Is there a shorter and more opinionated version of "How to ask a good question?" that we can direct new users to?

Question

The advice in how to ask a good question is good, but reading through the whole thing takes a while and, IMHO, requires some familiarity with the site to interpret. It also presents the reader with choices in many places. For example, describing your own background is suggested by one answer as a way of providing context for a question, but isn't required.

Is there a shorter and, ideally, more opinionated guide for asking a good question, especially one tailored to new users?

Answer 1

Because

• solving your immediate mathematical problem is secondary to this website's goal of being a repository of high-quality, useful, searchable mathematical Q&A,

and because

• you want to help readers to formulate an appropriate Answer for you (points #5 to #8),

here are some guidelines for attracting Answers:

Advice	Examples and comments
1 Please use MathJax! Tutorial | Reference $$ \rule{10em}{0em} %this is to space the table out in portrait mode on mobile. sorry for the hack$$	Not readable:   x = [-b+/-sqrt(b^2-4ac)]/2a Not searchable:   Good:   $\large x=\frac{-b\pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}$
2 Give a concisely descriptive title.	Bad: “Isn't my book doing this math about differentiation wrongly?” For technical reasons, purely MathJax titles are probably a bad idea, however, do use MathJax as appropriate.
3 Avoid creating a duplicate Question: after writing a title, check through the auto-generated list of Similar questions.	More on searching
4 Do pay attention to paragraphing and punctuation. Get to the point quickly, giving details after the “punchline”.	Be considerate of your reader; Questions that are easier to read attract more Answers. This is somewhat of an essay-writing skill, but no more so than writing any request for assistance.
5 Explain what motivated the problem, and give its source.	E.g., “This equation arose while modelling the physical phenomenon of...”, “In Generatingfunctionology by H. Wilf, 2nd ed., p. 234...”, “In Question 3b of the 2021 International Mathematical Olympiad...” If your Question relates to or continues from a previous post on this site, please link to it.
6 If relevant, describe your level of mathematics education.	E.g., “We've just proved Heine-Borel, so perhaps we need to use it”, “I took a year of undergraduate mathematics in the UK including a computational linear algebra module, but it's been a decade since I've...”
7 Show or summarise your attacks at the problem.	Make a serious attempt at solving the problem, and showing your work in excruciating detail is better than not showing your work.
8 Be specific about, or at least narrow down, what you're struggling with.	Bad: “How to solve this?” with no further context Good: “Why does the proof fail in $3$ dimensions?” Pose questions that (in principle) can be answered authoritatively.
9 Type out key parts of the Question. Don't require users to click on an external link; supplemental links are fine.	Also see Point #1 above. If an illustration is necessary, please embed it (requires 10 reputation points though).
10 Proofread for typos and ambiguities.	Taking a 5-minute break then re-reading your post out loud may be helpful.

NB: This table was initially built off How to avoid downvotes for beginners' Questions.

Other opinions:

11. Some questions of a more exploratory type aren't so suited here, even if they follow the advice above or elsewhere. For instance, "Here's something I created (e.g., I generalised a definition) Is it useful?". If you don't know if it is useful, asking "Has this been done before?" is also bad. Perhaps consider writing a blog.

12. There are certain topics that generate a bad kneejerk reaction here on Math.SE, due to e.g., a certain math video going viral (or even Getting Things Wrong). In my experience, these are usually questions on Logic, open problems, and divergent series (beyond merely proving divergence). In these types of questions, you should distance yourself from the popsci and address the actual mathematical problem (in particular, be very rigourous). If you must ask directly about the popsci, consider if somewhere else like the more informal Mathematics chatroom, or a math-related part of reddit is more appropriate.