R. Clayton (rclayton@monmouth.edu)
(no date)
Is a file without tags valid?
Yes, a file may have zero tags. I've updated the assignment page to make that
clear.
Is following valid?
<afdfdsfsd
<a> </a>
I don't know. What do you think?
This last question is an example of what I call an oracle question. An oracle
question generally has the form of a specific example requiring a yes-no
answer. The reason I dislike oracle questions is because they transfer very
little information in either direction. I, as the presumed oracle, know
what the questioner is asking, but I don't have any idea why the questioner is
asking it (which is what I, as the presumed instructor, am really interested
in). The questioner gets back a yes-no answer (if the oracle isn't too cranky,
as apparently he was here) with no knowledge of why the answer is yes or no.
The easiest way to fix an oracle question is to also describe the real problem
you're having with the example. For example, in its original form, the first
question asked was almost an oracle question:
Is the following a valid file
abcde
efghi
jklmn
that is, a file without tags?
Here the last part, starting with "that is" saves this question from being an
oracle question because it describes what the questioner's real problem is.
Note that I'm not saying it's bad to include examples in questions - it's not;
in fact, it's good to have examples in questions. What I'm saying is that it's
almost always bad to have a question that is entirely an example with no other
explanation.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Mon May 03 2004 - 17:00:06 EDT