Questions tagged [answers]
This tag is for questions about answers: how to answer, whether specific answers are appropriate, and so forth.
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questions
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What should be the qualifications for answering questions?
There is currently an open question on ELL which has raised some completely off topic argument in the comments some of which are becoming unpleasant. One contributor is saying you shouldn't answer ...
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answers
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Are answers written by AI Chatbots suitable for the site?
Relevant question and answer
What is the grammar point that we changed the structure "S + V and V" into the structure "S + V, Ving"?
Is an answer written by an AI chatbot, such as ...
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answer
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Does this site have different rules about answering in comments?
On most SE sites, giving answers as comments is generally frowned upon.
But here, it seems to be a very common practice.
I realize that this site is different in that most questions are quick one-offs,...
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answers
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Am I allowed to post short, simple answers if they answer the question?
An example answer would be:
The second sentence is correct.
Which would be an answer to this question:
Which sentence is correct? “I is human” or “I am human”?
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vote
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answer
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The only answer on a bountied question
If my answer is the only answer on a bountied question, do I still get the bounty even if my answer is not accepted?
0
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2
answers
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Answering when proof of negative required
Someone asked a question of the form: "What makes these words special grammatically, and are there any others like them". link
I am near 100% certain that there is no rule, but, sadly, not ...
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votes
3
answers
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No votes means not trustable?
In this question, the OP pointed out that the answer in the question I shared had no votes, so it was "untrustable":
break up or break down?
Should no votes mean the answer isn't trustable?...
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votes
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answer
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Answering old questions
Is it a good practice to answer old unanswered questions? I've seen some old questions with no answers and am assuming it is fine to answer them. Also, is it bad to do so a lot?
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answer
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If a person's score is low for a certain tag but has a high answer count, is their English "bad"?
If someone has a high answer count but low score for a lot of tags, does that necessarily mean they are "slightly worse than others at English"? (Not meant to offend anyone.)
Especially for ...
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3
answers
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Is it "rude" to ask a question and answer it instantly?
Another site, Code Golf Stack Exchange, says it's frowned upon to post a question and then your answer, and they said it's best to post it after a few days. Does this site have the same "rule&...
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Should I delete my answers?
Should I delete my answers if they have a score of 0 and are not accepted? As I feel that just clutter the page a little and they aren't helping anyone.
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votes
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answers
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Edits to my answers sometimes generate multiple answers rather than applying the edits
In this question, I answered it, then edited my answer a few times in rapid succession. Each time I used the "edit" link.
Now I notice that there are two separate answers, one being an ...
gotubeMod
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Why can't we accept our own answers within 2 days?
I self-answered my question How to make this hypothesis in a negative form?
Now I want to accept it, but it says that I should wait for 2 more days before I can. Why can't I just accept my answer on ...
6
votes
1
answer
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Why was my answer on the "caps in soccer context" question removed?
From the comments beneath the answer, there is significant disagreement that it is in fact NAA:
The NAA review was completed by a moderator. Another moderator chose to delete. Please explain why it ...
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answers
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Let's use plain language (this time for real)
If you do not wish to read the entire document, please consider reading only the sentences in boldface.
Introduction
In an earlier post, ELL members discussed the value of writing answers in simpler ...
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votes
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answers
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How can I improve my downvoted answers?
I asked a question here in Meta. I wanted to know if I could offer a bounty and ask ELL users to help me improve my downvoted answers or understand why they are wrong. That probably wasn't a good idea ...
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vote
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answer
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Answer deleted?
I posted a short -- but not too short -- answer to Narrow streets behind houses but it almost instantly disappeared.
Can you tell me why?
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votes
1
answer
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Can I post the same answer on a duplicate question?
Warning! Blatant self-promotion ahead!
I posted this answer: https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/225606/9936, and the question was since marked as a duplicate. My answer has been well received and I feel ...
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2
answers
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Cite your sources!
I've noticed something recently on this site. It's a weird thing, but it appears to be becoming common. Answers are seen as only being reliable if they have a source.
This isn't the case where ...
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answers
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ELL's Greatest Hits Page
I came across the Stack Exchange's Greatest Hits blog post on EL&U's meta, and found that ELL has a "greatest hits" page. This page lists the questions that have received a lot of ...
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How to respond to users who answer questions in comments? [duplicate]
RE: Cobwebbed - The fox in the Attic (comment by CowperKettle) and "Get a free notebook WORTH $2." Where is "IS"? (comment by CowperKettle)
Note that I have asked this same ...
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answers
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How to improve answers which only cover part of a topic
I want to get involved more in closing the unanswered questions. Since I do not have many permissions as a newcomer, I encounter some trouble.
If there is an answer which covers only a part of the ...
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votes
2
answers
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So many answers in comments
I can see previous meta discussions on what should be a comment and what should be an answer, but what I'm wondering is, why are so many users posting answers, sometimes quite in-depth (if compact) ...
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Should a refutation to an answer be added to the question?
Can "strong" be used as a noun?
In this question there is a situation that the word "strong" seems to be ungrammatical or even nonsense. But because the source is a clip, not a text, therefore some ...
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answer
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How are answers with no votes sorted?
When I was viewing a question: How can I introduce (or name) a person my answer was above the other answer even though they both have 0 votes. I sorted it by votes.
My answer is above the other ...
user85640
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votes
0
answers
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Off topic comments growing on my answer
I've answered a question about plural "staff" which has attracted comments solely about plural "water". None has mentioned "staff" (the topic of the OP's question) or has suggested improvements.
I'm ...
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votes
2
answers
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If there is more than one right answer can I summarize the answers?
If there is more than one right answer to a question can I accept one and summarize the answers under the question description with an edit note?
For example, a previous question I asked: What is the ...
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votes
2
answers
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Lesser of evils on ELL: comment vs. LQ answer
There is endless Q&A here and on SE Meta on comments vs. answers. Some things are clearly comments (e.g., requests for clarification, critique of a post). We have guidance on what constitutes a ...
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answer
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Are there penalties at Stack Exchange for copying answers?
Before Stack Exchange, I participated in a similar site. That site had a requirement: all answers must be different from each other, and users cannot copy content from anywhere including Internet.
I ...
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Is it possible to edit questions that have answers?
I am new to this site. Is it possible here to edit questions which already have answers?
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answer
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Guide to formatting ELL answers -- best practices?
Is there a place on ELL or ELL-Meta that conveys best practices on formatting answers, specifically in the context of conveying English language information? For example:
presenting language examples ...
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answer
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Is wiktionary a reasonable source to back up answers?
Just stumbled upon a question that was looking for a specific word. The one I had in mind was not there, so I thought I add it as an answer.
As all other answers were backed up by links to ...
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votes
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answer
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What is the recommended action when the top-voted answer is incorrect significantly?
In this question (Is this rule "If" specific?), the top-voted answer has several up-votes and only a few down votes, but the entire second half is incorrect (plus one or two other more minor ...
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votes
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answer
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Proposal: Encourage new users to accept the correct answer
Scrolling down the ell feed, one can see that the majority of questions do not have accepted answers. StackExchange as a website has a strong emphasis on accepting a useful and/or correct answer and I ...
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I am a native speaker but have not learned grammar well, can I answer questions without grammar specifecs? [duplicate]
I am a native English native, but I don't know technical grammar answers. and I often answer questions knowing they are correct because I've listened to very good English all my life, but not-Knowing ...
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votes
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answers
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Stop answering close-worthy questions!
Call to stop answering off-topic questions seems not to have reached the goals it aimed to achieve. Out of the most recent 100 questions that were closed for any other reason than "duplicate", 76 ...
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answers
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How useful are "Here, say this instead" answers, when the OP isn't asking for them?
Imagine three scenarios in Q/A:
Q1: How can I say that "foo bars the baz"?
A1: Just say "the foo bars" instead.
Q2: Is "foo bars the baz" grammatically correct?
A2: Just say "the foo bars" ...
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answers
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How can a native English speaker with no experience teaching or learning English help, if at all?
I want to answer questions and I know English pretty well. However I don't have experience learning, or teaching, English. Most of my thought process is "that sounds wrong". People say words like ...
user19874
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answers
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Am I right? No, you're wrong!
The problem:
I've recently seen questions in this form:
Some title that might need polishing
< a lot of background that usually doesn't add to the question >< a question that the OP ...
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votes
4
answers
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Answering: correctness vs. practicality
I am a native AmE speaker, and have been wondering if my answers are on-topic here.
This thread brought up a good point, but didn't quite address my question. I am wondering if it is appropriate to ...
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Do answers need to be in English?
I'm pretty sure answers need to be in English, and I was going to recommend an answer for deletion that is mixed English and something else, but I can't actually find a meta question or help center ...
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answers
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Are answers which consist only of block quotes acceptable
This is related to this question on ELL meta about EL&U quoting.
This ELL question has an answer consisting only of a quote from quora. Is this appropriate? I edited it to make it clear that it ...
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DO NOT FEED THE BEARS
A question was just asked on ELL, and it needs a lot of work.
Here's a screen shot. There are two problems with this question: first, the way the initial question was asked; second, the way a follow-...
J.R.Mod
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Submitting Answers that merely answer the question
Lately I've noticed quite a few answers that provide an answer to the O.P.'s question, but provide no supporting information.
Sometimes, comments are left, asking for more information; other times, ...
J.R.Mod
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answers
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Do we entertain partial answers?
I am new in ELL, i have read various question where user ask meaning of more than one word or phrase. Sometimes one part of the question is easy to answer, but the second is not. So do we accept ...
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What should we do when a user asks about nonsensical English?
Today, someone asked what this sentence means:
This first choice of yours is no second best of all.
Without additional context, I think the answer is "nothing". And we were informed that there ...
user230
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4
answers
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Commenting vs. Answering
I'm new to StackExchange, and trying to get a good feel for the difference between commenting and answering, but there are a few points still confusing me and I'd appreciate feedback from the ...
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How should I write a placeholder in a phrase I show?
Suppose I want to show how the verb learn is used, and I want to show that it is used as:
Learn [something]
Learn from [something/somebody]
Learning [something] from doing [something]
What I wrote ...
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votes
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answer
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Deleted comment
I normally wouldn't worry about a deleted comment, but I got a reply to my comment on this question that seems to suggest I should post it as an answer instead (the only reason I didn't in the first ...
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Lack of Accepted Answers
This is my first time participating in a public beta, so I apologize if this question has an obvious answer or if the behavior I mention is the norm.
What I seem to be noticing, as I page through our ...
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