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Lu  ·  4640 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to Ask a Question
Before you stand up, boil your thoughts down to a single point. Then ask yourself if this point is something you want to assert or something you want to find out.

That statement really boils it down for me. There are two kinds of people that speak up at lectures, the ones that are looking for answers and the ones that just want to hear themselves speak, and the rest of the people are simply reluctant to ask anything. I find it terribly distracting when 'questions' are dominated by people who just want to spread around their own genius and appear intelligent and critical. That sort of thing never leads to interesting discussion because it discourages the speaker and everyone else from engaging. Good question asking abilities are invaluable, they allow you better access your thoughts and opinions of the content you are exposed to. If you have a good question it means that you have really considered the proposition. I think everyone in university could benefit from workshops in debating and question asking.