

W161 · Lesson planRound 2 · AI · 525/500 words

Create a 45-minute lesson for twelve-year-olds on distinguishing observations from explanations. Include timed activities, a low-cost object-based exercise, and an individual assessment that actually tests the distinction. Aim for 500 words.

What will the students do? How long will it take? 0-5 min The teacher will show the students a paper helicopter and drop it from shoulder height. Ask the students to tell you what they can report about it. Collect a few answers from the class. Then tell the students that the information they can gather with their senses or with a tool is called an observation. Then tell them that when you try to explain what you observed it is called an explanation. Tell them that even if your explanation is correct it is not considered an observation. 5-9 min The teacher will give an example of an observation and an explanation. For example, the teacher can roll a coin on a table and say the observation is that the coin rolled for two seconds and the explanation is that the coin stopped rolling because the table was too rough for the coin to keep rolling. Once the students can pick out the difference between the two with the teacher's help they will work on their own for a few minutes to come up with their own explanations and observations using the sentence starters "I observed..." and "I think this happened because..." 9-24 min Working in partners students will be given a paper helicopter and they will drop the helicopter from the same height three times. They will record their observations and only their observations. The students will be working with scrap paper so they can attach a paperclip to the end of the helicopter to help it drop. The teacher may want to pre-cut the helicopters for the students. Once the students have observed the helicopter for three drops they will write down their observations. They will write down one explanation for why they think the helicopter spun as it dropped and they will write another explanation for what they could observe to help test their explanation. Remind the students that even if they think their explanation is right they cannot write it in the observation column of the lab sheet. For example they may not write that the blades are catching the air as it goes down. 24-30 min Once the students have finished the lab sheet they will exchange notebooks with another pair and circle one observation and underline one explanation. Then as a class the students will discuss what makes a good observation and what makes a good explanation. 30-38 min The students will be given four statements two observations and two explanations and they have to mark the observations with an O and the explanations with an E. 38-45 min The students will be given a new situation and they will work alone to mark the observations with an O and the explanations with an E. They will also be asked to write one more observation they could make for that situation. The teacher will collect the assessments to see which students mastered the skill. Each correct answer will be worth one point. For example the teacher may say that there was a puddle on the playground at 9:00 in the morning and at 12:00 the ground was dry.

W162 · Study guideRound 2 · Human · 645/500 words

Write a study guide on learning unfamiliar vocabulary using retrieval and spacing. Provide a realistic five-day schedule, explain feedback, and avoid promising instant mastery. Aim for 500 words.

Step One: Make a List Choose a handful of words that you would like to learn. It is actually better if you have a smaller set of vocabulary words to learn (6-10) because you will spend more time learning each word. Copy down each word, along with it's pronunciation, part of speech, meaning, and an example. (You may also want to copy down a translation of the word or some kind of cue that will help you remember the word's meaning.) Step Two: Use Retrieval Practice Extensive research has shown that one of the best ways to learn something is to practice retrieving it from your memory. This is sometimes known as "practice testing." It is more effective to spend time quizzing yourself than it is to simply read over your vocabulary list. You should practice retrieving the words in a variety of ways. First, cover up the meaning of the word and try to say what it means. Then, do the reverse: look at the meaning and try to say what the word is. Be sure to say the words out loud, and even better to write them down. It is also helpful to practice using each word in a sentence. Step Three: Space Your Practice! Research shows that it is most effective to practice over a period of several days so that you have some time elapse between practice sessions. You should spend about 10-15 minutes a day learning your vocabulary words. Below is a possible study schedule that you could follow. Day One: Learn your vocabulary words by making up study cards or notes (as outlined above). Go through each word, read it, say it, and describe its meaning. Then take a short break, and go through the words again, trying to retrieve the words without looking at your notes. Be sure to check your answers at the end and to note which words you had difficulty with. Day Two: Start by giving yourself a quiz (without looking at your notes) on all of the vocabulary words. Be sure to try to retrieve the words in both directions (from word to meaning, and from meaning to word). Check your answers right away, and then study any words that you didn't remember. Go through those words again a few minutes later to be sure you've learned them. Spend more time studying the words that you had trouble with, but also check the words you did remember. Day Three: Again, start by testing yourself, but try a different format. You could, for example, match words to their meanings, or fill in the blanks in sentences that include the words you are learning. Be sure to create new sentences using each word, and check to make sure you are using the words correctly. Day Four: Spend a little less time studying today. Start by trying to remember the words without any prompt, and then prompt yourself by looking at the meanings of the words. Spend more time on words that you continue to have trouble with. If the words have multiple meanings, be sure to learn those as well. Day Five: Give yourself one last quiz to see how much you have learned! Again, check your answers and make note of how well you remembered each word. Be sure to continue to review any words that you are still having trouble with over the next few days and weeks. An important part of practice is to get feedback about how well you are doing. Be sure to check your answers, especially when you are not sure how to answer a question. It may not take long for you to feel like you've learned the words, but be sure to practice the above steps. In just five days, you will have learned the words much more effectively than if you had just read over the list!

W163 · Classroom debateRound 2 · Human · 381/300 words

Write a balanced classroom debate brief on allowing notes during exams. Distinguish tests of recall from tests of application, consider fairness, and offer a policy that depends on learning objectives. Aim for 300 words.

Should students be allowed to use notes on tests? I believe that it depends on what the test is looking for. For instance, if the test is asking for recall based information, such as vocabulary, then the students should not be allowed to use notes. Students need to be able to remember certain things that are important for future classes, or for the real world. On the other hand, if the test is looking for application based information, then I think that the students should be able to use notes. There are many jobs in the real world that require use of reference material, and it is important to be able to apply information rather than simply regurgitate it. Additionally, this would decrease the advantage that people who are able to remember large amounts of information have on a test. Another thing to consider is the idea of what is fairest to the students. On one hand, if the test is closed note, then it may be unfair to students who have trouble memorizing large amounts of information, or students who have trouble studying at home due to distractions. On the other hand, if the test is open note, then it may be unfair to students who are unable to find the information that they need quickly, or students who are not clear on what is and is not allowed to be used. I believe that the best test policy is to make a decision based on what information the teacher wishes the students to know for the test. If it is based on recall of basic information, then the test should be closed note. If the test is based on application of information, then it should be open note, though only allowing a certain amount of material, such as a reference sheet or certain course material. Additionally, a test may have a portion that is open note, and a portion that is closed note, testing both recall and application. Whatever the policy is, it should be made clear to the students ahead of time, and it should be fair to all students. Additionally, it should not be based on whether or not the test is difficult, but what the teacher is looking for the students to learn from the material.

W164 · Museum interpretationRound 2 · Human · 211/300 words

Write a museum label for an imaginary worn wooden spoon of unknown ownership. Clearly separate visible features from possible uses, state what is unknown, and avoid presenting wear as proof of a specific history. Aim for 300 words.

It is a wooden spoon with a shallow oval shaped scoop and long slightly narrowing handle. It is made out of wood, I am not sure what type as I am not very knowledgeable in woods. There is nothing to identify where it came from. It has a slightly uneven colour with darker and lighter areas, slight dents, scratches and its edges are slightly worn down. You can see the grain of the wood on parts of the spoon. It is a utensil that is used to scoop food, it could be used to stir things or to serve food. It could be used to measure small amounts of liquid or solid. There are many similar items like this but they may be used for different things, or they may have been used for something else and then later on for the same thing as this spoon. The scratches and discolouration show that it has been touched and handled by people. However the scratches and discoloration do not indicate who has handled it or even what it has been used for. I don’t know who owned this spoon, who made it, where it is from, when it was made, what type of wood it is made from and its exact history.

W165 · Student feedbackRound 2 · Human · 239/200 words

Give constructive feedback on a fictional student proposal to extend a library's weekday hours. Praise the clear aim, request evidence on demand and staffing, and keep a separate weekend proposal outside the current scope. Aim for 200 words.

I like what you are trying to do with this proposal. I can see how it would be beneficial if you could show that it will be used. I am just going to give you a few things to think about. I would provide some proof that it will be used if you keep it open during the hours you are proposing. Maybe do a quick survey, show use at other libraries, or just provide evidence that there are times where students need the library during these hours. Also, what will be offered during these hours? Will the library need to have the same services available that it has during normal hours? Maybe that won't be needed and will help with staffing during these hours. Speaking of staff, how many people will need to work during these hours? Will it cause the library to spend more money to keep it open? Maybe try proposing that you keep it open for a certain period of time to test it out and then you can provide use stats to the school to help with your case. You talk a little about having the library open on the weekends. I would take that out of the proposal since it is a whole other beast when it comes to scheduling and staffing. Maybe throw in a sentence that it could be a future project that you would like to see the school do.

W166 · Parent newsletterRound 2 · AI · 156/200 words

Write a newsletter inviting optional contributions of clean cardboard tubes for a classroom building activity. Exclude glass and sharp metal, explain that school supplies are available, and avoid implying families must buy materials. Aim for 200 words.

Hello families, Dear Parents/Guardians, This upcoming week, we will be completing a fun and exciting building activity in class. If your child has any cardboard tubes at home (clean and empty) that they could bring in for this project, that would be greatly appreciated. Paper towel tubes, wrapping paper tubes, and any other small tubes would be perfect. Please do not feel the need to purchase anything for your child to bring in. We will have plenty of materials (paper, tape, etc) for this project at school. As we always do with building projects, safety will be our main concern. Because of this, please only send in cardboard tubes. Please do not send in anything made of glass, sharp metal, or anything that has sharp edges. You can bring the tubes in at any time up until our building activity on [insert date here]. Thank you for allowing your child to be creative in our classroom!

W167 · Child-friendly explanationRound 2 · Human · 160/150 words

Explain to an eight-year-old why different maps show different things. Use a concrete example and explain symbols without referring to an image that is not supplied. Aim for 150 words.

Maps are special drawings of places. Maps usually only show one thing at a time. Think about your town. One map might show you all of the roads. Another map might show you the weather. A third map might show you where the parks are in your town. Maps use symbols to show places. A map of your town might use a blue squiggly line to show a river. It might use a picture of a tree to show where a park is. It might use a star to show a school or other important places. If you do not know what the symbols mean, look for the key. The key, sometimes called the legend, will tell you what each symbol means. Maps also use color to show what the symbols are. For example, the color blue might show water. The color green might show plants. All of these maps are different because they are meant to do different things.

W168 · Assignment briefRound 2 · Human · 162/150 words

Write instructions for comparing two accounts of the same historical event. Ask students to identify agreements, disagreements, evidence, and uncertainty, and explain how to acknowledge sources. Aim for 150 words.

As you read each of the accounts, write down important information about them. Who created the source? When was it written? What was its purpose or audience? Underline or highlight details that are the same in each account. What details don’t match? What does each source claim about the causes, events, or outcomes of the incident? What evidence does each source present to support those claims? Is the writer an eyewitness? Was he or she relying on other people for information? Or was the information gathered in later research? What are you still unsure about? What other evidence might help you answer that question? Remember to talk about both sources in your response! Introduce your ideas with phrases like “According to…” or “In the account by…” If you are using exact words from the passage, be sure to use quotation marks and name the source (author, title, when it was published, etc.). Follow your teacher’s guidelines for citing sources in your writing.

W169 · Assessment rubricRound 2 · AI · 450/300 words

Create a rubric for a short science presentation. Allocate 80% to explanation and evidence and 20% to organization. Give clear performance descriptors and state that nervousness or accent alone should not lower marks. Aim for 300 words.

Scoring Guide Oral Science Presentation Area of Assessment Area and Weight Total Score Strong Secure Developing Beginning I. Explanation and Evidence: (80 points) 72-80: The student clearly and accurately explains the science and key ideas, using age-appropriate language. The student also connects key ideas and explains the importance of these connections. The student provides specific evidence (for example, examples, data, or observations) from reliable sources that supports their claims. The student also explains how the evidence supports their claims. 56-71: The student accurately explains the main ideas of the science with minor gaps or errors in explanation. The student includes relevant evidence or examples, and usually explains how those support their claims. Some ideas and/or evidence could use more explanation. 40-55: The student's explanation demonstrates a partial understanding of the science, with important ideas missing or significant errors in explanation. The student's use of evidence to support their claims is limited, vague, or not clearly connected. 0-39: The student's explanation demonstrates little understanding of the science. Claims are not supported or are based on evidence that is missing or not relevant, or the explanation includes significant misunderstandings of the topic. II. Organization: (20 points) 18-20: The presentation has a clear opening and ending, and the information is presented in a logical sequence. The student uses appropriate transitions and effectively concludes the presentation. The presentation fits within the time limit, and, if applicable, any visual or other materials used by the student serve a clear purpose. 14-17: The presentation has a beginning, middle, and ending, and the information is presented in a mostly logical sequence, with minor lapses in one or more of the following: transitions, staying within the time limit, or use of materials. 10-13: While some organization is evident, the presentation either lacks connections between ideas, is repetitive, or lapses frequently in one or more of the following: transitions, staying within the time limit, or use of materials. 0-9: The presentation lacks organization, either because it does not follow a clear sequence of ideas, does not have a clear ending, or lapses frequently in one or more of the following: transitions, staying within the time limit, or use of materials. Scoring Notes: Score each area separately, and then add them together for a total score of 100. Within each range of scores, assign the number of points based on how consistently the oral presentation matches the description for that range. Score the content of the student's presentation, not how the student speaks. Do not deduct points simply because the student is nervous or has an accent, unless their speaking makes it difficult to understand their explanation. If you use this criterion for scoring, apply it consistently for all students.

W170 · Teaching reflectionRound 2 · Human · 215/200 words

Write a teacher's reflection on a lively group activity that produced weak individual understanding. Use a specific example involving fractions and propose a next lesson and a check for learning. Aim for 200 words.

Today, my students had a blast doing a hands-on lesson about fractions. They were able to work in small groups to compare fractions, and create equivalent fractions, by using paper strips. They shared, they talked, and they felt very confident with their work. Then, they were given an exit slip to do individually to assess their learning. Several of the students who did the activity together couldn’t even tell me why 1/2=2/4. One student even said 2/4 was bigger because 4 is bigger than 2! So even though they may have been able to do the activity successfully in a group, it was obvious that they had just copied someone. To help my students, I will re-teach the lesson briefly and have them create and label their own drawings to show equivalent fractions. After I give them a brief explanation and show them how to justify their answers, I will give them a few to do on their own, and then they can talk about them with a partner. I will then give them another short assignment to do on their own to make sure they have grasped the concept. For example, they may have to draw a model to show that 3/6=1/2 and explain in a sentence how they know this to be true.

W171 · Product launch planRound 2 · Human · 538/500 words

Create a modest launch plan for a fictional reusable lunch container. Include testing claims before publication, clear specifications, feedback collection, customer support, and success measures without fabricated sales forecasts. Aim for 500 words.

Well, that depends on the product and the type of business. Let's say that it is a new food container that is reusable. Maybe you would want to start out small, put it on your website and have a few local stores carry it. But, before you take orders make sure you have a product page that has all of the product details, pictures, etc., how to care for it, price, shipping information, and how a customer would make a request for a return or warranty service. Also, make sure that you do not include any claims that you have not verified. For the product details, I would list the information that you have but use a model name or number so that if you have more than one container you know what product you are referring to. Let's say that the name of this container is the "LoopBox 900" (made up name for this answer). It has a capacity of 900 ml, is 19 x 13 x 6 cm, and weighs 280 grams. You would also want to list if it comes with a lid or not, if it is dishwasher safe, if it can go in the microwave, if it can be used in the freezer, what it is made of (stainless steel that is approved to come in contact with food, with a silicone gasket that can be removed for cleaning), etc. Do not make any claims that it is leakproof, stain resistant, or anything else unless you have done the testing to be able to make that claim or you state how it can or cannot be used. Speaking of testing, you should test the product and your claims before you publish the information. Make sure that you are meeting all of the requirements for the areas that you will be selling the product in. You can document your testing and make updates as needed. You will want to have the documentation to show that your claims are true and that you have done the due diligence to provide a good product to your customers. Also, consider getting some testers to use your product and give you feedback on it. You can use some of the customer feedback on your product page (with their permission). Be sure to also provide a way for your customers to give you feedback. Finally, make sure that you have your customer support set up prior to launching your product. You need to respond to the customer's needs and quickly address any issues that come up. If there is an issue with the product that is a safety concern or seems to be a wide-spread issue, you would want to stop promoting and selling the product until it can be addressed. You should also periodically review how the product is doing. For the first few weeks, you may want to do it weekly and then maybe monthly after that. Review things like the number shipped, the number of returns, the defect and complaint rates, your customer support response and resolution rates, your customer survey results, etc. You will want to set some metrics prior to launching the product so that you can see if you are meeting your goals.

W172 · Brand storyRound 2 · Human · 493/500 words

Write a fictional brand story for a small workshop making reading lamps. Build around a practical design problem and successive prototypes, acknowledge a remaining tradeoff, and avoid life-changing promises. Aim for 500 words.

The first lamp Mara made for herself didn’t work. It was too bright. Mara lives in a small space, and the light flooded into the room when she wanted to read a book while her partner slept. She tried shrouding the lamp with a scarf, but it didn’t work. She tried wrapping the lamp in baking parchment, and the light was a bit better, though her reading space smelled like toast. Mara runs a small metalworking shop with her brother, Eli. Together they brainstormed solutions to her problem, and decided to see if they could work on building the perfect reading lamp. This ended up taking a while. The first prototypes didn’t work, as the lamp had to be perfect for a very specific purpose. Subsequent prototypes had issues with being able to extend far enough without using springs, which meant they required a counterweight, and it ended up being too big for what Mara needed. Slowly, they iterated on the design, keeping a close notebook of all the little details that ended up being important: the placement of the switch, the length of the light, the warmth of the shade. They ended up creating a perforated shade, diffusing the light from a warm white bulb, a warmer bulb than usual with a reflector to direct more light onto the page, and a joint to hold the shape of the lamp, without using a spring or counterweight. The fourth version of the lamp eventually had issues with the joint not being tight enough to hold the weight of the shade, and had to be changed to be slightly tighter, which meant that tightening it was a bit of a pain. After a few conversations on how to fix this, they settled on a large washer and a thumb screw, which could be easily tightened and loosened by hand, but was a bit more visible and would require occasional tightening. Working through all of the kinks of the design, they settled on the final design for their lamp, called the Fold (named for the little fold in the arm of the lamp). Each one is made in their shop, made of steel and carefully bent into shape, and finished with a matte finish so that it doesn’t get finger prints. The switch on the end of the cord is right by the base of the lamp for easy access, and the whole thing is a work of art. The Fold isn’t the perfect lamp for every situation, but if you’re looking for a good lamp to read by, or one to use when you’re working on something that requires you to write in a notebook, you’ll love it. And if it needs to be adjusted in a few years, you’ll be able to do it easily. In the meantime, Mara and Eli are still taking repair jobs, and are keeping their first lamp prototypes on display in their shop, including the slightly toasted one.

W173 · Case studyRound 2 · Human · 363/300 words

Write a clearly fictional case study of a neighborhood club trying an online sign-up sheet. Describe the previous process, a short trial, a useful change, and one remaining difficulty. Do not invent precise productivity gains. Aim for 300 words.

Cedar Lane Neighborhood Club used to hold a monthly community dinner in the back room of their library. People used to sign up to help with the event by writing their names on a sheet that was passed around at the beginning of every meeting. If people weren’t at the meeting and wanted to sign up, they called the person in charge of the dinner and either left a voicemail or talked to another member of the club. Then the person in charge of the dinner had to copy down all the names that were given to them and try to remember what everyone said they were helping with. This way of getting people signed up to help wasn’t working very well. So the Cedar Lane Neighborhood Club decided to try using a very basic online sign-up sheet for at least two of their monthly events. When the next meeting rolled around, the person in charge of the dinner showed everyone how they could use the online sign-up sheet. They still had a paper sheet for people who wanted to use it, and the person in charge of the dinner wrote down those names on the online sheet. The Cedar Lane Neighborhood Club made some changes to their online sign-up sheet and now they give a little more information about what each task is. For example, if someone needs to bring a dessert, there is a note on the sign-up sheet reminding them to also bring utensils to serve the dessert with. And if someone signs up to help set up, they are reminded to arrive early and to help set up tables and chairs. Some members of the Cedar Lane Neighborhood Club still don’t use email very often, so they aren’t able to use the online sign-up sheet. And they don’t want to start using one. So the person in charge of the dinner still has to accommodate people who call in to sign up or who sign up using the paper sheet. But at least now they have something to help them out a little bit. And even though it isn’t perfect, it is better than what they were using before.

W174 · Landing pageRound 2 · Mixed · 267/300 words

Write landing-page copy for a tool that helps community groups coordinate borrowed equipment. Explain who it is for, three concrete steps to get started, and the limits of what it guarantees. Aim for 300 words.

Do you have equipment that your group would like to share with the community? Whether it’s a neighborhood association, tool library, school club, mutual aid team, arts group, or something else entirely, CommonKit is here to help you manage your gear. Add the items you want to share, see when they’re being requested, and schedule pickups and returns. It’s an easy way to see what’s available without having to buy it yourself or beg people in your group chat to stop taking stuff. It only takes three steps to get started: 1. Create your group space and invite your members 2. Add your items and include any relevant information, like quantity, condition, storage location, or borrowing guidelines. 3. Encourage your members to request items and schedule pick-ups and returns! CommonKit does its best to help you organize and schedule items, but we can’t guarantee that an item will be available, in good condition, returned on time, or even the right tool for the job. A lot of that comes down to the people listing the items and the people borrowing them communicating well and setting realistic expectations. CommonKit also cannot facilitate the physical exchange of items or offer any form of insurance for your property, so we recommend creating rules around who can borrow, whether you’ll collect a damage deposit, how you’ll handle late returns or damaged items, and what you expect borrowers to do to take care of your stuff. Get started by adding a few items that your members might want to borrow, invite your members to check them out, and watch your kit grow!

W175 · Product descriptionRound 2 · Human · 154/200 words

Describe a fictional folding document stand with two height settings and a removable page clip. Explain suitable uses and size limits without inventing materials, dimensions, or durability-test results. Aim for 200 words.

Folds flat for storage or carrying, or snap open to use as a document holder. Opens to two different heights, low or high. Includes a clip (which can be removed if desired) to hold your document open to the page you are using. A great alternative to using a book stand for thin documents such as a single page, a few pages, slim booklets, lightweight manuals, etc. Use while studying, for reading recipes, music, taking notes, or for whatever you need to keep open on your desk while you work. How big of a document can it hold? It will not hold very large documents, bulky binders, large hardback books, etc. Use it for lightweight documents that fit within the size shown above. For heavier documents you will need a larger stand. To store when not in use, simply fold up. You may want to remove the clip if you do not need it.

W176 · Welcome emailRound 2 · AI · 220/200 words

Write a welcome email to someone already subscribed to a monthly beginner-photography newsletter. Explain what to expect and offer one simple observation exercise. Do not ask them to subscribe again. Aim for 200 words.

Hello, Welcome to my Photography for Everyone newsletter! I'll be writing to you once a month with tips on how you can improve your photography, even if you're a total beginner. I'll give you simple ideas that you can put into practice, even if you don't own any fancy equipment and you don't know much about photography. Each month I'll teach you a quick lesson with an example and then set you a small exercise that you can practice in your everyday life. Sometimes it will include learning a little bit about your camera settings, but sometimes it will simply be about learning to see and being creative. Don't worry though, there's no homework to hand in and there's no right way to take a photo! This month we're going to keep things very simple. Take an everyday object that you have to hand. It could be a mug, a plant, a pair of shoes - whatever you like. Now take three photos of your object from three different viewpoints. Try taking one photo at eye level, one from above it and one from low down. Look at your photos afterwards and see how the viewpoint has changed how you see the object. I look forward to taking you on this journey with me! Happy photographing, The Photography Newsletter Team

W177 · Event promotionRound 2 · Human · 106/150 words

Promote a two-hour introductory printmaking session with materials provided and advance reservations required. State clearly that staff operate the cutting equipment while participants handle the printing steps. Aim for 150 words.

This two-hour class will teach you how to make a print, including how a print is made and some basic printmaking techniques. You will get to make several prints, and you can take them all home with you. No experience is necessary. All materials needed for this class will be provided. You will not need to operate the cutters yourself (for safety reasons) as the cutters will be operated by staff, but you will get to print the prints, ink them, etc. You must make a reservation in advance for this class, as space is limited. Please plan ahead and make your reservation before coming in.

W178 · Survey invitationRound 2 · Human · 169/150 words

Invite residents to a three-minute survey about Sunday opening hours at a community center. Welcome nonusers and explain that responses will inform a trial rather than guarantee particular hours. Aim for 150 words.

Do you think we should be open on Sundays? Tell us what you think by completing our quick 3-minute survey about how we could open on Sundays and what you would want from us in terms of opening hours and provision. You may be a regular or occasional user of our service or you might never have used us at all. However, we are interested in whether you use us or whether you might potentially use us if we were open on Sundays. Please be aware that the results of the survey will be used to inform a potential trial period of opening on Sundays. Therefore, by completing this survey it does not mean that we will open on a particular Sunday or for a certain number of hours. It will help us to plan for a trial opening period which we will then need to look at a range of factors to determine if it is viable e.g. staffing, cost etc. Thank you for giving us your views.

W179 · Comparison copyRound 2 · Human · 282/300 words

Compare pocket-size and desk-size versions of the same planner, with identical paper and binding. Explain portability and writing-space tradeoffs without claiming one is universally better or inventing prices. Aim for 300 words.

The pocket size planner and the desk size planner are exactly the same when it comes to paper and binding. The biggest difference is, of course, portability. The pocket size version is much easier to throw in a small bag or even a coat pocket. It is also easier to jot down information on the go. There are also some people who have commented that they like the smaller size because there is less writing area. If you are someone who procrastinates and tends to turn simple tasks into big tasks, perhaps limiting your writing area will help you plan more effectively. Of course, if you have a lot to write about each day or each week, you might find the pocket size version to be a little constraining. You might find yourself shrinking your handwriting or using lots of abbreviations or needing more pages to write all of your tasks down. The desk size version, on the other hand, is much easier to use when you are sitting at a desk or a table. With the larger version, there is much more writing area so you will be able to write out all of your tasks and notes without shrinking your handwriting or needing more pages. The down side to the larger version is that it is not as easy to carry with you and it takes up more desk space. So really, it comes down to where you are when you plan and how much you need to write. Ask yourself if you need all that extra writing area or if the smaller version would be big enough. On the other hand, maybe the larger version isn't even big enough!

W180 · Fundraising appealRound 2 · Human · 136/200 words

Write an appeal to fund eight new chairs for a community reading room. Promise to publish the purchase invoice and explain how any surplus will be reported. Make access independent of whether someone donates. Aim for 200 words.

We need the funds to purchase 8 new chairs for our community's reading room. Any amount that you can contribute towards this purchase would be greatly appreciated. We will post the invoice for the purchase of these chairs once they are purchased and if the amount raised exceeds the invoice amount we will make a public announcement as to how much was raised, how much the invoice was and how much will remain for the reading room along with what it will be used for. The reading room is for everyone to use. You do not have to contribute to use the reading room or the chairs. The reading room will be available for everyone to read and study in regardless of whether you can contribute or not. Thank you for helping to support our community!

W181 · Travel packingRound 2 · Human · 486/500 words

Write a practical packing guide for a four-day train trip with uncertain weather. Explain rewearing, layers, and luggage limits; distinguish essentials from optional items without assuming every traveler has the same needs. Aim for 500 words.

The idea is to pack for a fairly small range of conditions. Look at the forecast before you leave, but be prepared for things to change. Also, pack to travel light. You may have to carry your bag around and up stairs and whatnot, so don't take more than you can carry easily. Ideally, you should have one suitcase or backpack (carry-on sized, if possible) and a smaller bag for your person. Unless you're interested in wearing something new every day, you don't need that much clothing for a four-day trip. I generally pack two or three tops, two bottoms, and an extra set in case I get really dirty or wet (the extra set is entirely contingent on your activities). I'd also suggest wearing your bulkiest shoes and jacket on the trip so that you don't have to take them up and down from the overhead. I assume that you'll want clean socks and underwear for each day, but you should be able to get by with a pair of pajamas for the whole trip. Bring a few layers, including a rain shell. You can always pack something small like a base layer, sweater or fleece, and either a heavy coat or a packable shell and hat/gloves. An umbrella may or may not be useful, depending on how you deal with inclement weather. You'll definitely want a comfortable pair of shoes if you're planning to walk a lot. Whether you need a second pair of shoes depends on your plans. You'll also want to bring your essentials. This probably includes things like money, ID, tickets, and any medication that you need. If you wear glasses or hearing aids, don't forget them. I'm sure you'll want to charge your phone while you're on the train, so you'll need your charger. Toiletries should go in a leakproof bag. If you need any personal care items or other medical supplies, those should also go in your bag. Finally, there are a few other items that you may or may not want to bring depending on your needs. I like to bring a water bottle and some snacks in case I get hungry. If you're likely to want to sleep at some point on the train, you might want to bring earplugs and an eyeshade. Entertainment is always a good idea. You may also want to bring a power bank in case you're away from an outlet for a long time. I don't know if you'll need a day bag or not, but bring one if you think you'll need it when you get to your destination. A small soap for doing laundry could be helpful, too. If you feel like you need anything else, that's up to you, but I'd urge you to make sure you aren't bringing anything you don't need and to leave some space in your bag for things you might buy on the trip.

W182 · Photography tutorialRound 2 · AI · 612/500 words

Explain how to photograph a small ceramic bowl using a phone and window light. Establish the light direction before giving reflector-placement advice, provide clear steps, and suggest comparing results. Aim for 500 words.

First, clean the lens of your phone camera, then place your bowl on a nice simple surface near a window and switch off any room lights so that the window is the only source of light. Try not to have the sun shining directly on your bowl as it will create hard shadows and very bright highlights, but if you do want to try this then great, just see how you go. If the sun is shining through your window try putting a thin white curtain over it to soften the light. Make sure you have enough space around the bowl to move around a bit and try different things. Next, before you bring in any reflectors etc, you need to sort out the direction of your light. For a nice clear image that shows off the shape of your bowl, the light needs to be coming from the side and slightly behind the bowl, about 45deg. So the window should be at this position in relation to the bowl, and you will be standing (or your phone will be positioned) on the opposite side of the bowl, facing the bowl. The light from this direction shows off the shape of the ceramic nicely and also gives a nice highlight on the glaze. Before taking your first photo check that you can't see the window reflecting on the glaze, if you can then move the bowl or yourself a little until it's not visible. Now, keep the direction of light the same and move on to the next step. Now that you've got the direction of your light sorted, move the bowl a little bit away from the window and position yourself or your phone so that the camera is at the same level as the top rim of the bowl, or slightly above it if you want to show a little bit of the inside of the bowl. Make sure you use the main camera on your phone, not the zoom, and turn your grid on to make sure you keep the bowl level in your picture. Tap on the bowl on your screen to focus, and if you can, lock your focus/exposure and drop the exposure down a little bit if the glaze colour is light and looks a bit washed out. Take a picture now, with no reflector, so that you have something to compare your other shots to. Now you can try adding a reflector if you feel the shadow on the bowl is too dark. Just get a piece of white card, foam board, even a piece of white paper and position it on the opposite side of the bowl to the window. Keep it close to the bowl but make sure it's not in the picture. Move it closer or further away until you are happy with the softness of the shadow. Be careful not to bring in too much light though, as your picture can end up looking flat if you do, so if this happens just move the reflector away or remove it all together. Also, for the moment don't try using a shiny reflector as it will reflect bright spots onto the ceramic. Now take another picture and compare the two. You can also try taking a picture with the reflector a little further away, or turn the bowl slightly and take another picture. Just make sure you only change one thing at a time so you can tell which picture you like best. Once you've decided on your best picture just make sure there's nothing you didn't notice before creeping in at the edges of your picture and take a final shot.

W183 · Gardening guideRound 2 · Human · 331/300 words

Write a beginner's guide to growing herbs on a windy balcony. Discuss observing sunlight, stable containers, drainage, and adjusting watering. Explain safe runoff management without claiming one schedule suits every plant. Aim for 300 words.

Check the sunlight exposure of your potential herb garden area. Do this before you buy your plants. Most herbs love sunshine, although some can manage with less. Make sure that they are sheltered from the worst of the wind. Otherwise they will dry out quickly. Make sure that your containers are secure and not prone to tipping over or being blown over by the wind. Heavy containers, low planters and containers with a wide base are best. If you are hanging plant boxes on your balcony railing, make sure that you secure them properly. It is a good idea to group your containers together to provide shelter for your plants. Make sure that your containers have sufficient drainage and that you use the right type of soil -- potting soil. You will also need saucers or trays under your containers to collect the drainage. Empty these out as needed so that your plants are not sitting in water. Be considerate of your fellow apartment dwellers and make sure that your water runoff doesn't drip onto balconies below or onto walkways. Don't dump water over the edge of your balcony, of course, and observe your building's rules about drainage. You will need to pay attention to watering. Different herbs need different amounts of water. The size of the container your herb is in will make a difference in how often you need to water. Weather conditions and the exposure of your balcony will also be factors. On a windy, sunny day, your herbs will probably need to be watered every day if they are in small pots. In larger pots, in a sheltered location, they will need less frequent watering. Stick your finger in the soil to check. If it is dry, water slowly until some of the water runs out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. If it is still moist, wait a while. Get to know your plants and their needs, and check on them regularly.

W184 · Home organizationRound 2 · Human · 378/300 words

Write a guide to organizing a shared entryway by observing how people use it. Include a small trial, agreed locations, accessibility, and how to revise the arrangement when clutter returns. Aim for 300 words.

Get started Try these steps to work out what you want to achieve with your entryway. For a few days, keep an eye on how your entryway is used. Notice when it is busiest, how each member of your household uses the space, and any differences in height, reach, mobility and routines. Talk to the people in your household about what they need and what is getting in the way. Work out what the main functions of your entryway are. Test out your ideas for a week or two. You can make a few changes to trial without buying an organising system - you may be able to use containers or labels you already have. Try moving frequently used shoes to an easy to reach shoe rack, or putting a basket in the place where bags seem to always end up. Make your trial small so it is easy to change. Agree where different things will be kept. It is best to put things where they are used or put away. Make sure that everyone knows where things are to be stored. Make sure everyone in the household has somewhere to put the things they use, and agree on what won't be kept in the entryway. Also make sure that you have agreed on somewhere to keep things that are used by everyone. Think about access in your entryway. Make sure that the way in and out of your doorway is easy, particularly for members of your household who use mobility aids. Try to keep things that are used frequently within easy reach for everyone who needs to use them. Don't put heavy things overhead. Try to use hooks, shelves and containers that everyone in your household can use themselves. At the end of your trial period, work out what is working and what isn't. If the entryway is getting cluttered up again, work out why. Maybe the place you have chosen for something isn't convenient, or there is not enough room for what you need to store, or maybe the things you are trying to store aren't supposed to be in your entryway. Change one thing at a time and agree with the household on what you are trying. After a week, see if it is working.

W185 · Cooking methodRound 2 · Human · 197/200 words

Explain how to roast a tray of mixed vegetables when some cook faster than others. Discuss cut size, spacing, staggered additions, and checking doneness without promising a universal cooking time. Aim for 200 words.

The best way to do this is to separate all the vegetables by how long they will take to cook. If you are using potatoes, carrots or squash, cut them smaller than zucchini, peppers or asparagus. Make sure to keep each vegetable similar in size to each other. Place all the vegetables in a single layer on a very sturdy baking tray. You may need two trays, as you don't want the vegetables touching one another. Toss them with a good amount of oil and season to your liking. Place the slower cooking vegetables in the oven first. When they are close to being done, but still require a bit more time, add the faster cooking vegetables to the tray, or a second tray. This step will be different for everyone, depending on what vegetables you choose to roast. Take a fork or knife and pierce the largest pieces of each vegetable to ensure they are cooked through, and the outside is slightly browned. If the quick cooking vegetables are done first, take them out and continue to roast the others until done. Keep turning and checking all the vegetables until they are done to your liking.

W186 · Product reviewRound 2 · Human · 210/200 words

Write a clearly fictional two-week review of a manual pencil sharpener. Describe one useful feature and one recurring annoyance, and avoid pretending to have conducted laboratory durability tests. Aim for 200 words.

Pencil Sharpener Product Review This is a review of a very small manual pencil sharpener. It is used for day to day pencilling, note taking, drawing, etc. The sharpener is made of plastic, with a metal blade, and a clear pencil shaving storage compartment. It is not a fancy sharpener at all, just a very easy to use one. The clear plastic compartment is a very good feature, as you can see when it needs emptying, so you don't end up with loads of pencil shavings at the bottom of the pencil 'cup' where you keep your pencils. It's great to move from desk to desk, as the lid fits securely enough to take it with you, if you like to work in different places throughout the day. The sharpener works perfectly, it is fast, and produces a really nice pencil point. The only downside to the sharpener, is that sometimes, the pencil shavings get stuck around the blade, and you have to knock them into a bin, or carefully empty them into a bin, by opening the pencil shaving compartment. Sometimes, it can be a little fiddly, putting the 'lid' back on again. This is a fictional review, based on using the product for a fortnight, in everyday life.

W187 · Craft directionsRound 2 · Human · 155/150 words

Give beginner-friendly directions for making a paper accordion fan. Include the necessary materials, an ordered sequence, and a completed troubleshooting tip for uneven folds. Aim for 150 words.

Two pieces of lightweight paper (two if you'd like it to be different colored on either side) First, measure and mark approximately 1" apart on one of the short edges of your paper. Then, fold along the first line, flip it over and fold along the next line, in the opposite direction. Continue to fold your paper like an accordion until you've folded the entire piece. Make sure to crease the folds well. Pinch one of the ends of the paper together and secure with a small piece of tape or glue. Open up the other side in a fan shape. If you'd like to have handles, glue a craft stick on either side of the pinched end. Note: If your folds aren't even, flatten out your paper and realign your ruler with the folds that you've made to even them out. Next time, be sure to mark all the lines before you begin folding.

W188 · TroubleshootingRound 2 · Human · 218/150 words

Give simple steps for investigating a document stuck in a printer queue. Warn against repeatedly clicking Print, distinguish checking the queue from restarting a device, and avoid assuming a particular operating system. Aim for 150 words.

1. Ensure that the printer is switched on, connected to your computer or network and isn't showing an error (paper jam, low supplies, etc.) and that you have selected the printer you wish to print to. 2. Open the Print Queue of your device (depending on the device, this may be in different locations - if you are unsure, searching for 'print queue' or 'printers' in the settings or help function of your device may help locate this). Check if there is a document stuck in the queue and check the status - if it is paused, try to resume the document. If there is an error with the print job, you may need to resolve this first before attempting to print the document again (you can delete the stuck print job from the queue and only send it through once). Checking your print queue is different to restarting your printer, which is covered in step 3. 3. Clear your print queue, turn your printer off and on again (this is different to restarting your computer and simply involves turning your printer off, waiting around 30 seconds, and then turning it back on again). If this doesn't work, try restarting your computer or look for support on how to resolve this issue for your specific device and printer.

W189 · Repair decisionRound 2 · Human · 370/300 words

Write a practical decision guide for repairing or replacing a worn backpack. Turn inspection, repair cost, fit, and expected use into a clear sequence rather than only listing questions. Aim for 300 words.

When your backpack shows signs of wear and tear, empty it out and inspect the damage. Look at the fabric of your backpack and the seams, zipper tracks, buckles, shoulder straps and back of the backpack. Determine if the damage is cosmetic or severe. Scuffs or minor issues with a zipper may not be as bad as tears around a shoulder strap, or cracks in the frame or harness of the backpack. Big rips or tears in high-wear areas may render your backpack unusable, especially if it is designed to carry heavy loads. Check to see if the damage is spreading or if it is a minor cosmetic problem. Determine if the damage to your backpack is something you can fix. You may be able to clean the backpack, fix the zipper with a brush or replace buckles and zipper pulls. Take your backpack to a gear repair shop to have seams replaced, fabric fixed or a zipper replaced. Check the warranty with the backpack manufacturer to see if they will fix any problems related to material defects or poor workmanship. Avoid using tapes and glues to fix a backpack that will be carrying heavy loads. Compare the estimates from the repair shop to the cost of a new backpack. As a rule of thumb, if the repair costs a fraction of what it will cost to replace the backpack, go for the repair. However, if the repair will cost half of what it will to replace the backpack or if multiple parts are failing, it may be time to replace the backpack. Check the longevity of the repair and find a way to recycle the old backpack. Determine if you are replacing the backpack, if it fits well and what you will be using it for. Try the backpack on with weight and wear it for a few minutes to see if it fits. If it never fit before, you may want to fix your old backpack. Choose repair or replacement based on how you will be using your backpack. If it will be used for everyday activities or strenuous hiking, make sure the backpack is able to perform, fits well and is the right size for your needs.

W190 · Beginner hobbyRound 2 · Human · 260/200 words

Write an introduction to collecting postcards for enjoyment. Suggest a manageable theme, storage, and recording uncertain dates; distinguish personal interest from claims about resale value. Aim for 200 words.

So you would like to collect Post Cards? Great, it is a easy and fun way to learn about different places and view points. It doesn't take a lot of room and you don't need to spend a lot of money to do it. First, pick a theme. It should be something that you enjoy but not so specific that you will have a hard time finding cards to fill your collection. Some people collect lighthouses, some collect different buildings in their area, some collect botanical cards and others collect different places that they have been to. Next, find a good storage container for your collection. If possible, use archival quality sleeves and a good quality box to put them in. Don't put them in direct sunlight and keep them in a place that doesn't have a lot of dampness or extreme temperatures. Handle your cards with care, don't write on them and be sure to always handle them with clean, dry hands. It is also a good idea to keep a notebook or spreadsheet of the cards that you have. It can be difficult to find out exactly when a card was made, so note on your spreadsheet if it is not dated or if you think that it was made around a certain time. Also, keep in mind that you should collect only what you enjoy. Unless you are sure that what you are collecting is worth a lot of money, don't expect to make any money on your collection. Collect only what you enjoy and have fun!

W191 · Policy briefRound 2 · Human · 607/500 words

Write a policy brief for a six-week trial of Sunday opening at a community center. Include baseline attendance, access for new users, incremental staffing costs, possible displacement of other services, and decision criteria. Aim for 500 words.

I assume that a six week trial period will be sufficient to demonstrate that there is a community need to have the Centre open on Sundays, and that this can be achieved at an acceptable cost, without adversely impacting on current services. To that end, the following will need to be done: Prior to opening the Centre on Sundays for the trial period, record attendance for the previous six weeks, broken down by day of the week, type of activity, and type of user. This will form the baseline attendance upon which to measure change. Obviously, if the Centre is not normally open on Sundays, the baseline measure will be zero. However, you can measure this against attendance on Saturdays and other days, as well as other measures such as room bookings, waiting lists, requests to open on Sundays, etc. Note that you will need to record this information using the same method each time. It will also be a good idea to publish the baseline measure and opening hours for the trial period before it starts. During the trial period, record the total number of users each Sunday, as well as the number of first time users. You will need to ask users at registration whether they have used the Centre before, and you may want to ask them where they come from and how they heard about the Centre being open. You might also want to collect information on the types of services used, user age, and any other information which might be useful to measure the success of the trial. It would be a good idea to also collect some information on why people are using the Centre, how convenient it is for them, whether it is safe, whether they like the activities being offered, etc. You will also need to record whether you turn people away, whether you have enough room to accommodate everyone who wants to use the Centre, etc. It would be a good idea to compare the attendance from each Sunday, to see whether there is any variation in attendance over the six weeks. A key measure will be the number, and percentage, of people who use the Centre who had not done so before the trial period. Prior to commencing the trial period, you will need to calculate how much it will cost to run the Centre on Sundays. For example, if you plan to open for five hours, and it takes two people to open and close up, and you pay them $25 per hour (including on-costs), then it will cost $250 per week, or $1,500 over six weeks. You will also need to factor in other costs, such as security, cleaning, etc. Let's say this will cost $100 per Sunday - in total, the trial period will cost around $2100. During the trial period, you will need to record whether the decision to open on Sundays has had any impact on the Centre's other services - for example, are staff working overtime, are they missing other days because they worked on Sunday, have you had to close some rooms so that they can be used on Sundays which impacts on community groups who normally use those rooms, etc. At the end of the trial period, you will then need to decide whether to continue to open on Sundays. My suggestion is that you should continue to open on Sundays, provided it can be done within a capped dollar amount, it does not impact on other essential services, and the Centre is getting at least 20 people per Sunday, of which at least 25% are first time users.

W192 · Evaluation summaryRound 2 · Human · 440/500 words

Summarize a fictional four-week shuttle trial that recorded 560 passenger journeys. Explain what this count shows and what it cannot establish about unique riders, car trips avoided, costs, or the case for expansion. Aim for 500 words.

This week we look at another common problem with data: failing to understand what a number actually represents. Here's the example: as part of a trial a community shuttle bus has been operating for four weeks. The operators have recorded that 560 passengers have used the shuttle service during the trial period. What can we say about the success of the shuttle service based on this information? On the face of it, 560 passengers seems like a reasonable number. The average per week is 140, which sounds like quite a few people have taken advantage of the trial. Let's have a look at some of the things we might wrongly assume about the data. The most basic thing to remember about the 560 number is that it does not represent 560 people . Perhaps some people rode on the shuttle service multiple times (maybe they used it every day?) whilst others only rode it once. We also need to consider that the number 560 might include both sides of a round trip - something that is normally only undertaken by one person. Without further information (e.g. a unique, but anonymous ID that each rider uses) we cannot make any conclusions about the number of people who have taken up the trial. It may also be a mistake to assume that each of the 560 passenger journeys represents a car trip that would otherwise have taken place. For each passenger, there are many alternatives: they may have walked, cycled, taken public transport, car pooled, or even not travelled at all. It's also possible that some of the 560 passengers would have travelled by car anyway, as a passenger . Without very carefully designed research (and even then), it's impossible to tell how many car trips have been avoided, or how many people have changed their travel habits because of the shuttle. What about the cost of the shuttle service? Without knowing how many hours it's run, how much it cost to set up and operate, how much revenue it's generated, and many other factors, it's impossible to know if the trial has been a good use of money. Finally, can we use this data to make a case for expanding the service? Perhaps we should, but not based solely on the number 560. There are too many unknowns, and too short a timeframe to know if this service is meeting a long-term need in the community. We need to look at a lot more data, including many of the items listed above, before we can reach any meaningful conclusions about the success of this trial, and whether it should be expanded.

W193 · Consultation responseRound 2 · Human · 336/300 words

Write a consultation response supporting a trial of movable seating in a town square. Address clear walking routes, different mobility needs, maintenance responsibility, and how feedback should affect the final layout. Aim for 300 words.

I support the idea of trialling some movable seating in the square. However, I think it is vital that there are continuous routes for walking that give access to all areas of the square and to the various destinations on the square and adjacent to it. These routes need to be wide and clear of all obstructions such as seating and tables. The routes should be wide enough for people in wheelchairs, on mobility scooters, people with prams and for people who wish to walk side by side. The routes need to give access to all destinations within and adjacent to the square including any tactile paving, bus stops, road crossings, building entrances and shops. The routes should not inhibit any sight lines, emergency services access, or any other services that need access across the square. If seating is moved then there needs to be clear guidance as to where the seating can be moved to so that it does not create a hazard. Not everybody is mobile, so as well as seating that can be moved there also needs to be some fixed seating that is stable, with a back and ideally with arms. There also needs to be space next to the seating for people in wheelchairs or on mobility scooters so that they can join others who are seated. The seating needs to be easily accessible from the main routes and ideally there should be seating in both sunny and shaded areas. All of the seating whether fixed or movable needs to be sturdy and comfortable and of a weight that can be easily manoeuvred by people. It will be important to decide who is responsible for checking, cleaning and storing the seating - presumably the council or a contractor. Finally, it will be important to take feedback from a wide range of people during the trial period including disabled people, and to publish the feedback. The feedback should inform the final layout of the square and be subject to change if necessary.

W194 · Accessibility reviewRound 2 · Human · 385/300 words

Write a fictional accessibility review of a meeting room with a heavy entrance door, unclear signs, movable furniture, and a hearing loop whose operation has not been checked. Offer practical next steps without claiming legal certification. Aim for 300 words.

Meeting Room Access The door at the entrance to this room is very heavy and I found it really difficult to open when I was carrying lots of things with me. The door is probably difficult for anyone in a wheelchair or anyone using walking aids. It's also very quick to shut, making it even harder to open and there isn't any evidence of a way to call for assistance if required. The staff mentioned that they would help me in if they were available but this isn't a guaranteed solution to the problem. On entering the room, it was quite spacious although the furniture was not fixed and had been laid out differently as it was being used for a different meeting each time. On this occasion, there was a line of chairs and a table which restricted the space for me to move to some of the chairs. There was not enough space for me to bring my wheelchair or buggy with me to a few of the chairs and it wasn't obvious which chairs I could use. It would be a good idea to lay the room out in an accessible format all the time to make it easy for everyone. It's easy to make a few of the chairs accessible and to place them amongst the other chairs. The staff could easily check the layout of the room prior to each event to make sure that it's accessible. They could also ask for people's preferences when they register for each event. There were not clear signs around the venue to indicate where the meeting room was. I ended up in the right corridor but wasn't sure which door to go into. It would be a good idea to put some directional signs up at the appropriate places to direct people to the room. Although there is a hearing loop installed in this room, I have not checked whether it is operational or not. It would be a good idea to: Have the door assessed and possibly fit an automatic door opener Arrange the furniture in an accessible way and keep it this way Improve the wayfinding within the venue Check whether the hearing loop is working This is not a legal document and does not confirm compliance with any legislative Acts.

W195 · Public speechRound 2 · Human · 260/200 words

Write a short public-meeting speech supporting playground renewal while requesting quieter play options, shade, and seating. Acknowledge space and budget constraints rather than assuming every addition fits. Aim for 200 words.

Good Evening. I would like to start off by saying that I fully support the idea of investing in our playground to make it a safer environment for the kids in our community. I would like to make a few suggestions to the plans that you might be able to incorporate. First and foremost is the idea of incorporating a “quiet” space for kids. Even if it is very simple it would be great to have an area of the playground for kids who don’t prefer the high energy side of a playground. This would make the playground more accessible to kids with special needs and give the “shyer” kids an area where they feel more comfortable. It could be as simple as a few sensory toys or even just having a small nature or imagination based area. Secondly I would like to put in a request for more shade and seating around the playground. Having some shade would be very beneficial to the park during warmer months and having benches for caregivers would be much appreciated. I know that there is a finite space and a finite amount of funds to put towards this project and these things might not be able to be incorporated now but I would ask that you keep these requests in mind when deciding how to invest into the playground. Keeping these things in mind would go a long way towards making the playground more accessible to a greater amount of kids and their caregivers without breaking the budget. Thank you for your time.

W196 · Budget explanationRound 2 · Human · 164/200 words

Explain the difference between a recurring operating expense, a one-time purchase, an expected donation, and a reserve fund using a community garden example. Avoid treating uncertain donations as cash already available. Aim for 200 words.

Something you expect to spend money on regularly, for example monthly water bills, seasonal purchases of compost, annual rental fees for your garden plot, etc. This will be included in your regular operating budget. Something you expect to spend money on just once, or very infrequently. For example, a new tool shed may be something that, once purchased, will last for many years. Money you expect to receive, but do not yet have in hand. For example, if a local business has promised to make a donation, you may reasonably expect that donation to be forthcoming, but you do not yet have that money available to spend. Money you have already put aside for use in the future. For example, you may want to put money into a reserve fund to cover unexpected expenses like replacement of a broken water line, an increase in rent, or to have available in a year when fundraising efforts do not bring in as much money as expected.

W197 · Volunteer orientationRound 2 · Human · 186/150 words

Welcome volunteers staffing a neighborhood information desk. Explain greeting visitors, avoiding guesses, protecting private details, asking a coordinator for help, and leaving useful handover notes. Aim for 150 words.

Key things to remember Volunteer Information Desk Thank you for offering to work at our information desk. Please remember that as a volunteer information officer you will need to be friendly and calm. Always greet people and try and find out how you can help them. Do not guess at information or give out information that you are not sure is correct. It is better to admit that you do not know and check with the coordinator or other appropriate resources. Equally, do not promise people anything that you are not sure you can deliver. Remember that people may be seeking information on matters that they consider private so you need to be sensitive to their need for confidentiality. This also applies to any written information that you might collect - dispose of it appropriately. If you are in doubt about anything, ask the coordinator for help. Finally, please make sure that you give a good handover at the end of your shift by writing notes for the next information officer. Again, keep in mind the need for confidentiality - only write down what is necessary.

W198 · Service updateRound 2 · Human · 162/150 words

Announce a four-week trial of extended evening hours at a community workshop. Use placeholders for the actual hours and feedback link, invite users and nonusers to respond, and avoid implying the change is permanent. Aim for 150 words.

We're going to be trialling opening the workshop for longer hours in the evening for the next 4 weeks. We'll be opening on [when you'll be opening, ie: "weeknights from 7 to 10pm"] on [what days you'll be opening, ie: "Monday through Thursday"] from [date you'll start opening] to [date you'll stop opening]. Please note that this is just a trial opening and there is no guarantee that we will continue these opening hours after the trial period. We're keen to hear your feedback on whether the workshop hours work for you and if you'll be able to make it in during the trial period. It doesn't matter if you come into the workshop regularly, have been once before or have never been, we'd love to hear your thoughts! Head over to [link to where you'll be collecting feedback] and let us know what you think. We'll also be keen to hear your thoughts when you come in during the trial period.

W199 · Impact reportRound 2 · Human · 368/300 words

Write a report on a tool library that enrolled 160 members and recorded 710 loans in six months. Preserve those figures, distinguish activity from measured impact, and propose evidence needed to estimate household savings or waste reduction. Aim for 300 words.

In the first 6 months since our tool library launched, 160 people enrolled as members and there have been 710 tool loans. That's an average of 4.4 loans for each enrollee! How much money will the average household save? How much will waste be reduced? Well, actually all we know is that the tool library has been loaned out 710 times. We don't actually know how much people saved (if anyone). People may have bought the tools they needed anyway. We don't know how many people actually borrowed tools. We don't know if a few people borrowed a lot of tools and the rest of them didn't borrow anything. We don't know what environmental impact, if any, our tool library has had. To find out how much people saved, you need to talk to them. You could survey people every time they borrow a tool, or maybe once every few months, to find out if they would have bought the item, rented it, borrowed it from a neighbour or friend, or done without it. You could even ask them to bring in receipts to prove it, or at least an estimate of what it would have cost. Make sure you take into account what they paid for membership and to borrow the items, the cost of getting to the tool library, and what it cost to repair or replace items. Work out a range and report the difference between estimated and verified savings. To find out how much waste you've reduced, you need to know how many tools people didn't buy because they were able to borrow them, and whether those tools are still in good condition or need repairing. You'll need to keep track of how many tools you get, repair, replace and discard, and how they are disposed of. You could try comparing your tool library to a group of similar people who don't have access to a tool library, or survey tool library members about how often they borrowed or bought tools before the tool library started. So, while the 6-month results are impressive, we need to look for more evidence before we can report on the financial and environmental impacts of our tool library.

W200 · Community mediationRound 2 · Human · 207/200 words

Summarize a disagreement between residents who want outdoor music and those who want quiet evenings. State shared interests and propose a specific, time-limited compromise with a review process in a neutral third-person voice. Aim for 200 words.

On one side, you have people who want to enjoy music outside. On the other, you have people who want to enjoy their homes in quiet. What both sides want is to be able to enjoy the outdoors in a safe and pleasant way, to treat each other well and to have some rules to follow. Since both groups want the same things, why can’t we find a solution that works for both of us? Why don’t we try, for 8 weeks, to allow outdoor amplified music on Fridays and Saturdays from 5:30 until 8:00 PM, and not any louder than X volume? If anyone wants to have music, they need to give at least 3 days notice to people, and be sure the speakers are not pointed towards anyone’s house, and the music has to be over by 8:00 PM. During the week, you’re allowed to have music outside, but not amplified, and it needs to be over by 7:00 PM. At the end of those 8 weeks, we can all fill out a survey, meet with each other, and decide if we want to continue with this arrangement. If we don’t, it will simply expire after 8 weeks, unless there’s an agreement to extend it.

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