Questioning Strategy

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Questioning Strategy for Responding to Readings
What is a Questioning Strategy?
After you’ve chosen a topic, the Questioning Strategy is a kind of brainstorming activity
that helps you:
• see connections between the details of a topic and the larger spheres of
culture surrounding it
• see what is interesting and memorable about the topic
• write a Guiding Question

The Guiding Question
All good writing starts as a process of inquiry. By focusing the rest of your planning on
answering the Guiding Question, your writing will have a purpose and will help prevent
you from wandering off-topic.
Directions for the Questioning Strategy:
The QS chart is made of four different categories. You can start adding details in any
category.
Experiencing the Text: In this category, summarize or quote directly from the text the
points that strike you as compelling or important. You may also give a personal reaction
to the text here.
My Values: In this category, investigate your own values in relation to the
experience/summary/quote given.
Cultural Narratives and Sources: Here, think of the bigger picture. What are the larger
cultural forces that shape the content of the text and your experience of it? What is/are the
source/s of your values? Consider how the many elements of culture may impact your
understanding of the text. Consider how your own group identity may be a factor in your
understanding.
Dissonance: The purpose of all good writing is to engage with some kind of problem,
issue or question of expectations. Consider how you experience the text and how it may
clash with your values or cultural experiences. Or, consider how the text sheds a new
light on your experiences, values, or cultural expectations.

Your QS chart will look something like this: NOT SHOWN. Notice that items are related in each row.


Writing the Guiding Question
After listing several experiences with corresponding values, etc, write a list of Guiding
Questions. Pay close attention to your Dissonance column – all good writing is about
dissonance.Write questions that explore:
• what compels you to write about this topic.
• what puzzles you about this topic.
• what you want to know more about.
Select one Guiding Question for the rest of your inquiry. Put this question at the top of all
subsequent planning stages.
Criteria for Guiding Questions:
• open-ended (not yes/no)
• not blaming or leading
• reflects dissonance
• is an exploration of interesting experiences, values, and/or cultural narratives
Examples of Guiding Questions from the inquiry above:
How can I resolve my admiration of Thoreau’s independence and criticism with my own
pragmatism concerning the role of government?
In what ways does Thoreau’s treatise on civil disobedience inform us today about issues
like the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina?