Thinking up Questions

You don’t have to actually ask a question at every talk, but by forcing yourself to think up a question has a couple benefits.

First, forcing yourself to think up a good question encourages you to actually pay attention to the speaker. My experience as a M.Sc. student is not uncommon. It’s not surprising that young students encountering raw primary research for the first time have a hard time following the discussion. They lack the depth of knowledge in the field and practical experience of doing the work and so they lose interest quite quickly1. By paying attention, even if it’s only to try and think of a question, is a sign of respect for your colleagues and thus also betters their situation.

  • 1 This is particularly true if the presentation is poorly-executed, but recall link that, even in a well-planned presentation, the needs of the least knowledgeable members of the audience are not catered to.

    • Second, you’ll eventually begin coming up with really interesting questions, simply as a consequence of having many questions. Many students don’t ask questions because they literally don’t have any questions to ask. Having anything to ask is already an improvement. Once we acknowledge that our job, as an audience member, is to come up with questions and participate in a dialogue with the presenter, we can move onto filtering for interesting questions. It may be true that there are no “bad” questions, for a public audience we need more than “not bad”, we’d like to contribute to the discussion, and that means having a large pool or questions from which we can select our favorite.

    What kind of questions can you ask?

    There are a few strategies you can use when coming up with questions for a presentation.

    First, look for holes in the presentation. This is particularly powerful if you’re familiar with the topic. We don’t need to be mean about it, but it can help to take on the role of the grumpy old professor who going to ask the hard questions. Importantly, remember that creating a hostile environment link is not our goal! We just want a device that gets us thinking of interesting questions. Your goal here should be to add something to the conversation — not to embarrass people or make enemies. Consider the following 3 O’s when looking for holes:

    Omissions
    What information, necessary to assess results and conclusions, was missing?
    Over-interpretations
    What has the presenter actually claimed and have they provided sufficient evidence to back up that claim?
    Oppositions
    Did the presenter contradict published material or themselves, i.e. having wrongly interpreted their results

    Second, identifying confusing parts of the presentation. This is particularly useful if you’re new to the topic. You’ll have a chance to ask for elaboration or for the speaker to repeat some explanation that you didn’t understand. It may not be the most interesting type of question but it benefits others in the audience who may also have been confused by a specific part, and it let’s the presenter know that they should work on making that part clearer in future presentations and that you were indeed paying attention.

    Third, try to spot the weakest part of the presentation. This is similar to looking for holes, but instead of relying on the actual content, you can pay attention to body language, including voice, and presentation style. I was once told of a professor who it seemed hardly paid attention during departmental seminars but who nonetheless always came up with some insightful questions afterwards. His trick, in this apocryphal tale tale, was listening intently to the tone of the presenters voice. Did you notice a part when the presenter became more nervous than usual? Did their voice get lower, or did they start mumbling? They they hurriedly click through many slides with a dramatic wave of the hand when they were quite happy to spend time explaining other material? Those areas are where you can begin looking for a tough question. Again, remember that you’re job it not to embarrass the presenter or make a hostile environment, but rather to find those interesting questions that add to the dialogue.