Free-form-word-match terms

Both quizzes and flashcard decks have options for free-form input (see Quizzes quickstart and Flashcards quickstart), where users either

1. select entries from a suggestion list that includes dictionary words, a list of default terms, and answers that you have specified; or
2. guess letters of the answer in “hangman” format.

The default terms list includes approximately 500 biology-related words.  For each quiz or flashcard deck you can specify your own list (or lists) of terms to be used as suggestions for that quiz or flashcard deck.

You can also specify a list (or lists) of additional terms that will be added to either the default list or the terms list you have specified for that quiz or flashcard deck.

It is also possible to specify that the dictionary words or the terms lists will not be used in a particular free-form input question or flashcard by adding one of the attributes “use_dict” or “use_terms” to the [textentry] shortcode (for example, [textentry use_dict=”false”]).

There are several ways that lists of terms may be provided.  Details are provided below.

Also, the Qwiz plugin will create plural forms of each term.  The plural form will be presented in the suggestion list if the plurals=”true” attribute is provided with [textentry].  The Qwiz plugin follows simple rules for creating plurals; you may specify the plural form of a term (or indicate that the term should not be pluralized) in non-standard cases.  Details are provided below.

Providing terms

You have three ways of providing a list of suggestion words specific to a quiz or flashcard deck:

1. Listing terms, one per line or separated by semicolons, within [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes within your quiz or flashcard deck (that is, between [qwiz] … [/qwiz] shortcodes or between [qdeck] … [/qdeck] shortcodes) ;
2. Uploading to your media library a file that contains terms between [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes and providing a link to the file between [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes in your quiz or flashcard deck; or
3. Creating a separate page on your web site that has a list of terms between [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes and providing a link to the page between [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes in your quiz or flashcard deck.

Here is an example (use the small scrollbar at the right to view the complete input):

 

Here’s how the quiz appears.  Note that only the terms given in the list appear in the suggestions; the [terms] … [/terms] entries override the default list.

A link to a file uploaded to your media library might look like this:

 

Use the “Add Media” button in the WordPress editor to create the link, which must appear between the [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes.

Note that for files of type “.txt” the [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes are optional — when these shortcodes are not included then all words in the file — on separate lines or separated by semicolons — will be included in the suggestion list.

Note that “nested links” — a link in the media library file to another media library file, say — will not be followed.

You may also create a link to another page on your web site.  In this case the [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes must be present so that the Qwiz plugin can find the list of terms on the web page.  Use the “Insert/edit link” icon in the WordPress editor to create the link.

Note that in all cases linked files should be located on the same web site as your quiz or flashcard deck web page.  Most browsers and web servers will prohibit “cross-site” data transfers.

Providing additional terms

Additional terms — that will be added to either the list of default terms, or to the list of terms you’ve provided with the [terms] … [/terms] shortcodes — can be specified with shortcodes [add_terms] … [/add_terms].  The options for additional terms are the same as those for terms: (1) a list of words; (2) a link to a media library file; or (3) a link to another web page.  See the examples, above.

Multiple sets of [add_terms] … [/add_terms] shortcodes may be included within a quiz or flashcard deck.  In addition, multiple links may be included within a single [add_terms] … [/add_terms] pair, and words may be mixed with links within a single [add_terms] … [/add_terms] pair.

Plural forms of terms

As mentioned above, you can specify that suggestions be provided in plural form by adding the plurals=”true” attribute to the [textentry] shortcode:

 

By default the Qwiz plugin creates plural forms of words by using the following rules:

Words that end with “s” have “es” added.

Words that end with “y” have “ies” substituted for the “y”.

All other words have “s” added.

These rules work in most cases in English.  For non-standard cases you can specify the plural form of a term by adding it after a slash.  For example:

 

Or you can specify that a plural form not be used (that is, the singular form will be shown, even when plurals=”true” is specified).  Add a slash with nothing after it: