Do not apologise in the first line. It costs you the space where the question should be, and nobody here thinks a question is an imposition.
Anyone who has looked at this more carefully, please correct the record.
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Start Here · How to Ask · continued
How much context is too much context in a first post? posts 31–60
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1 · go to the accepted answer.
d.oyelaran, post #7: Lab result questions: state the result, the reference interval, and what else is on the same panel. A single flag on a single draw is usually uninformative without context. It is one reading of the data and not the only reasonable one. Go to post
When you quote a figure from somewhere else, say where from. Not as a formality — the answer frequently depends on whether the number came from a certificate, an independent report or a forum post.
FFaulkner, post #14: Worth separating two things that post #12 runs together. Disagreement-style questions: "I read this and it contradicts what I heard here, which is right?" is answerable. "Is this a bad idea?" without giving the context is not. Go to post
Where I part company with post #30, and it is a narrow parting.
Speaking as somebody who asked badly last month and got a polite request for four missing details: writing the question properly the first time takes ten minutes and saves two days. Learn from me.
Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above
Adding the measurement that post #32 says would settle it.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
I am not the right person to answer the follow-up to this.
Tamburello, post #12: The specific question in the title is more useful than you might think. A title like "a question I have" forces the person answering to guess what you want to know. A title with the actual question gets you an answer in two hours instead of two days. Go to post
Five questions in one post gets you one answer: the easiest one, usually not the one you needed most. Post them separately or pick the one that depends on the others least and ask that one first.
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Post #36 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
Staff note on titles, since it comes up. We retitle topics fairly often, always leaving the original in the first post and always logging it. It is not a criticism of the wording — it is that a title is how somebody finds this in eighteen months.
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I read post #38 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
A question about somebody else's post should be a reply to that post, not a new topic. A question the post happened to raise should be a new topic linking back to it. The difference is whether the answer is useful without the original.
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c.ostergaard, post #23: Post the arithmetic you already did. Half the questions here are answered by someone spotting which line of your working is wrong, and that is impossible if you only give the answer you got. A guess, clearly labelled as one. Go to post
Timeline questions need the timeline. Dates, in order, with what happened on each. "A while ago" and "recently" are the two least useful words in a question of this kind.
FFaulkner, post #14: Worth separating two things that post #12 runs together. Disagreement-style questions: "I read this and it contradicts what I heard here, which is right?" is answerable. "Is this a bad idea?" without giving the context is not. Go to post
If you are asking about a document, quote the exact wording of the line you are asking about. Paraphrasing a specification is how a discussion ends up about a document nobody has read.
Post #39 put the caveat in the right place and I want to underline it.
Chromatogram questions: describe the method first. Column type, gradient, wavelength, detection method. Everything else follows from method. A chromatogram without method is a number without context.
I have said this before in a thread nobody could find, so it is worth repeating.
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forest_plot, post #30: Disagreeing with an answer you got: cite what you disagree with, say what contradicts it, and ask which one holds. Do not open with "I think you are wrong". Lead with the evidence. Go to post
Post the arithmetic you already did. Half the questions here are answered by someone spotting which line of your working is wrong, and that is impossible if you only give the answer you got.
Useful. I had the fact and not the reason, which turns out to be the important half.
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Say what you want out of the answer. "I want to know whether to accept this delivery" and "I want to understand the chemistry" get very different and equally valid replies.
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Context that matters: compound, how long in, current dose, relevant history. Context that does not matter: how you feel, your hopes for the outcome, your medical history beyond what affects this specific question. The first set gets you answered. The second set makes the reply longer without making it better.
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Coming back to post #47, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.
Lab result questions: state the result, the reference interval, and what else is on the same panel. A single flag on a single draw is usually uninformative without context.
The interesting part of this is the exception, and I do not understand the exception.
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d.oyelaran, post #7: Lab result questions: state the result, the reference interval, and what else is on the same panel. A single flag on a single draw is usually uninformative without context. It is one reading of the data and not the only reasonable one. Go to post
Disagreement-style questions: "I read this and it contradicts what I heard here, which is right?" is answerable. "Is this a bad idea?" without giving the context is not.
Worth one more sentence than it usually gets.
Asking a follow-up: new topic or reply in the old one? If the answer depends on the previous post, reply. If it is a question that makes sense without the previous post, new topic. The second gets faster answers.
A partial answer, offered because a partial answer beats none.
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Avoid "any advice?" at the end. It is so generic that people do not know which part of the post it refers to. Pick the specific part and ask that specific question instead.
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Picking up post #50: that is the part I would want checked first.
Nobody minds being asked to explain a term. The people who use them most are the quickest to define them, and a question that stops to ask is usually a question that gets a better answer.
This has been discussed before and I could not find the thread, so, again.
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s.chowdhury, post #19: It is fine to say you cannot explain why you are asking. Nobody will press, and the technical part of the question can usually be answered without the context. I checked the source rather than the summary, and they differ. Go to post
On post #52 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification.
Units. Everything needs units. This is why we ask every single time. I have seen the same arithmetic done three different ways depending on whether the person was thinking mg/mL or mg/dose or something else entirely. Stating the units makes that impossible.
It is a small point and it changes the answer, which is an awkward combination.
a.schaeffer, post #43: Post #39 put the caveat in the right place and I want to underline it. Chromatogram questions: describe the method first. Column type, gradient, wavelength, detection method. Everything else follows from method. A chromatogram without method is a number without context. I have said this before in a thread nobody could find, so it is… Go to post
Understood, and I withdraw the assumption I opened with.
What you have already read matters. Saying "I read the maintained page on this and I still have a gap" tells people they do not need to point you at the same resource you have already found. That is a genuine time saver.
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Lab result questions: state the result, the reference interval, and what else is on the same panel. A single flag on a single draw is usually uninformative without context.
I have left out the parts I could not verify.
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Where I part company with post #56, and it is a narrow parting.
Speaking as somebody who asked badly last month and got a polite request for four missing details: writing the question properly the first time takes ten minutes and saves two days. Learn from me.
Posting it because the silence on this was starting to look like agreement.
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