[Air-l] writing effective questions to lists

[Mary-Helen Ward]

I'd agree with that, as a fairly new member of this list and also a  
PhD student. But to be fair, it is a good idea to try and narrow your  
enquiry down a bit - do some searches, find out the general territory  
before you post. Otherwise it can seem as if a post is being made  
here in lieu of doing a search - I don't necessarily mean you  
specifically, but maybe you can see it better if you think about the  
difference between the questions "Does anyone have any leads on  
material about the internet and time?" and "I've being looking at  
material on the internet and time, and I've found that Mary Smith and  
John Jones have both written on this, also some other people from a  
project at XYZ university. I'm interested especially in [a particular  
aspect of their research] - does anyone else have any more ideas or  
leads?" The second question moves you into the area of engaging in  
the discourse, entering the conversation and raising questions,  
instead of simply looking for answers.

This isn't meant as a criticism, just as a general comment on  
something I have seen here more than once.

M-H


On 11/12/2006, at 11:46 AM, Paul Teusner wrote:

> Hey Abi,
>
> I support Tom's comment. Please don't be discouraged from asking  
> questions.
> As a fellow grad student I've found lots of support from people on  
> this
> list. But sometimes typing text can sound harsher than we mean it  
> to be.