# How to ask a question to the topic? [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:

Many of my questions are marked off topic. This was extremely hard question and supposed to be done without any graphic calculator. It was voted off topic. It appears to me if I can't move at least two steps on questions solution it will be marked off topic for sure There are many others like this.

## marked as duplicate by amWhy, Shailesh, Simply Beautiful Art, user223391, XamNov 29 '17 at 17:56

• To add to what @Martin Sleziak said regarding missing context/details, I notice that here you said "supposed to be done without any graphic calculator", but in the question itself you did not say anything about graphing calculators. As for moving at least two steps, I notice you identified that one of the constraints might produce domain restrictions, but you didn't say anything about the other square root. Maybe you didn't know how to get anywhere with it, but you could at least have set up something like "inside of big square root $\geq 0$" (in symbols, of course). – Dave L. Renfro Nov 26 '17 at 18:34
• Incidentally, I agree the problem is hard, or at least it seems hard. In fact, outside of math contest settings, it seems to me a rather poor problem because it is so removed from standard trigonometric and precalculus-function skills. Without having tried to work it, I suspect the cotangent addition angle formula might be of use, for what that's worth. (moments later) I just now noticed that someone gave a (full?) solution making use of the tangent addition angle formula. – Dave L. Renfro Nov 26 '17 at 18:38
• I will also add that I understood your question as a general question and the linked post merely as an example of general situations. If you wanted to ask specifically about the ways to improve this particular question, you should probably make this clear in the question and also you should use (specific-question) tag (see the tag-info for detailed description of this tag). – Martin Sleziak Nov 27 '17 at 5:48
• Hm, you can't even plug in a few values from each domain to check their validity? – Simply Beautiful Art Nov 27 '17 at 15:16
• @Simply Beautiful Art: Good point! (pun intended) Looking at it this way, the problem becomes a matter of identifying, for each potential domain offered, a point belonging to that potential domain and belonging to none of the others. Thus, while content soundness of the problem might be difficult to verify, the test-taker difficulty of the problem is more straightforward, and the problem will be a poor test of the skills for which the problem was designed (or at least, different skills will be conflated if one tries to analyze the results for a group of students). – Dave L. Renfro Nov 27 '17 at 18:44
• Yes, but that is the case for most multiple choice problems @DaveL.Renfro – Simply Beautiful Art Nov 27 '17 at 18:53
• Below the answer you received, you wrote: "I posted the question as it is from the book.[And nothing more.] So What is the answer?" (brackets mine). We are not here to "do your work for you", Kislay. We're here to work with you, and since you provided no motivation for the question, no effort, no thoughts, nothing, you earned the closure of your question as "off-topic: lacking context". – amWhy Nov 28 '17 at 2:02
• @amWhy What if i know nothing about how to approach that particular question. It doesn't mean that I don't know anything at all.You can check that i have posted several answers on the topic of Domain and range.It just that particular question that blown me away in such a way that I just couldn't .The question is still unsolved.You guys say i did not mention graphic calculator restriction,when i have given four options that means it comes from a math competition where mostly graphic calculators are not allowed.Its not only about the particular question. – Kislay Tripathi Nov 28 '17 at 5:39
• @amWhy this behavior of other reputed users says that if i know nothing about a question i should not post it here. – Kislay Tripathi Nov 28 '17 at 5:41
• I see that you have now retagged your question with the tag (specific-question). I have posted my answer assuming that you are asking this in general and not about this particular question. If you wish that I delete my answer let me know - however I cannot delete it while it is the accepted answer. – Martin Sleziak Nov 28 '17 at 7:07
• "What if i know nothing about how to approach that particular question. It doesn't mean that I don't know anything at all." Precisely! And how can we help you if you don't tell us what you do know? That is the context you are supposed to provide when you post a question! "You can check that i have posted several answers on the topic of Domain and range." No one is going to do this – no one is going to put in that kind of effort to find out what you should have told us in the first place. – Gerry Myerson Nov 28 '17 at 11:52

If you look at your question, you can see there the following banner (which was added after it was put on hold):

This question is missing context or other details: Please improve the question by providing additional context, which ideally includes your thoughts on the problem and any attempts you have made to solve it. This information helps others identify where you have difficulties and helps them write answers appropriate to your experience level.

Notice that "improve the question" is a link. If you click on it, you get to this page: How to ask a good question. It contains plenty of useful information. The part "Provide Context" explains what is expected to be included as "context". Some discussion about what can be understood as context is given also in this answer: Can we stop the “Show your work craze”?

You wrote: If can't move at least two steps on a question it will be tagged as off topic. Certainly, showing your own work is one possibility how to add context. But, as you can see from the above links, it is not the only one. And you can even add you own work later, if you get some hints in the comments. (If your question is put on hold, the first edit after that puts it into reopen review queue. For the exact conditions when this happens see this answer.)

Specifically for some of the questions you have been asking, it would be nice if you provided source of the question. (Quite often you just write "the book" or you don't mention any source at all.) You also include several possibilities in your questions as possible answers. It would be useful to clearly state whether you need to be able to solve the question or whether it is from some test where it is enough to choose correct answer, but you have to do this quickly. (Sometimes noticing that three of four possible answers cannot be correct might be easier way to find the correct answer - so if you are guaranteed that at least one of the answers is correct, you should mention this information to the answerers.)

Notice that there is also a chatroom Constructive feedback with this description: "You can get feedback for questions, answers and comments, if you are honestly receptive to feedback." So this might also be a reasonable place where to ask for suggestions how to improve the question.

• Although I am mostly repeating the same stuff I have already mentioned in chat, I hope this can be considered at least partial answer to your question. – Martin Sleziak Nov 26 '17 at 18:17