That is an interesting question and and interesting observation. Is the Stack Exchange answer a distinct genre? Or perhaps more broadly is the QA site answer a distinct genre. If it is, I think it is an example of a more pervasive genre that was created by the Web, which we might call persistent conversation.

Persistent conversation is a type of communication that is not as formal, not as researched, verified, and worked, as you would find in a formal publication such as a journal or a book. It is a contribution to a forum where other voices are being heard and it is subject to commentary and editing, and where it will remain on permanent public display. Therefore a great deal more thought and discretion goes into the composition than you would give to a chance utterance in private conversation. It is this status as new genre that leads to so many debates about the appropriate level of formality, correctness, and editing that should go into composing any Web posting.

This certainly affects how people write SE answers. Yes, they put some thought into what they say and pay some attention to how they say it (some more than others, clearly). But they publish with far less care and polish than they would if they were writing a book or a journal article. I think there are a couple of contributing factors to this:

1. You know that if you miss something you will have the chance to edit it and if you get something wrong or miss something, someone will correct you and you will be able to fix the problem.

2. To the extent that you are interested in gaining reputation, speed matters. We would like to think that a great answer posted a week after the question was asked would slowly get voted to the top, but we all know it won't. First to answer is a big advantage in the reputation sweepstakes, and this creates a clear incentive to get an answer out quickly.

That said, I think I have a distinct approach to answering questions (on this site, anyway) and that is to tie the answer back to a general principle. You should do X because of principle Y which is based on human characteristic Z.

One of the consequences of this approach is that I often end up stating the general principle with very little caveat or refinement. This sometimes leads to disagreements that would take far more room than this format permits to fully explore and resolve.

On the other hand, I personally feel that merely making a suggestion without tying it back to a principle is of limited value. Such suggestions have no provenance. They don't really meet the SE criteria for providing objective researched answers.

But those criteria, which were developed for answering programming questions, don't really fit writing questions. Programming is highly analytic, breaking problems down into smaller and smaller pieces. Writing is synthetic, bringing all the pieces together to work as a whole. This naturally means that any writing question has very deep and complex roots. To deal with them in this format requires some means of simplifying the complex set of principles and practices that would inform a full answer.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Mark Baker‭

4381 reputation 12 1104 745 58

Get to the point first. On most SE websites, the main flow of traffic is people coming from Google/DDG for quick answers. If there is code which solves the problem, make sure it's correctly formatted (e.g. using code formatting for code) because many people skip straight to it.

Details are appreciated, but only after making your point and giving (or proposing) the solution. It's an explanation for your point, not a story leading up to your point.

While writing 200 answers on various SE sites, I've also noticed that writing summarizing answers can be very helpful: when there are some answers which each mention part of the answer, or which are all inferior in some situations, it is appreciated to write up a single good answer. Usually those questions are old and upvotes will only trickle in over time, but it does seem to be appreciated by future visitors.

The writing here is often very impersonal: no "hi user249" or "thank you" needed; it's encyclopedic rather than a chat. Upvotes are how you say "thank you", because an upvote also implies a recommendation for others to read the answer (or question). But it's also not formal to the point of a scientific paper: you can say "I think" and "I did" rather than "one might assume" or "we performed".

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Luc‭

5 reputation 0 1 1 0

In addition to the many good suggestions here:

Pay particular attention to the level of sophistication the OP shows in the question. Remember that you're writing primarily for the OP (also for the community and future visitors, but that's secondary). For example, on Math.SE an answer that suits a pro may be well beyond an undergraduate, or a high school student. There I try to teach as well as answer.

I wonder what the balance is between usefulness to OP vs. to the community. I suspect it varies from site to site. On math.se many of the questions are quite particular. On tex.se they seem to be more general purpose. There's a nice small research project waiting to be done, looking at the statistics on questions, votes and views.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Ethan Bolker‭

10 reputation 0 2 2 0

Be brief, clear and correct.

(Note how my top answer to this question overtook the more complete accepted answer).

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

MGOwen‭

60 reputation 0 5 11 0

Bold and/or italicize the important points

Don't worry about organizing your answer in a logical format where the first sentence/paragraph has the main point, the supporting details are in the middle, and the concluding idea is at the end. Instead, write in a meandering fashion, and bold your most important points so that they are noticed, which is necessary because otherwise they would be in the middle of a paragraph where no one would see them. Formatting draws peoples' attention, and if you use a lot of formatting, your writing will get a lot of attention! This type of writing does mean that people will jump from main idea to main idea without focusing on the points in between, but that doesn't matter does it?

It's even better if you bold or emphasize the parts of your answer that aren't actually the important parts of the answer, as one answer to this very question demonstrates:

I don't expect this answer to garner many votes, but it may serve as food for thought, at least for one or two people, an outcome that is valuable to me as an educator.

(emphasis not added)

Break your flow with blockquotes

Let's face it, your writing probably isn't great. However, you can find some good writing on the topic, and through the liberal use of blockquotes get the reader to focus on the good writing instead. It's best if you find a source that is considered reputable, such as Wikipedia or another Stack Exchange answer. There's some more good advice in this article on the topic:

Quotations must be verifiably attributed, and the wording of the quoted text should be faithfully reproduced. This is referred to as the principle of minimal change. Where there is good reason to change the wording, enclose changes within square brackets (for example, [her father] replacing him, where the context identifying "him" is not included in the quotation: "Ocyrhoe told [her father] his fate").

The quotes can be long or short, but it isn't necessary to talk about the quotes after you quote them: just quote someone else making a point, and then move on.

Use ellipses to indicate omissions from quoted text. Legitimate omissions include extraneous, irrelevant, or parenthetical words, and unintelligible speech (umm, and hmm). Do not omit text where doing so would remove important context or alter the meaning of the text.

By no means should you summarize the conclusions of another source in your own words, which would take up less space and less time. Instead, use blockquotes liberally throughout your answer to provide a distraction from your own writing.

Refer to common knowledge, and don't worry about whether the common knowledge is actually common or correct.

Common knowledge is things that everyone knows, so there isn't any reason to verify it. As one user insightfully notes:

That is how Trump's campaign worked, and that's how SE works, too, at least on "soft" sites like Writing.SE, where you cannot easily see if a code runs or not.

The only thing you need to know to write answers is common knowledge and logic. With these two tools you can provide insight into any topic.

Things about Stack Exchange are more interesting than things about the actual topic of the site

Why talk about actual problems writers face when you can write answers about Stack Exchange? People love talking about theirselves, so on a Stack Exchange site, talking about Stack Exchange users is the golden ticket. If you can find a way to connect whatever topic you're writing about to Stack Exchange, you're set!

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Questioning Stack Exchange‭

5 reputation 0 1 1 0

Answer the question in a way that will provide the reader (askee or searcher) with enough information to have actionable next steps. Do it in the smallest number of valuable words that you can. If you must expound, at least organize your thoughts.

Aside, the number next to your answer is a popularity contest for people who have registered. The real metric is unobservable: did this help someone? You may never know.

Allowances: sometimes the real question is not asked; an actionable next step may be to follow up with further research; complex topics may require concise complex answers; people tend to like good answers or those that affirm their views.

Addendum: Read and understand the question, first. We all have preconceived notions we want to talk about. A disproportionate number of answers are simply attempts at proving how smart one is or proselytizing one's personal philosophy. A text which which does not answer the asked question (or the mappable root of that question) is just masterbatory verbiage.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Kirk‭

280 reputation 9 31 52 0

"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer" does not apply on Stack Exchange.

On multiple occasions, I've seen people post "answers" that are either sarcasm/jokes, personal attacks, or just plain don't answer the question, and then try and justify it by saying something like, "Well, this is a stupid question and doesn't deserve a serious response."

If you feel a question is stupid because it's based on a false premise, you can write a "frame challenge" answer explaining, as objectively as possible, why the premise is wrong. If, for any other reason, you feel a question does not deserve to be answered, simply downvote/close-vote/flag as necessary, and move on. At most, leave a comment explaining, in the most neutral way you can, what you believe the problem with the question is.

Posting a stupid answer to a "stupid" question achieves nothing but fleeting catharsis. It will inevitably get deleted, either along with the question, or from the VLQ/NAA queues, or possibly even by a moderator if what you say violates the Code of Conduct. It's a waste of your time, and a waste of everyone else's time.

posted about 5 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

F1Krazy‭

195 reputation 4 73 38 0

In addition to all great answers. Put yourself into the OP's place and instead of just writing series of statements, write sub-questions you think comes to the mind of the average reader of that question. Understand the root of what they don't understand and then create related sub-questions and answer them.

Instead of saying "A class is different from a method", try writing a question with "What is the difference between classes and methods?" This verbiage grabs the attention of the reader.

I have somewhat done that in my answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42275060/what-is-difference-between-remote-notification-and-silent-notification-in-ios/42302369#42302369

In that one answer itself I've literally wrote and then answered the following sub-questions:

• Do I need to request access once for local Notifications and once for remote notifications?
• Do I need to enable something to receive Silent notifications?
• Why am I saying all this?
• Do I need to enable something to receive remote notifications?
• Curious...Can you tell me what should my payload look like?
• OK Got it. What is content-available?
• I know you told me that I can only download something into my app when I'm using silent notifications, but is there way that I can also wake my app up in the background AND download something for remote notifications?
• I'm confused about remote notifications...I thought whenever I get a notification...my app becomes active in the background and downloads something...can you explain?

Additionally I've used the word CAVEAT to cover some edge cases.

My point is really try to get in the readers head and think of what meta subjects could come to their mind.

(I do believe the question was a bit broad, but nonetheless the logic still applies)

Some more obvious suggestions:

When you need to separate between subjects use horizontal line like below,

Also whenever needed use <sub></sub> for adding subscripts. I sometimes use it to add the reference of a quote.

Don't add super big size images. You can change its size with a single click. See here.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Honey‭

5 reputation 0 1 1 0

I try to always answer in 3 paragraphs whenever possible. Less is often too little for a substantive answer, and more becomes less and less likely for people to read. The first paragraph should always be the most direct answer to the main question in the original post, as asked, with a minimum of editorializing. It should generally cite a reputable source, with a link, but also recapitulate the information that is linked. Sometimes I will boldface a key idea, no more than one per paragraph at the most. The most important thing is to remember that this is audience-oriented, persuasive/informative writing, it must be simultaneously substantive, useful and compelling.

My second paragraph is a place to expand on my answer, or to answer the question that I really think should have been asked, instead of the one that actually was asked. Even when doing so, however, I think it's important to treat every question as legitimate, as reasonable and as asked in good faith (otherwise you shouldn't be answering it). It's also important to NOT make the querent feel stupid or ignorant for not having your level of knowledge. Quite often it's not the content that makes for a highly upvoted answer, it's the structure and the tone.

Does it even make sense to ask for "the" way to write SE answers, since they are all so different? I do think there are some generally useful structures that aren't content-area specific. For example, if I want to criticize the question itself or offer original or controversial ideas, I reserve those for the last paragraph. I've found that the very same things that enrage people, or cause them to dismiss an answer when contained in the first paragraph, are often accepted without comment in the last paragraph, especially if they are clearly labeled as "original" or "editorial." It's worth noting that the exact same conceptual content can garner very different reactions, depending on how it is presented, and in what order. Finally, I nearly always revise frequently, and to do my best to accept all critiques in the comments non-defensively, and to respond to them productively (generally through revisions).

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Chris Sunami‭

1355 reputation 13 171 261 0

Some of the advice given in answers here is very sketchy. People keep saying that they try to make their answers as brief and as short as possible. However, the Stack Exchange guidelines in the help center are pretty clear about the place of brevity in a Stack Exchange answer:

Any answer that gets the asker going in the right direction is helpful, but do try to mention any limitations, assumptions or simplifications in your answer. Brevity is acceptable, but fuller explanations are better.

Writing purposefully short answers is the opposite of what people should be doing, particularly on subjective sites where, again, the official guidelines advise that answers to subjective questions should be "long, not short."

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Answering Stuff‭

5 reputation 0 1 1 0

If I answer late, I only answer if I can think of something not already said. With an exception for things said, but I think poorly, or weighted with unnecessary baggage. I +1 anything said that I would have also said, unless that answer includes something I definitely disagree with.

For normally answered questions, recently posted, I have no definite structure. I am a discovery writer, for starters, and my approach to teaching has been successful and loosely structured: I figure out what the student is thinking, where they are going wrong, and address that issue.

I don't think it makes a difference what the subject is: Student's asking questions, especially things I'd expect them to know, have some fundamental misunderstanding that needs to be corrected. Sometimes that is shallow, sometimes it is deep.

So my objective is always to see if I can find what is probably their fundamental misunderstanding about the mechanics of writing, or science, or culture. I take my best guess at what are they missing about writing something entertaining, why they had to ask the question, and I address that.

I only tie it back to some kind of fundamental if I think they have a fundamental misunderstanding. If they just aren't clear about something fairly simple, I'll just clear that up.

So my structure depends on that. Headings don't hurt, but might be silly in a few paragraphs. Citation links don't hurt, but I may not have any, or cannot quickly find what I am looking for.

Quotes from existing publications might help, but preferably only if I can cut and paste them from somewhere.

Original examples might help, if I can think of something fairly short.

I am a discovery writer, I do not write from an outline or template. I do revise, I will often write a fairly lengthy answer and in the process realize what the headline answer should be, and go back and stuff it in, and perhaps rewrite and rearrange to make that the central idea of my response.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Amadeus‭

3166 reputation 2 1399 614 37

I like Secespitus' answer, and I also like Sphennings' point about actually answering the question. But I didn't see an answer which combined those two things, and addressed everything I've found important. So I'll write that answer.

Answer the Question

Not to steal any thunder from sphennings, but I believe this is probably the most important criteria for providing answers. It seems like an obvious rule, but I can fairly consistently find answers which do not answer the question, and instead explain how the OP should in fact be asking something else, or go in a different direction. While potentially quite helpful, these answers also assume the OP hasn't considered all the options. This is a problem when what they talk about is in fact something the OP is already aware of, and knows won't work.

A better practice would be to ask in a comment if the OP has considered X, Y, or Z. If not, and if X, Y, or Z would solve the problem, then post it as an answer. As leftaroundabout pointed out in his comment below, a likely better practice would be to open your answer by actually answering the question, and then explain why you think that answer isn't what the OP is really after. If they've considered that option, then you've already answered the question above. And if not, then your answer will likely help them, not to mention anyone else in the future who might have the same question.

Clarity

Next to answering the question, it is imperative that the OP can read the answer. This obviously starts with basic writing skills and a knowledge of English grammar, but extends to the use of headers and things like a tl;dr section.

Headers are great for breaking up long answers, as they make it a lot easier to read, and also easier to go back and check a particular section. Secespitus had a great point about getting to the answer quickly, and if that's not an option, a tl;dr at the top is a great addition. Instead of a tl;dr, I will sometimes simply supply a 'short answer', often only one word long, and then label the rest of my answer as my 'long answer'.

Be detailed

As Mark pointed out, answers coming in late on a hot question are usually buried under all the early answers and not seen as much. This certainly doesn't happen 100% of the time, as Todd Wilcox pointed out, but it does happen, especially on hot questions where there are lots of answers, and where those answers have at least 3 or so upvotes. Those two things tend to keep your answer at the bottom of the pile.

However, that doesn't mean that you should rush to create your answer. We're after quality here, so that's what you should deliver. I'll often be the first to spot a question, but because I take a long time to write my answer, I've seen as many as three answers come in while I'm writing. This has happened on this question, in fact.

The truth is that a lot of those quick answers are pretty short. They aren't wrong, but they also aren't as detailed as a longer quality answer. They don't take the time to fully explain a concept, and possibly even illustrate it. You can sacrifice being first for having better quality. It consistently gets my answer accepted.

These are the main criteria I adhere to. There are some obvious ones, like know what you are talking about, but I figure that those go without saying.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Thomas Myron‭

1163 reputation 133 98 143 10

Structure your answer properly

This is something that is relevant across all sites. You should be used to markdown and know at least the basics:

• Using headings
• Paragraphs and soft linebreaks
• lists
  1. numbered
  2. and unnumbered

Put your most relevant points in the start and make them bold so that people will know at a first glance whether they share your opinion or not. Don't post a wall of text without any highlights and breaks. If you prefer not to use bold text and headings that is okay on most sites as long as you use paragraphs.

Know what you are talking about

If you don't know what you are talking about people will see through your lies quite fast. There are many experts and using false data or drawing false conclusions will be detected quite fast. This is especially true on very specialised sites, such as for example StackOverflow, but you will also find experts about any topic that you are talking about on sites like WorldBuilding.

Get to the point fast

Most sites prefer to get to the point as fast as possible and not beat around the bush. There are differences though. For example on WorldBuilding many people love to read stories. If you phrase your answer in a in-universe or in-character style you can basically talk as long as you want. On technical sites like StackOverflow people don't have the time to read through long texts. Writing is probably somewhere in between as people spend a bit more time on reading in general and normally don't have a problem that needs to be fixed now.

Adhere to traditional styles

On RPG you can find that many people reference guides and rules in a specific style, by mentioning the book name and page number and then using the citation markdown with added emphasis on the names of an ability/ rule/ ... and the important words on which they focus later.

Know the most important problems

On RPG, especially when talking about D&D, there is always the option to say "the DM decides". It's a non-sensical answer if you have spent time on the site as it's always applicable - the gamemaster can always change anything. That is not the kind of answers people are looking for. They want rules. Rulings can be made by anyone. Answers only referencing the option to make a ruling as the DM will get downvoted. But answers who explain why they would rule a certain way can get highly upvoted, as that is important information.

Adhere to standards about your tags

On WorldBuilding you should keep in mind that the square-cube law is not your friend when designing big creatures. The bigger, the more muscles and more dense bones are required, making the weight a bigger problem, which is why animals are capped at certain points in size. You know this rough rule if you spend some time looking through creature-design questions. It's an easy way to answer, but most of the time people expect more, as it's basically the same as "The DM can decide" on RPG. You have to discuss the ramifications of this usual problem. But it's nearly always a part that needs to be discussed, so you should spend some time explaining it.

Know the resources

SFF has a lot of story-identification questions and they have a long list of questions that you should try to answer as best as you can if you want to ask such a question. That also means that these are important things to keep in mind when answering. Furthermore you have to discuss every matching and mis-matching point in your answer. So knowing the standard things that are discussed makes it easier to compile a standard answer for story-identification questions.

Use pictures where appropriate

On WorldBuilding people love pictures. Especially sketches. If you have useful pictures you can easily get a highly voted answer. It's not always applicable, but on a theoretical and creative site like WorldBuilding it's far easier to use sketches to your advantage to illustrate your ideas, than on a technical site like StackOverflow where you need actual code or a site like Writing where you need citations or citation markdown for example phrases.

Know the site - and go through a trial and error phase with each one

Every site, and often every tag, has individual properties that you have to get used to. It takes some time and you will make mistakes. As long as you format your answer properly and know what you are talking about you should be fine on most sites, but getting to know the site and tags is important for high quality answers that are well-received across the wider community.

Adhere to the criteria and put them at the end together with other resources

As of writing this I have:

• ~8k rep on WorldBuilding
• An answer with 89 upvotes on WorldBuilding about How would it make sense that spellbooks or grimoires teach only one spell?
• ~2.6k rep on Writing
• An answer with 32 upvotes on Writing about Is it a bad idea to have multiple bad endings and only one good ending?
• Other high-rep sites are RPG (with ~3k rep) and SFF (with ~2k rep)
• A total of ~17k rep across the network

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Secespitus‭

560 reputation 9 193 105 11