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Please see version 2.1 of this trial.

On Stack Exchange, closing a question and putting it on hold is an invitation to improve the question. When you do, your question is automatically queued for review. It will be reopened if 5 reviewers vote for reopening. This page is for you to make brief notes to reviewers, similar to that of Math.SE.

  1. Read this page for some excellent tips on how to ask questions, including examples of good questions and a simple pattern for asking good questions.

  2. Edit your question, paying attention to the concerns listed on the close/on-hold notice. Here are some general references that may help:

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    • In your answer, include a link to your question. Click share under your question for the link.
    • Add the comment [Notes to reviewers](xyz) to your question to show reviewers where to look. Keep the square brackets and round brackets as shown, but replace xyz with a link to your answer. Click share under your answer for the link.
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  • 1
    This seems like a good idea to me, so I'll be the first to upvote it (I already upvoted both your question and answer on the earlier post). But there's a lot of verbiage on that earlier page, so I'm not sure if I missed a relevant part. Are you suggesting that we should actually vote to close reopen requests as duplicates of this one? Even if the OP then complied with the recommended action, there'd still be the "clutter" of a moribund closed question. Unless we could get the mods to "merge" it, but I doubt even they could make the relocated Answer/request appear to be posted by the OP.
    – FumbleFingers
    Mar 17, 2016 at 18:31
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    @FumbleFingers Thanks for your question and support. There are 2 aspects: reviewer and OP. I think the biggest factor for me as a reviewer is the time taken just to know what's changed on a reopen request. It would help if the OP just told us - that's what this meta question is for. On the OP's side, it's an invitation to (re)engage to get the answer they're seeking. As for closing reopen requests posted on meta, no. People can, of course, but to ask for it during the trial feels like overreaching. I would like the final close-voter for a main-site question to link here, though.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 18, 2016 at 2:08
  • I note that Math SE's Meta has a similar post.
    – user50720
    Mar 18, 2016 at 4:06
  • @LePressentiment Thanks for the note. Is this the post? It goes all the way back to 2015 - and it's a successor, so the protocol must have been in place even earlier. It's good to see a similar mechanism in a site like Maths with such heavy traffic.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 18, 2016 at 5:20
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    @Lawrence You are welcome. Yes, exactly: I was referring to that post! The predecessor is referenced in your link.
    – user50720
    Mar 19, 2016 at 1:48
  • I'm voting to close this question to start afresh with Version 2.1.
    – Lawrence
    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:37
  • This post should be closed as a duplicate and point to version 2.1.
    – Lawrence
    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:52

1 Answer 1

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I believe my question: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/314604/even-were-or-were-even was closed incorrectly.

Here are my notes in reference to any and all reasons my question was closed for being off topic.

The Scope Defined by the Community

"Word choice and usage" applies to this question.

"don’t ask any questions about the following topics": none of those apply.

So according to the Help Center, this question is On Topic.

About reopening questions

Both general guidelines are satisfied - my question is clear and clearly answerable.

  • I'm asking for the community to select between two sentences to say which is grammatically correct.
  • I know that "Were even is grammatically correct, while even were is not."

I have tried to do various Google searches, but nothing comes up, for example this search. I have also seen Google's Ngram Viewer, but this replies with most common, I want grammatically correct.

Also, here are just a few of many questions similar to mine that aren't closed:

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  • Thanks for going through the steps. Could I trouble you to transfer your notes about the question into this post? The main site should just contain your question + research, etc, while this answer on the meta site should have your justifications for reopening.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 19, 2016 at 15:57
  • Just a note that the link from here to your question and the link from your question (in comments) back here are correct and the two links should be retained in their current places.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 19, 2016 at 15:59
  • You seem to have answered your own question - "Were even is grammatically correct, while even were is not." Was there something else your question was trying to ask?
    – Lawrence
    Mar 19, 2016 at 16:22
  • @Lawrence that was an example of an answer, not the actual answer. I used that example because "were even" sounds more correct than "even were", but I wasn't completely sure, thats why I went to the internet to find out.
    – ZomoXYZ
    Mar 19, 2016 at 16:37
  • Ok, I think I'm starting to see what you're trying to get at. First, the word sentence in your question - did you mean phrase (i.e. even were / were even)? The word sentence indicated that you were asking about the two highlighted sentences, rather than about the two 2-word phrases in your title. Second, there are sentences where even were can be used (see the link). Does this help? If not, try to zoom in on the issue further.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 19, 2016 at 16:47
  • I'll need to leave in about 10 min for other things IRL. I may only check back here intermittently over the next day or two, but there are a number of helpful people in this ELU community (all volunteers like you and me, I think) and I hope others will pick up the link from your main-site comment (either directly or via the reopen review queue) and continue the conversation with you. I hope you find your answer!
    – Lawrence
    Mar 19, 2016 at 16:54
  • Name of related post mentioned above: “Even were he not to…”.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 19, 2016 at 16:58
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    You're right about the third example cited, it is off topic. The OP showed no discernible research, so I have cast my vote to close it. It is difficult for me (and I imagine other users) to justify reopening your question if you don't share your research with the community. How are we supposed to know that you Googled, Ngrammed, or even looked up in dictionaries? Post one of those results! :) And often a "why" question will generate better answers than "which is correct" type of question.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Mar 19, 2016 at 19:29
  • Here is a very similarly presented question to yours: “It's up to you” or “It's opt to you”? No research and the OP is only asking "which is correct?" Show the community that your question is more useful to future visitors, and therefore more valid that one.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Mar 19, 2016 at 19:45
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    @Mari-LouA If all of these are truly "off topic", then please consider change the rules, english.stackexchange.com/help/closed-questions, to say something about including research, as right now there is nothing there about this subject. Add something like "include any and all research you have ever done on this topic, even if you have found nothing."
    – ZomoXYZ
    Mar 19, 2016 at 19:51
  • No, I never said all of them are off topic, the first one has plenty of research and the OP has clearly explained his confusion. BTW The "it's up to you" question has been closed.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Mar 19, 2016 at 19:55
  • @Mari-LouA so even if my research shows nothing, you still want to know what I have looked at? Next time I'll be sure to cite all of the 0 sources that I have found that helped in any way.
    – ZomoXYZ
    Mar 19, 2016 at 19:58
  • even is an adverb, and as pretty much any description of English syntax will tell you, you can put adverbs almost anywhere. In any case, if you edit the post to link to the NGrams then your post will most likely be reopened (though it may then in turn be migrated to ELL.)
    – curiousdannii
    Mar 20, 2016 at 1:11
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    @Jaketr00 The goal of this process is for you to edit your question so that the essential point of the question is clear to someone looking at the question without your unwritten thoughts about the question. For example, you should edit your question to say (as you have here) that you believe/know that the first sentence is wrong. Then explain what information you are looking for, since it's obviously not (as claimed in your question) just asking the community to answer a multiple-choice question, viz., "which word order is is grammatically correct?*.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 20, 2016 at 11:32
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    @Jaketr00 The primary document being reviewed for reopening is the question itself. The 'answer' here on meta should contain all and only what the reviewers need to know about how the concerns on the notice were addressed. (I'll help edit this as this is the first post to go through the trial. Feel free to roll it back if you wish.) NB: you haven't actually done Basic Step #1. I accept that you have done some checking, but it's not evident from reading your question. In this case, it may be better to just note your ngram in your question + follow the approach suggested in my previous comment.
    – Lawrence
    Mar 20, 2016 at 11:46

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