Asking Great Questions

Asking Great Questions
a guide for critical thinking tasks in this class

Open Ended

Tell me something you're aware of within the professional field of this class.

Be as specific as you can. Ideas like "rocky road with sprinkles" are better than ideas that just say "ice cream."

Open Ended

Now tell me something you're interested in within your professional field that has nothing to do with this class.

Be as specific as you can. Ideas like "Jupiter's moon Europa" are better than ideas that just say "outer space."

Great Q's demonstrate 3 things*

1. depth through specificity/focus

2. curiosity through personal involvement

3. feasibility through actionable response potential

* I am intentionally taking for granted that a great question should be clear & relevant. And naturally, we're talking about great questions for the purposes of this class. Not all great questions ever in the universe.

Great Q's have 3 parts

1. Specific element from class "reading"

2. a strong verb that connects ideas

3. specific outside element AKA you

Example #1

In the early days of film, how did the widespread adoption of sound influence book sales (fiction)?








1. Specific element from class "reading" 2. a strong verb that connects ideas 3. specific outside element AKA you

Example #2

How does the choice of color palette in grading affect the perceived pacing of a scene? Can certain color grades make an otherwise slow-paced scene feel more dynamic?






1. Specific element from class "reading" 2. a strong verb that connects ideas 3. specific outside element AKA you

Example #3

How do a director's blocking choices in a scene influence the quality of an actor's performance?








1. Specific element from class "reading" 2. a strong verb that connects ideas 3. specific outside element AKA you

Some observations

The most natural question?
"Why" is also a good question that gets at cause & effect. Why's can often be phrased as How's. Great questions open debatable possible responses, not a single right answer.

"How?"

The most common verb?
How does A influence B?
"change," "affect," & other similar verbs are likely. Even cause/effect verbs like "What... arose... as a result of...?

"Influence"

What about demonstrating #3?

1. depth through specificity/focus (1st part of questions)

2. curiosity through personal involvement (2nd part of questions)

3. feasibility through actionable response potential (???)

Remember example #3?

How do a director's blocking choices in a scene influence the quality of an actor's performance?

This is not something we can directly answer from the results of a film. Think about it. How can we watch a movie and tell whether different blocking would change the performance quality? We don't have access to alternate performances with alternate blocking. We can only imagine. OR we can research a variety of performance quality levels, and see how blocking choices correlate. Feasibility for a successful response is... complicated. Maybe even low.

1. Specific element from class "reading" 2. a strong verb that connects ideas 3. specific outside element AKA you

Remember example #2?

How does the choice of color palette in grading affect the perceived pacing of a scene? Can certain color tones make an otherwise slow-paced scene feel more dynamic?

High feasibility for a successful response! We can color grade the same scene multiple ways & then test it on audiences to see if one way or another feels faster/slower.






1. Specific element from class "reading" 2. a strong verb that connects ideas 3. specific outside element AKA you

Remember example #1?

In the early days of film, how did the widespread adoption of sound influence book sales (fiction)?

Moderate to high feasibility to respond successfully. Depending on available historical data, you could possibly discover what happened to overall book sales when sound films went widespread.







1. Specific element from class "reading" 2. a strong verb that connects ideas 3. specific outside element AKA you

Time to formulate your question

Remember the two things you wrote at the beginning? It's time to connect them with a verb and see what we get. Bonus points if you can design a question with high feasibility for successful responses.

Open Ended

Give me a great question.

Example structure: How does [something you're aware of within the professional field of this class] influence/change/affect [something you're interested in within your professional field that has nothing to do with this class]?

Different? Cool?