--- roy wada <[email protected]> wrote:
> How is someone who doesn't know to know if they have given
> you enough information to answer their questions?
>
> They can't. It's hard enough to grasp a problem, much less
> express it. They probably don't need the help if they could do
> it unassisted.
I wasn't claiming that asking questions is easy, I am claiming that
people get so absorbed in their research / discipline that they forget
that what their data looks like / their terminology / their prominent
publications are not normal and well known outside their world. I
sympathize with that as I often make that mistake myself, but in order
ask questions to people outside your world (e.g. statalist) you need to
realize that.
So I was not trying to come up with a list of thing one should not do,
but with a list of one thing you should do: try to imagine if someone
else outside your discipline can even understand the question.
Maarten
-----------------------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Department of Social Research Methodology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
visiting address:
Buitenveldertselaan 3 (Metropolitan), room Z434
+31 20 5986715
http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
-----------------------------------------
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