prepare-a-seminar-question

name	prepare-a-seminar-question
category	school
description	Prepare a seminar question grounded in a specific claim, passage, method, tension, or implication. Use when discussion should move beyond summary without becoming performative.

prepare-a-seminar-question

Ask something the group can investigate together.

When to use

• Use for seminars, reading groups, workshops, guest talks, or peer discussions.
• Do not disguise an accusation, speech, or unsupported premise as a question.

Preconditions

• Read the assigned material and note exact pages, passages, claims, methods, and uncertainties.

Procedure

1. Choose one consequential tension, assumption, omission, method, or implication.
2. Write the source anchor before the question.
3. Draft an open question with more than one plausible answer.
4. Remove jargon, stacked clauses, autobiographical preambles, and answer-leading language.
5. Add one short follow-up that asks for evidence or connection.
6. Check that participants can answer from shared material or clearly named experience.
7. Read it aloud and shorten it until the central inquiry is clear.

Failure plan

• If the question depends on missing context, supply the minimum neutral context.
• If it could expose private experience, offer a text-based route to discussion.

Worked example

After citing a text’s claim that efficiency is neutral, the student asks which distributional choices disappear when the author measures only aggregate time saved.

Done

• A seminar-question note records the source anchor, open question, and evidence-seeking follow-up
• Shared-context, neutrality, clarity, privacy, and read-aloud checks verify that the question can support discussion