Are questions like "What is wrong with this sentence when compared to that other sentence" allowed on ELL?

Question

Many of my questions are closed due to my English is awkward. Being non native English speaker it is very difficult for me to write like native English speakers. But I am continuously trying my best to improve my English. So some times I don't understand what is the wrong with my sentence. Can I ask community what is the wrong with my sentences when compared to corrected version? Is it allowed and acceptable to SE as per SE guidelines.

For example, if I write a sentence like "How to make my verbal communication simple and clear?" at the same time some one corrects it like "How can I make verbal communication simple and clear?". I can accept that it is better, but I'm having trouble understanding why my original wording was inferior. Is there a relatively easy explanation? Is it allowed to ask SE community about this kind of explanation? Is it accepted as per the SE guidelines?

Answer 1

I would think you could ask a question that goes something like this:

I wrote:

"How to make my verbal communication simple and clear?"

but someone corrected it to read:

"How can I make verbal communication simple and clear?"

I can accept that it is better, but I'm having trouble understanding why my original wording was inferior. Is there a relatively easy explanation?

In my view, that's a question about English, appropriate for English learners.

(By the way, the answer to that question would be: "How to make X" is a statement, not a question. Instead of changing the wording, the editor could have changed it to a more complete sentence, and removed the question mark: "I want to know how to make my verbal communication simple and clear." Either edit would fix the problem.)

As for the question within the question, though, that would be outside the scope of ELL. "Making verbal communication simple and clear" is a skill that takes years to master – I'm still coaching my 18-year-old daughter every now and then. There's no simple suggestion, no basic solution, and no easy answer, only a host of tips and techniques to go along with a lot of time, effort, and patience. So that question by itself would probably get rightfully closed – but not because you didn't word it properly.

Answer 2

Questions of the sort you describe are quite proper here. You will however get better answers if you describe just what you understand the difference to be, and what you do and do not understand about the difference. That allows us to put the important point, which is fixing your understanding, in the foreground, and to put the unimportant part, which is fixing the sentence, in the background.

(It also means you will get more upvotes and fewer downvotes, which is like getting hot fudge sauce on your ice cream.)

For instance, instead of just putting up two sentences and asking “Could someone explain why this one is better than that one?”, you might write:

I recently asked this question on Meta:

Does questions like “what is wrong with this sentence when compared to other sentence” are allowed ELL?

StoneyB edited this to

Are questions like "What is wrong with this sentence when compared to that other sentence" allowed on ELL?

I see that I should have capitalized the beginning of my quotation, and that I am clearer if I say this and that other instead of just this and other.

But I was taught that questions should be begin with a form of Do, and StoneyB has changed that to Are. Again, I see that my Does should be Do, to agree with plural questions; but I don't understand why StoneyB uses a form of Be?

That question allows us to see at once what your problem is, and address that, instead of wasting bytes on explaining things you already understand.