In your opinion

Doubt.

I still don't understand how people, especially Academy members, can justify voting in this category without having read the source material. It is without a doubt the most meritless category.

How can you judge what is the better adaptation? And I gather it is highly unlikely for most voters to have read all 5 films' original works much more the plethora of options from which the nominees are chosen. It's ridiculous. And there's no way of tracking who has read them like they may track who has seen the foreign films or the short films/docs.

So, I guess I'll just answer which screenplay I thought was better.

I actually think RevRoad's screenplay is underrated. It's not perfect and I have some flow issues with it but at the end of the day it's ambitions are much higher than Doubt's or maybe I mean to say the issue sit deals with are a little more nuanced or deeper and have wider social implications and I tend to favor that over many other factors when considering a film or a screenplay.

Doubt was a better flowing, tighter, and maybe more gripping screenplay but at the end of the day, it's quite a simple tale. Not that complex and more ambitious tales are necessarily better than simple ones; I just tend to prefer them.

So, blah blah blah. I don't even know if I made any sense... I guess Doubt is the better screenplay but I preferred RevRoad's.

While it doesn't especially bother me, I definitely get what you mean. The category could be called "Favorite Screenplay Which Happens to be Based on a Novel, Play, etc." The concept of "adaptation" truly does not play into it very much, beyond the initial recognition of, "Oh, the film was based on a novel, so it's adapted." Just a way to nominate more screenplays.

Yeah, it's "Best Adapted Screenplay", not "Best Adaption". Minor difference but it holds large effect. It's basically just the best screenplay that happens to be adapted.

I guess I just think of the category as "Best Adaptation" when I should be thinking of "Best Adapted Screenplay" or "Best Screenplay: Not Original."

So, I guess the problem is not the wording, it's me. haha

Shack is correct. Voting for the Adaptation would be like voting for which Screenplay was the most "original" in the other category. Kinda the same thing, but a different aim. Although in cases like Lord of the Rings, it's hard to think that some issues with "Adaptation" don't sneak in from time to time (especially when it's WELL known).

Doubt...not doubt about that.

Neither.