How to ask a smart question
30 Jan 2020The Best Way to Frustrate a Tutor:
During the time I have worked as a tutor and mentor for a STEM ICS department, I have had to answer a lot of questions. It is my responsibility to answer the questions the best I can in a way to help them understand concepts and teach them how to fix the errors they run into. To properly help the people who come in to see me, I need to be able to fully understand what is going on or where they keep running into trouble. The only way of doing this is if they ask me “Smart Questions,” so that we both have an easy and faster way of solving their problems. Unfortunately this is not the approach I usually get. Most of the time I have people come in with lines and lines of errors and won’t even explain to me what they’re trying to accomplish. I have to try and decipher their code as they don’t offer much to help. Often I am met with simple one-line responses to my advice, such as “How do I do that,” or “it just keeps doing weird stuff, can you tell me what’s wrong with it?” If these same people came to me with a well thought-out questions and referred me to their code, we could both be finished a lot faster and have a better time. While I don’t have a choice in who I help and how they approach me with the problem, people online do. It is important to make sure you are asking smart questions so people not only look at it but know how to help you.
A smart question is sure to get a reply:
Stack Overflow is the number one website that programmers flock to when they run into a problem they can’t solve. The image to the right is an example of a “smart” way of asking a question. The user asking the question makes a good choice by clearly stating the platform they are using and their problem in their title. He properly tagged his post, so the people helping can use them to clarify exactly what they’re going to be working with. He states upfront what his limitations are and he is very clear on what he is looking for. He kept it short and concise, and even though it seems like it is for a school project, he is not just copy/pasting his assignment into the forum. He’s trying to understand one concept that he is stuck on. It is easy to read and doesn’t waste anybody’s time. The user used the specific methods he is using and trying to replicate. This is a great example of a smart question, it has received 94 answers and has thousands of upvotes because it is so helpful.
What not to do:
Here is an example of a poorly created question on stack overflow. While the user puts what platform they are trying to use, it looks like a garbled sentence. It is hard to understand what exactly they are trying to do. They only gave one sentence and didn’t give a lot of information on it. While they provided an image to show the structure, it still doesn’t make it clear. The grammar of the question is odd, and I am not sure what the user is asking for. It has already received downvotes and has no replies to it. This could be described as a “loser” question.