How can I write good questions?

Question

Please don't direct me to the Help Page. I need guidance that the Help Page doesn't give.

I am a native English speaker, and know only basic grammar. I know when something sounds right, I know when it sounds wrong, and I know when it sounds right even though technically it is wrong. I cannot explain grammar beyond basic grammar.

I am discouraged by some of the grammar questions asked here, and I mean discouraged by the good questions, because they seem like Greek to me. It seems like learning advanced grammar is like studying anatomy, physiology and biochemistry in order to learn how to walk.

I don't know enough grammar to write a decent grammar question. And I suspect the Catch 22 is that if I did study grammar, I would know how to research the answers to almost anything that occurred to me. Or would it take years of study to get to that point?

As for writing questions about words or idioms or sayings, almost everything along those lines can be found in a quick Google search. Thus, I mostly answer (16 Questions vs 392 Answers), and answering is becoming less satisfying. When I can get 89 net upvotes for seethe (Word to describe to sit in quiet anger), it is too easy. I'm not complaining about 89 upvotes -- far from it -- but it is excessive and excess cloys. (But never hesitate to upvote me, please! :))

So, the question: what can I do, short of going to grad school, to write good questions and contribute to the question side of ELU?

Answer 1

Just be yourself. You're also keen to learn, which is great. Admit you don't know the terminology, that technical answers should be pared down so you don't need to be a linguist in order to understand, and if the question is interesting, it won't matter if grammar terms are thin on the ground. Eventually, you'll keep hearing the same terms used again and again and they will stick.

Include your research, or your gut feelings as a native speaker, show you have spent time thinking it through. Be cheerful. Be hopeful, but don't be upset if your question doesn't receive a standing ovation. It probably won't.

Here's but one example of a non-expert asking a grammar question.

What's wrong with "I'll open you the door"?

and here's another question asked by an EFL teacher but it is simple to understand, hopefully, you already know what an adjective, noun, verb, and infinitive phrase is.

Why does "I was happy to do my homework" work, but "I was tired to do my homework" doesn't?

Always a good idea to ask users to supply examples, and/or links in their answers.

Answer 2

(This grew too long for a comment, and I don’t wish to encourage comments over posts.)

The simple answer is to follow the lead of our most Socratic of askers. Look at the questions posed by the holders of that gold badge, and go thou and do likewise.

The OP notices that poor questions draw poor answers, and that both are highly upvoted. If you want to write a question that everybody answers and upvotes, that’s a very different thing from asking how to write well-written and well-researched questions covering a previously unexplored matter of English that contribute to our growing library of expert answers. Compare Yoichi Oichi’s questions with the single-word-gimmes, for example.

The one the OP drew attention to is a writing request. I personally believe that such questions should be closed and their copypasta answers deleted. They add nothing to our library of expert answers. As you observe, they can be trivially used for reputation mills, and there have been instances of fraud on the site related to this scam.

I am hardy alone in my opinion that these questions should be disallowed by revised site rules. We’ve talked about this since time immemorial. Constantly.

But nobody wants to pull the trigger on these requests (not questions, requests) for this or that “catchy, fun word that means X sprinkled with Y while gazing into the Z”. Supposedly they’re too “fun” to kill off.

Stack Overflow used to have joke questions and write-my-code-for-me questions. They were incredibly popular. It took serious effort and collective community will, but these terrible, pointless questions were finally given the kiss of everlasting death.

They’re offtopic gimme-the-codez demands, and nowhere else on the network are such questions tolerated. We should expect no less of ourselves regarding these write-my-sentence-for-me requests.