Good Question

Teachers always like to reassure us that "there are no bad (stupid, dumb, wrong) questions". While this is certainly true in the context of achieving basic understanding for an individual, there is no doubt that when one is engaging in dialogue or research, some questions are better than others.

One of my recurring frustrations, and I can only assume this applies to others, is that often times my questions are easily answered and reflect a somewhat shallow understanding of the topic. As a student, this is more or less my job. However, when another student, the professor, or occasionally myself, ask a good question, the conversation is brought into an entirely new light that serves to illuminate previously overlooked connections and show a more realistic picture of the situation. As I find myself dealing with increasingly complex issues both in and out of class, the ability to have this broader comprehension is, I think, incredibly useful.

So, what exactly is a good question? Where do they come from, what do they consist of, who asks them, and how can I (and maybe you) get better at building them?

The basics of question asking have grown into an area of expertise, which today we call journalism. The foundations of journalism center around these key words:
Who
What
When
Why
Where
How

The most important feature of these words is that they cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no". They also tell a story. If one of these key questions goes unanswered, then you are missing something.

This is an excellent place to start. From these basic ideas, we can build our questions with the other pieces of a good question to create something helpful and worth pursuing.

I've been doing some informal polling of friends, family and teachers and have come up with this outline for what a good question contains:

One of the hallmarks of a good question is that it shows a wide grasp of the context that has already been established. Incorporate as much as you know and can possibly extrapolate about certain relationships into your question. This is a good way to develop questions with multiple parts, for example, "If A and B presumably lead to C, then what does that mean for D?". If your assumption regarding A and B ends up being incorrect, correcting it will only help you to gain a deeper understanding of what you're dealing with.

It was also suggested to me that a good question should anticipate its answer. This surprised me slightly, but when I thought about it, it made sense. Often times, particularly in science, we hypothesize about what a result should look like, given certain parameters. If results vary drastically from the predicted model, then the model and perhaps its underlying assumptions need to be reexamined. Hypotheses stem directly from research questions, and so applying the same kind of predictive reasoning to all questions could definitely prove useful.

Another component of a good question should be its adaptability. Because it will not be able to be answered in simple "yes" or "no" terms, it will also be open to interpretation from a variety of viewpoints. Having a somewhat open ended quality will allow, not only for a variety of rich and complex answers, but also for the question to be applied in other contexts as well.

Finally, everyone I asked agreed that a good question should be clear, concise, and require an answer that contains at least as much thoughtfulness as the question itself.

Basically, what all of this hyperbole boils down to is that good questions are asked by people who have a solid grasp of the topic. This provides them with a solid foundation on which to build complex questions which demand enlightening answers.

So thus, the simple question, "How can I ask good questions?" is provided the simple answer,
"Be a good listener."