Encouraging Better Questions
I would like to encourage the asking of better, more substantial questions.
Every day we receive many brief, low-quality questions that are unlikely to elicit anything but low-quality answers which are equally unlikely to be of any help to future visitors of our site.
I therefore propose that the initial Ask Question dialogue, which has only a nebulous link to the Help Center, be modified to state its most important point:
Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? Sharing your research helps everyone. Tell us what you found and why it didn’t meet your needs. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to try to help yourself, it saves us from reiterating obvious answers, and above all, it helps you get a more specific and relevant answer!
As far as I am concerned, the gold standard for how to ask a good question is best demonstrated by Yoichi Oichi, our only member to hit 10k let alone 20k sheerly on the strength of his well-researched questions — and whose wonderful work may soon be recognized, too.
Case Study
There are hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands of these. They get closed but they never seem to get deleted.
In the example set presented below, I’ve noticed quite a few similarities standing out. If I were writing an expert system for training our Low Quality Review Queue auto-flagging, some of these observations would definitely make it into the trainer:
- Not one shows any research or effort.
- All are extremely short.
- Most of these questions have been closed for one or another reason.
- None have been deleted as of this writing.
- None have been revised.
- Almost none have been migrated to ELL, even though these are clearly questions from English language learners.
- Most are asking a boolean question looking for a yes/no answer, or else are forcing you to select between two alternatives as though they were mutually exclusive.
- Most involve asking whether something is “right”, or “correct”, or “grammatical”, or “proper”.
- Many have meaningless titles. This is useless for searching.
- Some have ungrammatical titles.
- Many have ungrammatical questions.
Here are just a few examples, alphabetized in reverse so that the Wh- questions come first:
- Would one say “plethora” or “plethoral” in this context?
- Would my expression be right?
- Which would be correct? Owen and I or Owen and me
- Which sentence is grammatically correct?
- Which sentence is correct to say?
- Which sentence is correct?
- which one of these statement's grammar correct
- which one is the most correct answer?
- Which one is grammatically correct?
- Which one is correct “Where I was or Where was I”?
- Which one is correct (This or That)
- Which one is correct sentence usage
- Which of the two words fits? overchallenged/overtaxed
- Which of the two is correct usage?
- Which of the following two sentences is correct and/or better?
- Which of the following sentences is correct
- Which is proper usage: “What I've Learned” or “What I learned”?
- Which is grammatically correct
- Which is correct: “not less than” or “no less than”?
- Which is correct “is” or “are”
- Which is correct, “from a young age” or “from young age”?
- Which is correct - 'did with the egg' or 'with the egg did'?
- when and how to use word “anyway” in a scentence
- What's the difference between after and afterwards?
- What part of speech is “to” when attached to an infintive?
- What is wrong in this sentence?
- What is the proper word/phrase for SMS style language?
- What is the proper use of the word “state of the art”?
- What is the proper spelling of “enqueueing”?
- What is the proper interpretation of these two sentences?
- What is the mistake in this sentence?
- What is the gramatically correct form?
- what is the difference in the usage of the following?
- What is the difference between owned and pwned?
- What is the difference between “As far as” and “As much as”?
- What is the correct verb that follows “as well as?”
- What is proper sentence structure?
- What is proper grammar for a question that ends with a colon?
- What is grammatically incorrect here?
- What is correct: still to be/continue to be/should be/must be?
- What is better style: “is linked” or “it is linked”?
- What goes after another person: we or us?
- What does Banglored mean and how it is created?
- What does a fist bump means?
- What can be the proper meaning of the ‘over’?
- We have noted the service voucher and are pleased to confirm the booking
- Verb agreement with “that” as relative pronoun
- Use of not without an Auxillary
- Use of IS and WAS in reported speech
- Use me and grab you appropriate phrases to use?
- Usage of “acknowledge”
- uninterested / me too or me either
- This Company is the Driving Force of / Behind our success
- The subject or should it be Subject is being moved to a new area tomorrow?
- Their or there legacy
- The house in the house was destroyed
- “the” before “condition”
- “Thank you for being so late” vs. “Thank you for having been so late”
- Technical writing sentence correction/suggestion
- Successfully submitted vs Submitted Successfully
- Some problems in understanding a word in a sentence
- Solve this if you are (a) genius?
- Sentence construction using the word “and”
- Reporting to, or reporting into, which is a correct form?
- Question related to cover letter
- question about where the comma goes
- Proper use of “has been” versus “have been” after plural reference
- Proper usage of the word “trouble”
- Proper usage of plural/singular verb
- Proper sentence choice, while sending reply through email
- Proper punctuation?
- Proper English for “started shooting anywhere”
- Proper Capitalization of “ancient romans”
- “predictions of” or “predictions for”?
- “have been” or “has been” ?
- Payable to the order of you or Payable to your order
- Past tense vs past participle in passive forms
- Open/switch on the air-conditioner when we are home
- One or two apostrophes for two subjects in the possessive case?
- off-duty - can't understand
- Occupy vs. occupying
- Meaning of “silver of shell”
- Meaning of palm
- Meaning of “over them”
- Meaning of “makeshift dias”?
- Making A Binary Decision
- “Lay on the bed” vs. “lay in the bed”
- “It's me” Phrase
- Is “today's” grammatical as a singular possessive?
- Is “thought'd” Proper English?
- Is this sentence proper grammar?
- Is this sentence grammatically wrong?
- Is this sentence grammatically correct?
- Is this saying grammatically correct?
- Is this Quote grammatically correct?Own Lines
- Is this proper English?
- Is this proper English?
- Is this phrase grammatically correct in UK or US English?
- Is this grammatically correct? “We were thinking of holding a meeting…”
- Is this grammatical? “Each method has features in which context to use it.”
- Is this 2nd sentence grammatically correct?
- Is the word legs singular or plural?
- Is the sentence “The police had evidence on him.” grammatically correct?
- Is the sentence “Does having a way to charge your electronic devices while on the go sound relevant to you?” grammatically correct?
- Is the phrase “At about the speed of ten miles per hour” correct in the context?
- Is the following sentence grammatically correct? It doesn't sound right
- Is that grammatically correct?
- Is “steepness” a proper word?
- Is Shakespeare proper English?
- Is “of which” a proper way to begin a relative clause?
- Is 'much better' correct usage?
- Is jargon proper English?
- Is it proper to say I am going to “prom” or is it “the prom”
- Is it proper grammar to write a number with “th” after the month or only if it is used before the month?
- Is it grammatical to say: Your understanding is correct?
- Is it correct “Will ask more questions if needed required”?
- Is “I'll when” proper form?
- is “I does” grammatically correct?
- Is “how much ever” grammatically correct?
- Is “from how long are you experiencing this symptoms” correct?
- Is “for all who” grammatical?
- Is “few couple of …” a proper usage in English?
- Is “expect lie from you” grammatically correct?
- Is “… et al. data.” proper grammar?
- Is “cattle herds” grammatical?
- Is “as is” grammatically correct?
- “In a time when” vs. “in a time where”
- In a sentence, to OR -
- I'I'm not sure which prepositions should be filled in this sentence?
- i have vs i had
- “If anybody answer this question” or “If anybody answerS this question”
- “I don't” or “don't I” in questions
- 'I can identify myself with' or 'I can identify with'?
- How would you say this? Or is it already grammatically correct?
- How to use the verb ''to be'' in English grammar?
- How to say it differently by using various word?
- How to refer to a period of time?
- “Here is/are” followed by plural
- he pregnate my daughter and he pregnated my daughter
- “Hadn't I” vs. “Didn't I”
- Grammatically correct use of criteria
- grammar - No + singular/plural noun + singular/plural verb
- give some example using s+verb(be)+adj+to+infinitive?
- Flattering vs. flatter
- finding proper article for a sentence
- Family go vs family goes?
- English language proper sentence
- Do these sentences make sense?
- Direct and indirect object with the verb “kick”
- Difference between “through” and “by”
- Difference between systematic and systematical?
- Difference between “single” and “a single”
- deserve vs make a compelling case
- definite article usage with president
- Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns
- correct use of “have you and did you”
- Correct usage of “Peace of mind”
- correct my sentence in grammatically
- coming to the shops or going to the shops?
- “Cant fight no more”, is this grammatically correct?
- Can someone please fix the grammar and punctuation in this sentence?
- Can I say It has written by he himself.?
- Bridge the gap toward/from
- “A threat to us people” or “a threat to we people”?
- “at all time” or “at all times”?
- Are the two sentences synonymous?
- Are these sentences both grammatically correct?
- Are the sentences below grammatically correct?
- Are there any differences between later, latter and last?
- Another way to say “communicate evidence”
- “All previous work is” or “All previous work are”
- A different use of BOTH
I believe that if a PROMINENT BANNER were to be presented to these askers when they went to ask their question, one that read . . .
Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? Sharing your research helps everyone. Tell us what you found and why it didn’t meet your needs. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to try to help yourself, it saves us from reiterating obvious answers, and above all, it helps you get a more specific and relevant answer!
. . . then those questions would not have been asked in that way. They might not be asked at all, but they might have been improved and made better questions, thereby soliciting better answers and improving the site overall.
Even if not closed, poor questions tend to generate poor answers. If we can encourage the asking of better questions, it’s better for everyone.