Playing crossword puzzles and other brain games can provide us with several hours of healthy excitement, and is believed to keep the mind active. The game is also an educational tool that can give you the opportunity to engage your students and encourage them to learn to connect concepts with vocabulary. For some people, making crosswords is as much fun as solving them. The method is quite simple, or it can be complicated depending on your level of interest.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Making a Simple Crossword
Step 1. Determine the size of the grid
If you're trying to make a standardized official crossword, there are certain measurements you should follow. However, if you want to make a regular crossword game, you can use any size you want.
If you use software or an online crossword puzzler, the sizes you can use may be limited. However, if you make it directly by hand, you are free to determine the size
Step 2. Make a list of words for your crossword puzzle
Usually, you have to choose words according to your chosen crossword theme. You can use the theme or clues to the theme as the title of the crossword puzzle. Examples of themes that are often used are foreign places or topics, words from a certain era, famous people, and sports.
Step 3. Write the words in the grid
This step may feel as challenging as if you were solving a crossword puzzle. After writing down the words, close the boxes that you don't use.
- In US-style crossword puzzles, there should be no "hanging" or unconnected words. All letters must be related to the word horizontal and descending, and related to each other. However, hanging words are still allowed in UK-style crossword puzzles.
- If the answer to a clue is a phrase rather than a single word, you may not leave spaces between the words in the phrase.
- You don't need to pay attention to capitalization in your answers, because crossword puzzles are usually filled entirely in capital letters. Your answer must not contain punctuation either.
- Many crossword puzzlers give you the words automatically. All you have to do is determine the size of the crossword and enter a list of words and clues.
Step 4. Put a number in each box at the beginning of the word
Start at the top left corner of the crossword puzzle, and group the words by horizontal or descending order, so you have to write 1 down, and 1 horizontally, etc. This step is also quite complicated, so many people prefer to use software instead of completing it manually.
If you use a crossword puzzler, the scoring will be set automatically
Step 5. Make a copy of the crossword puzzle
This time, the starting box for each word has been numbered, but the fill box is empty. If you make your crosswords manually, you may expend quite a bit of effort, but using a crossword maker tool, you don't have to solve them yourself. Save the completed crossword as the answer key. You can make as many copies of the crossword as you like.
Part 2 of 3: Making Hints
Step 1. Start with fairly clear instructions
These are referred to as direct leads, and are generally the easiest to create and complete. Examples like "after December" = JANUARY.
If you're doing crossword puzzles as a learning tool, or don't want to make them too complicated, you can just give clear instructions, but if you want to make crosswords more challenging, it's probably best to avoid these kinds of clues or use them sparingly
Step 2. Create more challenging puzzles by providing indirect hints
These clues usually contain some kind of metaphor or should be thought about more broadly. For example, "half adult cocoon" = butterfly (from a butterfly).
Crossword puzzle kits often add the word "maybe" to the beginning of these clues, or end with a question mark
Step 3. Give vague clues
These crossword clues are used much more frequently in the UK than in the US. A clue like this is often found in specially designed crosswords, but when given in a regular crossword puzzle, these clues usually end with a question mark. These clues can be solved using puns, and usually have to be thought about over and over again. There are many different types of cryptic clues in crossword puzzles.
- Really vague clues basically a pun. Thus, "brother animals" = FROGS BROTHERS, because frogs are animals.
- Reversal which must be solved by solving cryptic clues and flipping the answer. For example, “the cause of the school fire” = IPA. You can solve it by answering "cause of fire" with "fire" and flipping it. Note that the answer to this clue is also hinted at by the word "school".
- palindrome is a phrase that reads the same either from the front or the back, or up and down. Such clues must be solved by looking for an anagram that is the answer to the cryptic clue. For example is "not halal angry" = HARAM ANGER, because "haram" is another way of saying "not halal" and "haram angry" is a palindrome (a phrase that reads the same from the front and the back).
Step 4. Arrange the clues in the form of a sequential list
Mark with numbers where they are in the crossword puzzle. Sort the clues horizontally and descending from the smallest to the largest number.
Part 3 of 3: Making the Official Crossword
Step 1. Use one of the official sizes
Simon & Schuster was the first publisher of crossword puzzles, and they introduced the official standard used by professional crossword puzzlers. One of these standards is that the crossword grid must have a size of one of the following options: 15×15, 17×17, 19×19, 21×21 or 23×23. The bigger the size, of course, the more difficult the crossword will be.
Step 2. Make sure your diagram has half-turn symmetry
In this context, "diagram" means the arrangement of the squares you close in a crossword grid. The closed squares must be arranged so that they are the same if the crossword grid is reversed.
Step 3. Avoid short words
Two-letter words should not be used, and three-letter words should be used sparingly. If you're having trouble finding words that are long enough, remember you can also use phrases.
Step 4. Use reference words
With a few exceptions, the words in your crossword puzzle should be in a dictionary, atlas, literary work, textbook, calendar, etc. Certain crossword themes might make you break this rule a bit, but don't overdo it.
Step 5. Use each word only once
If one of the phrases in your crossword puzzle is "great mountain," you shouldn't use the word "mountain." Again, certain crossword themes might give you more freedom in choosing words, just be careful what you choose.
Step 6. Count the longest letters in the crossword puzzle
One of the markers of a good crossword puzzle is that the longest word is the one that most closely relates to the theme. Not all crosswords have a theme, but most good crosswords do.
