Asking questions
Composing the question
When you ask a question, don't skimp on the words! Take your time and write your question as thoroughly and as detailed as you can. In this case, less is not more. Short questions tend to be vague or too broad and will generally attract short answers. Remember to include:
- why you are asking your question
- what you already know
then it's easier for someone to write a helpful answer, and the community will appreciate your efforts. Here are some examples of different types of questions with good detail.
This guide also has some specific advice for asking about practice questions.
Titles
Please include the question and main example in the body of the post, not just the title. Your title should be specific and informative. See Titles are for titles, and questions belong in your question and How can I write a better title for my ELL question?.
Formatting
We typically use the >
character with examples and quotations. We often emphasize our text to highlight something important or different. We also use lists to provide alternative sentences, for example. See Formatting your posts for links and examples. See How to start a new line for an explanation on line breaks. See How to properly make a list for common mistakes when making a list.
Tags
It can be hard to choose exactly the right tags for a question, but please don’t give up and just choose grammar. People often “watch” their favorite topics, so choosing meaningful existing tags can help your question get attention.
New tags should only be created if there is a set of questions that should be grouped together. If there isn’t more than one question that could use a tag, we don’t really need that tag. See the help topic What are tags and how should I use them? for more detail.
Images
You can include an image if it helps provide context. However, we ask that you also transcribe the text from the image to the post.

This text is relevant context.
For details, see:
"Thank you", "hi", and other salutations and taglines
Often, users include "thank you", "hi", and other salutations and taglines in their posts. Other users will occasionally remove them from the post while making other meaningful edits. Don't be offended by this. The general policy is that these details are unnecessary and distracting. See the following posts for discussions on the matter:
Accepting an answer
Once your question has been answered to your satisfaction, you should accept the answer that was most helpful to you. Accepting an answer signals that you're happy with the answers that your question received, and awards some reputation to the author of the answer you accepted. However, it's generally best to wait about a day or so before accepting an answer.