Best practices for editing questions

Question

I would like us to collect best practices for editing questions.

Particularly, how should one know when a rephrased question is worth another attempt, and how should one proceed when making revisions? What editing techniques make it more likely that a question will be better received by the community?

Answer 1

Although your question phrased as if it's about editing, it's really about asking questions. After all, by wanting what gets a question reopened, you're asking for what differentiates a good question from a bad one.

I covered this in detail in the past, but here's what's usually the key point:

• Put energy in summarizing the position you're skeptical of. Quoting the exact claim is the surefire and laziest way to do it, but a solid summary is just as good. The idea is to give enough information to the readers so that they understand what you want them to fact-check.

If people have to guess what you mean, you have not done a good job writing (or rewriting) the question. The question must be very clear, to anyone reading it. Most of us can't read minds.