Arithmetic questions: write out the steps. "I have a 10 mg vial, I added 2 mL, I want a 0.25 mg dose, and I get this number for the syringe mark" is answerable. "How many units" is not.
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Start Here · How to Ask · continued
How to ask about something you suspect is a bad idea 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.
so.cardoso, post #14: Answering the question post #10 raises rather than the one it answers. 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. I looked this up rather than remembered it, which is the right order. Go to post
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.
Not a strong opinion, just a consistent one.
m.nwosu, post #22: Confirming post #19 from a second method, which matters more than confirming it from a second person. A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either. The general answer and the answer for your case may diverge here. Go to post
Fine by me. I had wanted a stronger conclusion and there is not one available.
a.silva, post #20: Arithmetic questions: write out the steps. "I have a 10 mg vial, I added 2 mL, I want a 0.25 mg dose, and I get this number for the syringe mark" is answerable. "How many units" is not. The interesting part of this is the exception, and I do not understand the exception. Go to post
Worth separating two things that post #32 runs together.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
If anyone can point at the primary source I would be grateful.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
The general case is well covered; this is the awkward specific one.
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s.vanhecke, post #1: The question in the title: How to ask about something you suspect is a bad idea I will give what I have already checked below so nobody repeats it. Question in the title. Context below, and I have tried to include the things people here always have to ask for. What I have already read: the relevant maintained document, the two topics it… Go to post
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Picking up post #38: that is the part I would want checked first.
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.
Correct me on the arithmetic if it is wrong; I would rather know.
a.zamora, post #10: Taking post #7 at face value and following it one step further. 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. That matches what I was told, which is not the same as knowing it. Go to post
On post #36 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
r.bruun, post #40: On post #36 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification. A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either. Go to post
The arithmetic in post #42 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.
If the answer you got does not fit your case, say which part does not fit rather than restating the question. Otherwise the next reply is the same as the last one.
If that reads as pedantic, it is, and it has saved me twice.
Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
Building on post #44 rather than restating it.
Arithmetic questions: write out the steps. "I have a 10 mg vial, I added 2 mL, I want a 0.25 mg dose, and I get this number for the syringe mark" is answerable. "How many units" is not.
Written from notes rather than memory, which is why the numbers are specific.
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t.vasquez, post #12: 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. Go to post
Everything in post #46 holds. The case it does not cover is the one I have.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
I have deliberately not rounded that, because the rounding is where the argument starts.
r.zielinski, post #2: A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either. Reporting the observation and leaving the explanation open deliberately. Go to post
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 have no interest in any supplier named above.
p.lindqvist, post #24: A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either. Go to post
Coming back to post #46, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
Take the reasoning and check the arithmetic; I do not always get it right.
f.fenwick, post #42: 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. Go to post
Thank you for the correction. I would rather find out here than later.
r.aldana_pharmd, post #3: Same experience here, different supplier, so it is at least not unique to one of them. 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.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
Nothing above should be read as advice about what anyone else should do.
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Everything in post #52 holds. The case it does not cover is the one I have.
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.
That is the version I would defend. It is not the version I started with.
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r.bruun, post #40: On post #36 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification. A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either. Go to post
This follows post #52 rather than contradicting it.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
Where I would look next, rather than where I would stop.
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.
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A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
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A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
The strength of my opinion here exceeds the strength of my evidence.
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c.wijnberg, post #51: Thank you for the correction. I would rather find out here than later. Go to post
Where I part company with post #58, and it is a narrow parting.
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.
The number is defensible. The precision I gave it is not.