"I have no idea what to do" - How do you respond to self-study questions by users who are completely lost?

Question

It seems very common for someone to ask a homework question along with some variant of the phrase "I am completely lost" or "I have no idea what to do", and therefore violating the guideline that self-study questions should include some effort on behalf of the student.

What if the student genuinely has no idea how to begin/approach the problem? Obviously this is often the fault of the student for not paying attention in class, but in this instance are we just supposed to move on and let the question die if they don't understand hints?

How are we supposed to answer questions by students who are completely out of their depth?

Answer 1

This answer might be contrary to official opinion/community consensus on SE, but I still think that there are a few options.

If you have some energy and willingness to work with what might even be a defensive, frustrated, or unmotivated student, then perhaps the following might be helpful.

1. In the comments section demand to know the source of the problem, statements of definitions of major terms, and perhaps what is making the problem difficult/challenging/interesting.

2. Provide in the comments a quick hint ("if $f(x) \in X$ and $X \subseteq Y$, then $f(x) \in Y$. Can you see why this helps?")

3. Direct OP to similar questions (these "no clue" types are usually duplicates) and ask that they respond as to whether or not the other answers were helpful.

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In general, I'd say one of the three methods works roughly $40$ percent of the time. Usually at further solicitation, OP will mumble something (usually wrong) in the comments section, at which point you can ask them to put it in their original question. If that doesn't work, then you gave it your best and you can "let the question die."

If you choose to give a full solution, I think that it's worth mentioning that the solution is probably only useful for future readers. It adds to the collection of problems/solutions on the website. Depending on how highly you estimate the utility of this, it might be worth doing. I've done it if I find the problem interesting for whatever reason and wanted to share my solution. (I'm not a mathematician, but a student, so I don't think that's so evil.)

Answer 2

One thing I like to do is say "Let's see if we can help without giving you the answer, which won't really help anyone." I then suggest that they type in the definition of the relevant terms, and I tell them how to do so, namely "You can add this by clicking on the word 'edit' just below your question." I sometimes also indicate that we'd like this for two reasons: to reinforce their knowledge of the definition, and to let us know what definition they're using.

Today, for instance, someone asked a question about proving something was a binary operation on a group, and when pressed for a definition of "binary operation" said "commutative, associative, closed." I personally suspect that "commutative" wasn't really part of the definition, but it gave a starting point for useful discussion of how to approach such problems.