Asking Good Questions

Tools for Drilling into Your Topic

Category/DefinitionEvaluation: A special kind of category question

CauseProposing a Solution to a Problem

Resemblance

Kinds of Productive Questions

Asks the question: What category does something belong to?

The question may ask if something belongs in a category

The question may ask if something thought to belong in a category does not.

Questions about Category

Is water-boarding torture? Is graffiti art? Are whales an endangered species? Is a frozen embryo a person?

Examples of Questions of Category

Identify and define the category in question Create a list of criteria for assessing

whether something belongs in the category Decide the importance of each criterion Apply the criteria to your subject Decide if the subject meets enough of the

criteria to be a member of the category

The Mechanics of Category/Definition Questions

Evaluation questions usually ask if something is good or bad OR effective or not effective

Such questions are often applied to something created with an intended purpose and an expected outcome such as a policy, program or an invention like hybrid automobiles

Apply the same step as for any Category question.

Questions of Evaluation: A special kind of category question

Is the worldwide ban on DDT a good policy? Are celebrity endorsements an effective tool

for selling products? Is acupuncture an effective treatment for

chronic back pain? Would legalizing brothels have a positive

effect on the wellbeing of prostitutes in the U.S.?

Are barefoot running shoes better than traditional running shoes for competitive long-distance runners?

Examples of Evaluation Questions

Ask what effect or effects are caused by something

Ask what group of causes create an effect Ask what links in a casual chain result in an

effect Or Go A Step Farther: For each of the above

ask which effect, cause or link in the chain is most important

Asking a Causal Question

The Common Factor Method: “Un-won” wars The Single Difference Method: Similar

circumstances yield different outcomes – what was the single difference?

Concomitant Variation: X changes and Y changes – there might be a connection! Sunspots and radio transmissions

Process of Elimination: Can’t be anything else. (Spike in miscarriages following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine)

More about Question of Cause

Requires an accurate understanding of the problem

Incorporates causal questions about the problem

Incorporates one or more category questions about the problem and/or possible solutions

Incorporates at least one evaluative question and a solution

Asking about How to Solve a Problem: Complex!

DDT nets as a solution to the problem of malaria

Raising taxes on sugary drinks as a solution to obesity

Examples of Problem/Solution Questions

No Solution is Perfect!Ask about

improvement rather than about a perfect

solution!

The Most Important Thing about Proposal Questions

Asks how one thing is like another and asks how that the commonality matters

Questions about Resemblance

Asks what characteristics two things share. Asks why the sharing of these

characteristics is important. Asks if the differences between the two

things are problematic.

Key Elements of Questions of Resemblance

How is 9-11 like Pearl Harbor? How do current cultural edicts about women

being thin create the same social constrictions on women that foot-binding did in China?

Examples of Questions of Resemblance