Second pass at: How to ask a question when you cannot say why you are asking it posts 61–82

Post #59 describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.

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.

A guess, clearly labelled as one.

Say what you have already ruled out. "It is not the diluent because I tried a second vial from a different box" saves three replies suggesting the diluent.

The mechanism is plausible, which is not the same as established.

Quantities without units are the single commonest reason a question sits unanswered. "Two and a half" is not a dose, a volume or a concentration until you say which.

Thank you for taking the time. That was more work than a reply usually is.

Answering the question post #63 raises rather than the one it answers.

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.

The arithmetic in post #63 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.

A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.

I would hold that lightly until someone with a larger sample weighs in.

Chromatography questions need the method before anything else: column, gradient, wavelength, injection volume. A purity figure with no method attached cannot be discussed, only repeated.

The short answer was in the first line; everything after is the working.

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.

Clear enough that I do not think I have a follow-up, which is unusual.

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.

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.

I am confident about the direction and much less about the magnitude.

This settles it for me, at least until somebody posts a reason it should not.

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.

Caveat: everything above assumes the paperwork is what it says it is.