Writing Answers

As mentioned, pronunciation matters, but it turns out that spelling only kind of counts. In the show’s “Final Jeopardy!” round, contestants have 30 seconds to write down their response to one last clue. The official rule for the round is “Written responses to the Final Jeopardy! clue do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract any extraneous sounds or syllables.”

There’s a big size difference between the pens contestants are given and the screens they write on. A big pen and small writing space can make it difficult to write legibly. Jennings told Cracked that “It’s like writing with an icicle on glass.”