Is there a reliable strategy to crafting a good question?

It is simple: either you have a question to ask or you don’t.

I agree with my esteemed jelly ^ but I’ll elaborate; after having asked about 2000 questions – or, slightly fewer than the ubiquitous and ever-amazing question-meister Wundayatta – I still feel there is no formula, per se.

There are only three types of question: General (purpose) questions for when you need to know something – and tap the collective, so to speak; Social (type) questions for when it is an excuse to show off something and discuss, gossip or just shoot the breeze, and Meta which is a cross between Gen and Soc – but pertaining to Fluther.

Can’t get the Q quite right? It probably should be in Social, or, let the Mods edit it – then use the “suggest” button and they’ll help you.

I let them help me rewrite it at times – especially when flunking and I forget English completely and what it is I am even asking (and doing here).

Thank Goodness for the Mods. And Lisa.

I just write down whatever happens to pop into my head at any given time…whaddya mean it shows!?!
They’re only questions after all, whatever will be, will be, will be, wil…is there an echo in here? ;-}

@rosehips Don’t sweat it so much. Just ask what’s on your mind. It isn’t a high tech site. Is he/she into me seems to be a premium question. My last question was about a nosebleed. :)

It has to be something that really interests me and that I really need an answer for.

Analyze the questions you admire that are written by others.

@gailcalled has a good point.

I don’t thing there’s any set formula. It probably takes me a good 15 minutes to write a damn question. I first write it out in rough form, just as it occurs in my head. Like a stream of thought, often with no rhyme or reason. Out of order, tangential asides, typos…basically it’s a mess, initially. Then I edit, edit, edit. Correcting, rearranging, narrowing the focus (or expanding it), and trying to make it cohesive. After obsessing about it all way too much, I finally post it. And still my questions aren’t all that great, haha.

Naw. A good strategy would be to test a few versions of a question, and keep the best aspects of each or the one that got the best results in your eyes. But we can’t do that.

I have given up. I just write the question and fire it off, now. I can’t be bothered to worry over it. If it works, it works, and if not, too bad.

I have no clue which questions will “hit” and which won’t. I can’t predict in advance. Probably it has little to do with the question and more to do with who is around to answer and what mood they are in and what they’ve been thinking about. Nothing to do with you, really.

I have a feeling that shorter questions work better, but you can’t always say what you need to say in a short few sentences. So I have given up. I think the only thing you can do is try to be as clear as possible. Sometimes I think giving a model of the kind of answer you want helps.

I’m going to tell you to pick one question from many, and focus on that. Make it open ended so people can describe their experience. Confine it by limiting the scope, if possible.

Now I’m going to tell you that’s all bullshit, and you should just do what comes natural.

@wundayatta with almost 2000 questions – you should be a category unto thyself.

Given my own lack of perfection in producing brilliant questions – I feel a little fraudulent in giving ‘question’ composition advice, still I will give it a shot.

Think about the ‘big’ question you want answered. What is it you really want to know? That should form the basis of your title and opening description comments. If you don’t know what it is you want to know, your question is going to lack clarity.

Then, if that big question has relevant sub-questions, ask those in the details. Just don’t go overboard on the sub-questions. Make sure they do help to answer the main question and don’t use the use of sub-questions to circumnavigate the ‘three questions per day rule’.

In addition, think about open-ended and closed questions. Is your question written in such a way that it generates a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response or very specific response or does it encourage discussion. Here, and particularly in Social, you want to aim for the latter. A good tip is to use ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions rather than what, where, when, who type questions.

Or you could just wing it and write from the hip.

Oh yeah, @zensky? What category would that be? People with too much time on their hands for 200, Alex.

What is Daloon?

Au claire de la…

Not nice.

;-)

Remember ABC:

Acuity
Brevity
Clarity

and the antonyms

Confusion
Longwindedness:
(aka repetition,pomposity, bluster. turgidity, verbosity, orotundity, pretentiousness, ostentatiousness, grandiloquence and fustian)
Muzziness

and

Inaccuracy.

@flutherother I think I need you to simplify.
@zensky Have never noticed the mod suggest button. Thanks I will have to look next time. Uh oh mods… here I come!
@ucme nope that’s back up vocals…the future’s not ours to see..
@Adirondackwannabe A nose bleed is infinitely complex and requires observation and second by second reporting.. I think I missed that one.
@marinelife There are benefits to selectivity. I however on the topic of questions don’t have that self control.
@gailcalled Excellent advice, both posts- I always loved my English and Writing teachers. I don’t think they loved me but i am OK with that.
@zensky I just said she did, silly
@augustlan Glad I am not the only occasional overthinker.
@wundayatta Interesting I had been spiraling timing and peak moments, however that is far to organized for me to actually put into practice. whatever will be, will be.
@burntbonez Are you or are you not insinuating that good question crafting skills comes naturally to you. envious
@Bellatrix I sometimes think it is the people who struggle with a concept know more about the actual mechanics of said topic.

Thanks all for the wonderful advice.

@rosehips No. Good question crafting skills do not come naturally to me, nor do I think I possess them. So please don’t impugn my insinuation skills.

Word choice also matters.

Do you prefer, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and… do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Or this, “Him and me…in Order to form a more awesome Union, establish fairness, insure lack of suckiness at home, provide semi-automatic weapons in every household, promote Welfare for only I and he, and secure….., do kind of establish this Constitution…LOL”

@burntbonez I will just impugn my interpretation skills. : )

@gailcalled What a wonderful example. Maybe I need to hear more. The Constitution was such a masterfully crafted piece of history.

Note: If applied literally, as the standard, 99.9 of us fall short, taking content into account. Yes, I am biased.

Impugn with impunity, then! ;-)

@gailcalled Upon further thought your point in clarity and word choice is very valid. I do need to work on saying precisely I what I mean.

@rosehips Are you being serious? Because, you have, from time to time, asked questions that I had difficulty making sense of. I figured you were just being sort of stream of consciousness and that you just went with whatever images came to mind. But if you are serious about changing things, then I would suggest you reread your questions after a few minutes and see if they still make sense to you.

I tend to take those questions and respond to them intuitively. I try to imagine what frame of mind I would have to be in to use words in that particular way, and I use that to help me guess what you’re going after. It’s a challenge and I don’t mind it, but if you seriously are after something in specific, then it probably would help to try to imagine how other people might write what you are trying to say. To make it more generic, rather than Rosehips, if that makes any sense.

Odd, I just reread this, and where it says “might write,” I had written “my word.” If I left it that way, I doubt if anyone would have figured it out. But sometimes my fingers seem to write different words than the ones I was thinking at the time. I don’t know how that happens.

Thanks for the feedback wundy.

I am guilty of multitasking and shooting off a question while having another conversation. And stream of conciousness is a fall back for me.

Sometimes if I am struggling with a question and doing a bunch of editing esp on my phone I will insert erase insert and only reread portions.

So that all does make sense.

I think over all as gail mentioned is preciseness and word choice. When talking to literal people we drive each other crazy. I understand their point and one of them is a very good friend of mine. But communicationwise I feel like every word I say I must mean. Literally and that seems like a chore to me.