Guidelines for composing and solving puzzles
by Hudu, Brillig, Treesong, and Sibyl
[note that there are guidelines for submitting content and solutions written by the current editors also available on this website. In cases where this document and the guidelines from current editors disagree, guidelines from current editors should be considered the final word]
Introduction to flats
Most of the puzzles in The Enigma are flats. A flat is a puzzle whose solution is a single, flat line of letters. (Its opposite is a form, a puzzle whose solution is a two- dimensional grid, like a crossword puzzle or a word square.)
Most flats are in verse. In each verse, one or more words are missing, replaced by cuewords in all capitals like ONE and TWO, or in the below case ADDER and ADDED. Your job is to figure out the missing words.
Here is an example:
LAST-LETTER CHANGE (5)
I didn’t know that snakes could dance, but whoa!
That ADDER does the ADDED like a pro.
=LADY MONDEGREEN, Boston MA
The title tells you what kind of solution you need. In this case, it’s a last-letter change: a word (ADDER) becomes a new word (ADDED) when its last letter is changed, like bone to bond or curtain to curtail. The number in parentheses says you’re looking for five-letter words as your answer. The context gives you your clues, and after some thought you hit on the answer: ADDER is mamba and ADDED is mambo.
This flat illustrates a couple of other points. One is that sometimes cuewords are “exemplary”, meaning that they have the same relationship that the solution words will have. In this case, changing the last letter of ADDER gives ADDED. Not all flats have exemplary cuewords. The other thing worth noting is that flats need not be true or even realistic; mambas do not mambo.
When you understand that example, you’re ready to tackle the rest of the puzzles in The Enigma. Other sections in this Guide provide explanations of every kind of puzzle you’re likely to encounter, along with a few helpful tips on solving them.
Though flats make up the great majority of the puzzles in The Enigma, you’ll see a few other kinds of puzzles as well. These are grouped into four other categories: forms, extras, cryptograms (or “crypts” for short), and cryptic crosswords (“cryptics”). All these puzzles are explained elsewhere in this Guide.
In The Enigma, flats are grouped together and sequentially numbered. To distinguish them, the numbers for forms are preceded by F, the numbers for extras are preceded by E, the numbers for cryptics are preceded by X, and the numbers for crypts are preceded by C.
General principles
Puzzles in The Enigma should conform to some general principles, which are given briefly here. Once you have read the following six paragraphs, you’ll have enough background to look at the puzzle descriptions in the Flats section and start solving. For more detailed discussions of the finer points, read ENUMERATION, GUIDELINES FOR BASES, CUEWORDS, and TAGGING IN FLATS.
- All puzzle answers should appear in one of the League’s standard references (see below) or else be well-known (such as names recently in the news) or easily researchable. Answers not in Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary at www.m‑w.com (“online MW”) must be identified as such. Obsolete or archaic words, foreign and dialect words, and words marked “rare” or “slang” may be used judiciously, but they must also be identified. “Reformed spellings” from Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition (“NI2”), may not be used. For more detail, see TAGGING IN FLATS.
- The number of letters in the word or words of the solution to a puzzle is given in parentheses. This is called the puzzle’s enumeration. For more detail, see ENUMERATION.
- Each part of the answer must be replaced by its cueword (such as ADDED and ADDER in the example) wherever it appears in the verse. If a word occurs more than once in the verse, it must be replaced by its cueword each time. The verse should rhyme and scan correctly with the cuewords in place. (Whether it does with the answers in place is irrelevant.) Likewise, whether the proper article is a or an depends on the cueword, not the solution word. For more detail, see CUEWORDS.
- In fairness to solvers, all puzzles must be clearly clued. If two or more cuewords are used consecutively (“My sweetheart made me ONE TWO THREE”), solvers are deprived of contextual clues; constructors should be aware of this and take special care that the answers are thoroughly clued in spite of the loss of context.
- A single flat may combine multiple bases; each base gets its own title line. The solver is not expected to divine which cuewords go with which base; either this should be clear from the cuewords, or the cuewords are listed explicitly with each title.
- In general, verse should rhyme and scan, but departures for comic or other effect are acceptable if well handled. It will help beginning flat-writers to read a basic modern text on types of verse and techniques of versing—also to read light-verse collections, including recent Enigma issues.
- All puzzles submitted for publication in The Enigma must be original and unpublished unless clearly identified as reprinted from an earlier Enigma or other source.
Enumeration
After the flat’s title, which tells what type of flat it is, the number of letters in each puzzle’s solution is given in parentheses. This is called the enumeration. If the solution is a phrase, the enumeration gives the number of letters in each word of the phrase, as well as any punctuation. Contractions retain their apostrophes and hyphenated words their hyphens. Capitalized words are preceded by asterisks or carets. For example, the enumeration of United States of America is (*6 *6 2 *7), while that of will‑o’-the-wisp is (4–1’-3–4). A double asterisk indicates a word in all caps; for example, PB and J is (**2 3 *1). See below, SYMBOLS USED IN TAGGING FLATS, for more on the asterisk and caret in capitalized words.
Words having a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters are treated accordingly: for example, McCartney is (*2*7). If a solution contains numbers, each digit is counted as one (lowercase) character: 1984 is enumerated (4); Top 40 is (*3 2); R2D2 is (*2*2).
When a solution has more than one part and all parts of a puzzle have the same enumeration, it’s given only once. For example, a transposal of alerting, altering, integral, and triangle is enumerated (8). However, if any part differs from the others, all the parts are enumerated, separated by commas (or semicolons if the parts themselves contain any commas). For example, a transposal of mattress and smart set is enumerated (8, 5 3).
Similarly, when you can infer the enumeration of all parts of the puzzle from the length of the longest part (as in a beheadment in which the shortest part or parts are all single words), or in certain types such as charades and word deletions, only the longest is given. If any part is capitalized or is multiple words, the enumeration of that part is given explicitly. For example, a curtailment changing aspiring to aspirin is enumerated as just (8), but a deletion changing itching to I Ching is enumerated in full: (7, *1 *5). (A part whose length would not normally be given might get a tag like (SHORT = phrase) or (INNER = **).)
For detailed descriptions of each flat type, see FLATS.
Guidelines for bases
The solution to a flat is called its base. Choosing a good base is the important first step in writing a flat. Because tens of thousands of flats have appeared in The Enigma over the years, many people think all the good bases have already been discovered. And it’s true that the editor may reject a flat using a base that has recently been published. But new words come into the language yearly, giving members new possibilities to work with, and even a base that has been used before can get a fresh twist from a deft constructor.
The words in a base should not be related etymologically to each other nor to any words in the verse. A word’s etymology is given in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in which it appears. See below, “Standard Reference Books”, for a list of relevant dictionaries.
One feature of a good base is that its words are reduced to their shortest possible form. A good transposal, for example, is not based on tacos and coats but taco and coat (unless part of a larger set including ascot or coast). Instead of beheading puttering to uttering, use putter and utter as your base.
On the other hand, as a base for a deletion, starting and stating are already in their
shortest possible forms, since start and state wouldn’t work. Therefore they make an acceptable base. Similarly, a letter shift based on auctioned and cautioned alone should be avoided—you should use auction and caution instead—but a transposal based on auctioned, cautioned, and education is acceptable.
Cuewords
In the verse, the solution words are replaced by cuewords wherever they appear. For example, if a puzzle is a transposal based on threat and hatter, those words must be replaced by cuewords (such as FIRST and SECOND) throughout the verse, and related words like threaten and hat cannot be used.
(This rule, by the way, can sometimes provide help in solving a flat. Ask yourself, does the author seem to have been avoiding some common word in the verse? If the verse refers to canines and hounds, but never simply to dogs, maybe that’s because dog is part of the answer.)
If the answer is a phrase, minor words from it—articles and prepositions and pronouns and conjunctions of three letters or fewer—may appear in the verse. For example, if the answer to a puzzle is the farmer in the dell, the words the and in might appear in the verse, but no form of farm or dell.
Cuewords in the verse may be inflected to make them plural if they are nouns (ONEs and TWOs) or past tense or participles if they are verbs (ONEd, FIRSTed, WHOLing). Plurals are formed by adding ‑s and verbs are inflected according to the rules of regular English verbs. For example, the solution word child can be “an ALL” or “the ONEs”; the solution word bring can be “to ONE”, “he ONEs”, “she ONEd”. Those are not childs and bringed; they are “plural of solution word child” and “past tense of solution word bring”. Of course, uninflected cuewords are always preferable and more elegant.
The most common cuewords are sets like ONE and TWO; FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD; A and B; PRIMAL and FINAL—also, BEGUN and DONE or BEGIN and END. Reading Enigma flats will give you many more ideas. Some cuewords are quite fanciful: WHATZIT and WHICH; KIT and CABOODLE. Don’t combine sets: FIRST/TWO, ONE/DONE, PRIME/SECOND, and so on are not acceptable pairs.
Another common cueword is the number of letters in the answer. In a beheadment, for example, the cuewords for pirate and irate might be SIX and FIVE. Cuewords sometimes exemplify the flat type. In that same beheadment, the cuewords might instead be, say, BROOK and ROOK. If BROOK/ROOK make some sort of amusing or misleading sense in the verse, so much the better.
In some flat types, it doesn’t matter which cueword you assign to which part. In a reversal, ONE can be desserts and TWO stressed, or vice versa. A reversal works either way. But in a beheadment, the order of the cuewords matters. ONE can be pirate and TWO can be irate, but not vice versa, because a beheadment works only one way. Other common cuewords used in beheadments—and many other flat types that have solutions of different lengths—are words like LARGE and SMALL, or LONG and SHORT. In this sort of puzzle, try to use a pair of cuewords (unlike WHATZIT and WHICH above) that clearly indicates which word comes first; if you can’t, you must note with the title which cueword goes with which enumeration.
Tagging in Flats
Standard reference books
Since some puzzles in The Enigma involve unusual or even obscure words, it’s important that solvers know where to look to confirm their answers. The National Puzzlers’ League has chosen these Merriam-Webster’s dictionaries as its standard reference works: Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary at www.m‑w.com (abbreviated “online MW”), Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (11C), and the two most recent unabridged dictionaries, Webster’s New International Dictionary, Third Edition (NI3) and Webster’s Second New International Dictionary (abbreviated NI2). We sometimes say “MW” to refer to these references as a group.
The answers to most flats in The Enigma appear in online MW and thus they get no special label. Any flat with an answer not in online MW is given a label— commonly called a source tag—indicating the most recent Merriam-Webster dictionary in which the answer can be found: 11C, NI3, or NI2. A solution whose only source is the addenda section of NI2 is labeled “NI2 Add.”
A solution word or phrase gets at most one source tag, no matter how many dictionaries it’s in. For example, a word in both NI3 and NI2 is tagged only “NI3” (the more recent source); a phrase in both online MW and NI3 gets no tag at all (since online MW answers are not tagged). Sometimes the editor will have to clarify which word is tagged, as in (4 2 4 5) (second 4 is NI3).
NI2 has been out of print since 1961 and is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Some local libraries still have copies, as do, occasionally, used-book stores. Members who want to buy or sell NI2s can write to the editor or post a message to the NPL email list. If you see one for sale at a reasonable price, someone is sure to want it.
Other sections of The Enigma (forms, extras, cryptics, and cryptograms) have their own tagging rules; please see the appropriate sections of this Guide for details.
More about standard references
What if the solution word appears in online MW, but it is used in a sense that online MW doesn’t include but NI3 does? In that case, the editor would add the tag “NI3 usage”. This will warn you that although you can find the answer itself in online MW, you’ll have to look in NI3 to see the relevant definition. The tag “NI2 usage” is likewise used.
How do you know the answer appears in online MW? Because the flat has no tag telling you otherwise; remember, all answers are in online MW unless otherwise indicated.
Similarly, a tag like “NI3, but NI2 usage” tells you that the solution word or phrase is not in online MW or 11C but is in NI3, and that the relevant definition is in NI2.
Only spelling determines which dictionary a word appears in. The word mustang is in online MW only as a noun, and in NI3 as both a noun and a verb (meaning “to hunt mustangs”). If a flat uses the solution word mustangs as a verb, it will be tagged “NI3 usage”, since the word mustangs is in online MW (as a plural noun) but with a different meaning. But mustanged would be tagged “NI3”—no such word is in online MW (or can be inferred from the noun form).
Capitalizing the word makes it a different word. The brand name Mustang is simply “not MW”. (This rule is sometimes so confusing, the editor may note that some non-MW word would be in one of the dictionaries if it weren’t capitalized.) If the solution word is in online MW as an uncapitalized word but a capitalized form appears in NI3, and the capitalized one is used in the flat, then it is tagged “NI3” (not “NI3 usage”). Words marked “usu. cap” are treated as capitalized. (See also SYMBOLS USED IN TAGGING FLATS.)
Some phrases appear in the standard references, but not as (boldface) entry phrases. For example, online MW includes the noun “thank-you”, but the expression “thank you” (without the hyphen) appears only under “thank”. It is tagged “findable”. NI3-findable or NI2-findable mean what you would expect. The example quotes in online MW change frequently; we do not mark a word or phrase as “findable” based solely on such a quote.
The physical dictionaries vary slightly from printing to printing. Also, in rare cases, a topical entry could be added to online MW after publication. If tag is found to be incorrect after the fact, the next month’s Enigma will make note of it.
NI2 addenda vary greatly, and checking one printing of NI2 after another is difficult or impossible for most of us. Because of this, words appearing only in the NI2 addenda don’t provide satisfactory puzzle bases.
In a few cases, by convention, we omit tags that the rules above require. These common usages will be left untagged:
- Two-letter names for certain letters (such as be and es) that are not in online MW are sometimes used in readings of rebuses (see SOLVING AND COMPOSING THE REBUS AND REBADE in the Flats section). But they are not tagged to show an NI3 word in the reading.
- Some phonetic variations among dialects are covered in NI3 but not in online MW’s “Guide to Pronunciation”. Phonetic flats involving them are nonetheless not tagged “NI3 pronunciation”. (See PHONETIC FLATS, in the Flats section.)
- Certain metaphorical uses of words are so natural that they are not tagged— for instance, Picasso, meaning “a work by Picasso”; homonym, for “a puzzle based on a homonym”.
- A city plus its state or province (Bangor, Maine; Toronto, Ontario) is considered an MW entry phrase as long as the city itself is MW.
Solutions not in Merriam-Webster
At the editor’s discretion, puzzles with non–Merriam-Webster solutions may be printed, with the tag “not MW”. Non-MW solutions will be familiar to most solvers: nationally known brand names, celebrities, topical names and events, and so forth. (“Not MW” implies “but familiar” or, barring that, “but easily researchable”.) They may be NPL noms and terms: Mangie, spoonergram. Occasionally they will be common words and phrases that inexplicably got left out of the dictionary, such as Old South, or that have come into use since our last dictionary appeared. “Non-MW usage” means that the word is in the dictionary but isn’t being used in any dictionary sense. Often, it suggests NPL usage (flat, Merlin, and so forth).
Non-MW words that are natural derivatives of online MW words may be tagged “inferable”. Thus, “unclued” is tagged “inferable” because it is derived using the prefix “un-”. (NI3-inferable and NI2-inferable mean what you would expect.) Such inventions should be used sparingly.
Nonstandard sources
Once in a blue moon the editor may give another source for a non-MW answer. Options include Wikipedia, IMDb, and The Random House Dictionary, Second Edition (sometimes abbreviated “RH2”). This is standard practice in forms.
Non-dictionary phrases
In most types of flats, answer phrases must be dictionary entries. That is because if contrived non-dictionary phrases were allowed, the huge number of possibilities would make the puzzles too difficult to solve. If a phrase is not MW, it should have dictionary nature: i.e., it should be something you might imagine would appear in a sufficiently large (or specialized) dictionary or encyclopedia. (“Summer White House” is a real thing; “December red hotel” is not.)
But there are exceptions. In these puzzle types, non-dictionary phrases are allowed (and are not noted in tags): alchemisms, anagrams, antigrams, ambigrams, heteronyms, homonyms, homoantonyms, homosynonyms (and other heteronym and homonym variations), literatims (part-words only), mutations, palindromes, phrase shifts and their variations, rebuses and subers (but not rebades and subades), reduplications, spoonergrams and their variations, and welded flats. These types are sometimes called “inherently freewheeling”, because by default they behave as if they had the FREEWHEELING designation.
If the answer, or part of the answer, to one of these types of puzzles is in fact a dictionary entry, the editor may put brackets around the enumeration to indicate this, if they think it will be helpful—and if they think it won’t give away too much of the answer. An anagram of the solution the real estate agents could be enumerated (3 [4 6] 6), since real estate is an online MW entry. Brackets mean the phrase has its dictionary usage. In the cards, for example, is an MW phrase meaning “inevitable”. A rebus whose solution is in the cards could be enumerated [2 3 5] if the verse read, “It’s ALL that we will win,” but (2 3 5) if it read, “At Christmas she tucks money ALL.” If the phrase were used both ways, it might be enumerated “[2 3 5] (one usage not MW)”.
All forms of an entry phrase count as entries. Eat one’s words could be bracketed [3 3’1 5], so eating her words could be, too: [6 3 5].
Names
How a name is tagged depends on the person referred to. John Smith is not tagged if it is the John Smith mentioned in online MW; it’s tagged “NI2 usage” if it’s one of the other John Smiths in the biographical section of NI2; it’s tagged “non-MW usage” for a John Smith (perhaps someone recently in the news) who isn’t in the dictionary at all. Noms of NPL members, when used as such, are tagged “non-MW usage” if they appear in a dictionary with some other meaning (Merlin, Eric); “not MW” if they don’t (Treesong, Qaqaq).
Symbols used in tagging flats
Several symbols used in flats give solvers extra information.
+ is the symbol for usage labels such as “slang”, “obsolete”, “archaic”, “dialect”, “British”, “foreign”, or “regional”; and for any word or phrase appearing in 11C’s “Foreign Words and Phrases” section. The tag “NI3+” tells you not only that the answer appears in NI3 (and not in online MW or 11C), but also that the answer is given a usage label in that reference. (For more information about usage labels, see the introduction to any of our standard references.)
* is the symbol for a capitalized word. Frederick the Great is enumerated (*9 3 *5). Occasionally * will appear only before a cueword; for example, if an answer word is polish, used once in the verse as a verb and then as a nationality, the cueword might be ONE the first time and *ONE the second time.
^ is used in place of an asterisk for nonce capitalizations in non-dictionary
phrases; that is, if a word in an answer is normally uncapitalized with the same usage, then it gets a caret. This comes up most commonly in names and titles, for instance: Bend It Like Beckham = ^4 ^2 ^4 *7; Doctor Frankenstein = ^6 *12. But The Taming of the Shrew is an NI2 entry, and thus would be enumerated [*3 *6 2 3 *5]— which is slightly confusing on the surface, but helps avoid all sorts of complicated issues, like “Should ‘West Germany’ be enumerated *4 *7 or ^4 *7?”
Note that words starred or marked with a caret in titles (Eyeless in Gaza, ^7 2 *4; “Poem in October”, “^4 2 *7”) are not tagged as if capitalized. In the examples above, eyeless and poem are both in 11C (eyeless in boldface under eye) and are not tagged as not MW just because they’re capitalized in a title.
Names of sports teams pose a particular problem. “Philadelphia Eagles” are *12 *6; they are not literally eagles, so the capitalized word is not MW and gets an asterisk. But the New York Islanders are indeed islanders. For consistency, team names are all given asterisks and considered not MW.
** indicates an all-caps string; “ASCII” is **5. If a word has a mix of capitalized and uncapitalized letters, ** indicates a substring with all caps, and * indicates one with an initial cap. So “BSArch” and “DNAase” are each **2*4, even though they are parsed differently. ^^ is defined similarly.
[Brackets] around the enumeration are the symbol for a phrase or hyphenated word that is a dictionary entry. Brackets are used only in those puzzles in which non-MW phrases are routinely allowed (see NON-DICTIONARY PHRASES). In all other flats, phrases and hyphenated words are supposed to be dictionary entries and therefore don’t need to be bracketed.
Occasionally the editor will give more tagging information than is strictly
required. This is always done to be helpful, never to mislead.
Tagging in other puzzles
Tagging in forms, crypts, extras, and cryptic crosswords is described in the sections devoted to those puzzle types.
Submitting Puzzles for Publication
Please see the Enigma masthead for addresses and for further directions on submissions. Most people submit via email, but paper submissions are also accepted.
Submit your puzzles in the same form they have in The Enigma. Give your nom, city, and state after each puzzle. In email, please leave at least 15 lines of “spoiler space” between the puzzle and the solution, so the editors can solve the puzzle. Or attach the solutions as a separate document; this is especially useful if you’re submitting more than one puzzle in one email.
If you choose to submit on paper, put the solutions on the back, and make sure you keep copies of your work. You may put more than one puzzle on a single sheet. Include rubric readings. Give acrostical enigma part-words with the word or phrase in the verse that’s used to clue each part. Add any other explanations or comments that you think will help the editor, even if they may seem obvious to you. (What is obvious to one may not be to another, especially when deadlines approach.)
Include all the source and tagging information you can. Are the answer words main entries in online MW? Is your usage of the word confirmed in the dictionary given by the tag? Is your word slang, obsolete, foreign, or other + usage? Capitalized? (Give this information even if it doesn’t affect the tag—for example, if the word is coyly hiding in the geographical section of 11C or under the line in NI2, let the editor know; it will help them check your puzzle quickly.) If you haven’t been able to check all the relevant references—for example, if you know a word is in NI2 but don’t know if it’s in NI3 too—tell the editor what sources you did check.
Not everyone is a master poet, and even master poets aren’t infallible. Part of the editor’s job is to fix rhyme and meter when necessary. If you want no changes made without consultation, just let the editor know in advance.
Send topical material as early as possible to give the editor the best chance of fitting it into the appropriate issue. Flats are due on the 8th of the month before publication, but the sooner you get them in, the more time there is for editing, and the greater the chance the editors can use them.
Submitting cryptic crosswords, forms, and cryptograms
See the Enigma masthead for the names and addresses of the subeditors of these types. They will check and comment on them before passing them on to the editor. Include complete solutions to all forms, crypts (not just alphabets), and crosswords (both explanations of individual words and the filled-in grid).
Forms: please give a source for every word that isn’t in online MW. Except for non-MW sources, this information won’t appear in The Enigma, but it will save time for the forms editor.
Submit cryptograms as they appear in The Enigma, written in block letters or typed in capitals, with spaces between letters and with lines double-spaced. Always double-check that the cryptogram is correctly encoded and that it follows the RULES FOR CRYPTOGRAMS as given in the Extras section.
Cryptograms and some extras are published with titles, often with a joke that makes sense only after solving. You are encouraged to come up with your own, but the editors will help if you prefer.
Submitting solution lists
Many of our members enjoy sending in their solution lists to be scored, with the results published. You may also send in a “kudos list” of your favorites (puzzles, whether or not you solved them; articles; or anything else in the issue). Of course you’re not obliged to send either. The deadline for solution lists is printed in each issue at the start of the Penetralia section, as is the name and address of the Solutions Editor.
Be sure to mail your list early enough to reach the solutions editor by the deadline; after that it won’t be scored, although any favorite votes will be recorded eventually. The results for each issue are published three issues later (in the issue following the one giving the solutions themselves). The solutions editor reports how many puzzles each member solved and which ones that person chose as favorites, which alternate solutions were accepted and which rejected, how many reporting members solved each puzzle, and how many picked each as a favorite.
Most people send solutions and kudos by email. If you allow enough time, the Solutions Editor may even be able to give you feedback before the deadline, so you can correct any errors.
Scores
Puzzles in The Enigma are divided into five broad categories: flats, forms, crypts, extras, and cryptic crosswords. Your score in each of these categories is figured separately. For example, if you solved 55 flats, 3 forms, no crypts, 5 extras, and one
cryptic, your score would appear as 55/3/0/5/1. If you get a “complete” in any category, by solving all of those puzzles, an asterisk replaces that number in your score. For example, if you got a “flat complete” and a “form complete” but solved no crypts and only one of three extras, your score would appear as */*/0/1/0.
Those diligent and talented solvers who achieve a complete for the entire issue do not appear in the list of scores with other solvers. Instead, their noms are given a place of honor in the first paragraph of that month’s solvers report.
The Solutions Editor may accept alternate solutions if they fit all the clues and rules. You are welcome to submit a plausible answer, even if you suspect that it’s not the intended solution.
Preparing solution lists
Give solutions in numerical order, each on a separate line. Write the full number of each puzzle before its answer (e.g., E‑3, not just 3). Type or print clearly. Give forms in their right shape, not as a string of words. Give cryptogram solutions in full, not just the first few words (as is the practice in some other organizations). You won’t receive credit for partial solutions. Likewise, spell out all parts of phonetic flats. For a phonetic word deletion, for instance, don’t send just chrysanthemum; write out “chrysanthemum; anthem, chrism”. If a puzzle contains another puzzle (for example, a rebus contains a form in its rubric), include the solutions for both puzzles.
Some things are not necessary for credit: rebus readings, part-words for acrostical enigmas, model words for false flats, and the full words represented in vowelless forms. However, you are encouraged to include them, since they can help in cases where your solution differs from the official one.
If you’d like to give kudos to your favorites of the issue, add your list at the end of your solutions. You may single out one puzzle as your top favorite of the issue by adding a ! (a “bang” in League jargon) after its number in your kudos list.
[This article originally appeared in the Guide]