{"id":467,"date":"2010-08-05T05:39:34","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T12:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/?p=467"},"modified":"2010-12-30T02:14:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T09:14:58","slug":"how-to-ask-questions-at-academic-presentations-without-being-a-jerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/how-to-ask-questions-at-academic-presentations-without-being-a-jerk\/","title":{"rendered":"How to ask questions at academic presentations without being a jerk"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, let me just start by saying that I have been That Guy (in a gender-neutral sense) many, many times. You know what I mean? The one who asks a question that makes you surreptitiously elbow the person next to you or doodle “WTF?” on your notepad. It’s hard! There are so many ways to be obnoxious at an academic presentation! Especially for those of us with egos (not me<\/em>, of course — I’m just being helpful), the temptation to grandstand can be overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Thus! I am compiling this list of dos and don’ts so that I, more than anyone else, will remember to do them and don’t them. Are there some I’m missing?<\/p>\n

Ask a genuine question.<\/strong>
\nI cringe when I think about my behavior at a recent conference, when I responded to a presentation by triumphantly proclaiming, “Yes, but what about X?” I was so pleased with myself for knowing about X, and so pleased that I knew something the presenter didn’t know, that I forgot to ask a real question. Obviously, the presenter did not know about X, and this wasn’t a genuine question for her. I asked it so the audience would know that I was a great genius and knew about X. Don’t do this.<\/p>\n

Keep it short, and resist the temptation to qualify.<\/strong>
\nThis thing happens while I’m waiting to ask a question where my brain performs the following gymnastics:<\/p>\n

1. I have a question!
\n2. What a great question!
\n3. But wait! Is it actually a dumb question?
\n4. Does everyone else already know what the answer is and I’m just ignorant?
\n5. I know! I shall demonstrate that I am actually quite well-read and thoughtful by prefacing my question with an extended monologue, in which I explain that this question is not actually about this<\/em>, but about that<\/em>, which I thought of because I know about this other thing and what that one guy said about it!<\/p>\n

Yeah, don’t do that. Just ask the question, and if it makes you look dumb, take the hit. It probably doesn’t, anyway.
\n
\nAsk a question that has broad interest.<\/strong>
\n“Broad interest” is always a relative term in academia, but think about the audience. If they’re there to hear about, like, Emily Dickinson, they probably don’t care what Emily Dickinson thought about leper colonies in Louisiana, even if that’s your great and important research project. It’s not like academic presenters are rock stars. You’ll get a chance to ask your question one-on-one, promise.<\/p>\n

Start off with a compliment.<\/strong>
\nIt’s hard<\/em> to get up in front of an audience and do your thing. Unless the presenter is very experienced, her first thought on getting a question is more likely to be “Is this hostile?” than “What does this person want to know?” In my experience, starting off with a quick compliment (“That was really interesting. Thanks for that.”) goes a surprisingly long way toward putting the presenter at ease and allowing her to focus on the substance, rather than the tone, of your question.<\/p>\n

Allow the presenter a graceful way to defend herself or decline to answer.<\/strong>
\nIt’s OK to argue with a presenter, but it’s not OK to hector. Yes, these are Very Important Issues and the world should hear your point, but the stakes are higher for the presenter than for the questioner. If the presenter is clearly not equipped to defend herself, or can’t provide a satisfactory answer, you need to let it go. The audience is smart enough to understand what’s going on, and you won’t accomplish anything by needling the presenter, other than making yourself look like a jerk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, let me just start by saying that I have been That Guy (in a gender-neutral sense) many, many times. You know what I mean? The one who asks a question that makes you surreptitiously elbow the person next to you or doodle “WTF?” on your notepad. It’s hard! There are so many ways to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}