Comments on: Writing Good ‘Meaning’ Questions http://english.blogoverflow.com/2012/09/writing-good-meaning-questions/ The English Language & Usage Stack Exchange Blog Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:12:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.6 By: J.R. http://english.blogoverflow.com/2012/09/writing-good-meaning-questions/#comment-1666 Mon, 03 Sep 2012 23:29:01 +0000 http://english.blogoverflow.com/?p=423#comment-1666 Good advice all the way through, but I wouldn’t want anyone to be too intimidated by your definition of “too localized”. (Yoichi is rather well-known for running across a phrase or euphemism in a mainstream news publication, and inquiring about the usage of that phrase in everyday language. Many of these have been exemplary questions.)

So, if anyone runs across an odd or unfamiliar term, and would like to ask about it, but fear the question might fall under the “too localized” umbrella, here’s what I would recommend:

(1) Be very thorough in explaining where you found the phrase. Give full context. (2) Don’t just ask what the phrase means; inquire about its general usage in everyday language. (3) If the question does get closed, don’t take that as an insult or an attack, and don’t be discouraged. Just because one question was deemed too localized doesn’t mean the next question will be closed as well. Learn, improve, and try again.

I’ll offer example of a question that could have been construed as “too localized,” yet it was embraced by the community as a whole, in part because it was presented very thoroughly and methodically:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/80416/what-does-safety-net-in-the-coffin-mean

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