How To Ask A Good Question
Overview
Asking good questions isn't just a matter of what is being asked. It's how the question is formed, and how specific the question is.
This exercise is aimed at my Math 146 Intro To Statistics course at Renton Technical College. The final project in this class has the student create a question which is answerable by using a cofidence interval. The mechanics of the confidence interval is usually not the issue for this project. The biggest obstacle is creating a suitable question. This exercise was created as part of our fulfillment for our school's grant from OSPI.
How To Ask A Good Question
Learning is not just about reading or having someone explain something, it’s often about asking questions. Asking questions which are clear and complete gives us the answers we need. For example, if we ask “How often do people use social media?”, it’s not clear who the “people” we’re referring to are, or what “often” means. It also doesn’t specify if the social media is being accessed on a mobile device or on a laptop. If that’s of interest to the person asking the question, then it should be included in the question.
Have you ever had someone ask you a question, and you weren’t sure of what the question was referencing? This happens because the person asking the question assumes that you know what they’re referring to, or they forget to include what the question is referencing. Suppose your friend asks you “Where did she go?”. You might ask them “Where did who go?”. “Janelle”. “Oh, she went home”.
Sometimes, a question is ambiguous. This means that there could be more than one way to interpret the meaning. Example: “Where’s the homework due on Wednesday?”. Is this asking the location of the homework? The place it’s to be submitted?
Here’s a way to check to see if the question you asked is clear, complete, and unambiguous.
- Make a list of all the words in the question:
How
Often
Do
People
Use
Social media
- Think about what each word is supposed to mean in the context of what you’re asking:
How -
Often – Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Ever?
Do – When? Now? 6 months ago? In the past year?
People – Which people? Which location? Renton? King County?, Washington State? How old are they?
Use – Use for any purpose? For entertainment? For messaging? For live streaming?
Social media – Any social media? Does this include sites like Reddit or blogs?
- Jot down any words that clarify what each of the words in your original question intend to ask:
How -
Often - Weekly
Do – In the past week
People – Adults ages 21-30
Use – For entertainment
Social media – Social media websites, but not sites like Reddit or blogs.
- Rewrite the question using all the words that help to clarify the question. You don’t need to use every word from the list, just the words that make the question clear, complete, and unambiguous. The order of the words can change to make the question easier to understand:
“In the past week, how many times has the typical adult 21-30 years old living in King County WA used a social media website like Facebook or TikTok, but not sites like Reddit or a blog?”
One of the many benefits of creating a clear, complete, and unambiguous question is that doing so can sometimes lead to an answer. When we ask questions that need data to help us estimate some quantity, a good question will allow us to collect the data needed to answer it. Consider the following question:
“In the past week, how many times has the typical adult 21-30 years old living in King County WA used a social media website like Facebook or TikTok, but not sites like Reddit or a blog?”
For the above question, we can get a random sample of responses from 21-30 year old adults living in King County WA. Perhaps we can conduct the survey by phone or in person at some location that would give us a representative sample.
When we ask a question about why something works the way it does (like a math problem), the more clearly and completely we create the question, the more likely it is that the answer will occur to us. Consider the following question:
“How do we solve \(1.2=(x-78.3)/5.4\) for the unknown quantity x?”
How – Is there a method?
Do –
We – Is there a way that I can do this aside from what I might have been shown?
Solve – What does it mean to solve this?
(Equation) – This is an equation because it has an ‘equal’ sign.
For –
The –
Unknown – Is it always unknown? Or is x a place-holder for some number that makes the equation a true statement?
Quantity – Is ‘Quantity’ only a number? Or are there units attached to the number?
With the original question broken down into more precise terms, we can reason that the unknown value x represents the quantity that would make the equation a true statement. We can try different methods of finding the value of x that works (solve the equation), perhaps by guessing and checking, or better yet, by using the process of algebra to quickly find the exact answer.