To Get a Good Answer You Need to Ask A Good Question

My latest guilty pleasure is Yahoo Answers. You can find both my questions and my (many more)answers via my profile. I incline to "Arts and Humanities" and in particular "History" and "Books and Authors", not surprisingly. It really is an opinionated person's paradise, but I try hard to give good answers, not just my pinhead opinion.

The dismaying thing is what you learn from the questions asked. The first is that people cannot spell. Even ignoring chatspeak like idk and the like, spelling seems to be a dying art. I know, I know, I'm the Typo Queen and have my nerve dumping on that. But that's different... I know how to spell the words.. I am just sloppy.

Another thing I wonder is if teachers know that their students are cribbing their homework here. It's plenty clear that is what is going on, especially when several questions are on the same exact question, such as a recent one in "History" on how American colonists and the Enlightenment were connected. My husband, the oft-quoted Jim, stated the other day that if he was a teacher, and the world would be a much better place if he was, he would check Yahoo! Answers and flunk anyone he caught posting their homework assignments there. I responded that if students asked for leads on where and how to find the answers, I would be quite lenient.

That leads me to my next question. Are these students not being taught how to use reference materials? Is it that they are just too lazy to look things up for themselves or do you they really not know? For example, one girl wanted to know what the word "rouge" from a line in a book meant. I am sure she spent more time and trouble asking the question and waiting for answers than she would have looking on dictionary.com. Another asked for ten interesting facts about the Taj Mahal. I dearly wish I had had the Internet and particularly the web when I was in school. Do those privileged to have grown up with it really so ignorant of how to use it, no less a library? If that is so, why are teachers not teaching them? When I taught a freshman composition class as a graduate student the first thing I did was drag my class to the library and showed them where they could find answers to virtually any question. And now they really can do it virtually! Heck, I just got an answer by emailing a library in England.. and I live in Washington State!

I am almost hesitant to tell Jim that I answered this or that question on Yahoo! Answers. He doesn't approve. As I said, it's a guilty pleasure. I just enjoy answering the silly things.

I've used asking questions to dubious results as well. I recently asked what teens think would make a teen musician, namely my protagonist Kerrick, "hot". I was that age once myself, so I remember long eyelashes and limpid eyes on the likes of Davy Jones and Bobby Sherman. It's pretty much the same now, but they have to be vulnerable and vague (I think she meant "mysterious") now.

I won't sneak out without giving you a few of the questions I've answered. I insist you go there to see my answers.

What happen to the Roanoke Island settlement? 10 pts?
How would you compare the 1950's to present?
Writing a story, how do I make it more casual?
What Is Your Favorite Book Genre? (Duh, idk, George...)
I need a muse. Anyone wanna volunteer?
If the Ancient Greeks were such great thinkers and claimed to be cemented in reason why did they believe all those ridiculous stories about gods and ...?
How did the magna Carta and the English bill of rights introduce many important ideas about government?

And the immortal:

Anybody knows journal entry?

Mine got voted Best Answer for that one. Judge for yourself.

Ah, but I do have fun.