Writing good paragraphs

In order to write good paragraphs in academic writing, there are some key components that we need to address. Inger Mewburn (2021) put out a blog post in December last year, drawing on the work of Booth et al (2016), highlighting a few hacks for PhD students writing their theses.

Some of the principles hold true for undergraduate writing: we just need simpler examples. So I decided to pull out six of the elements from the Booth et al (2016) book, to create a short post on the components we need to cover when writing strong, self-explanatory and well-evidenced paragraphs. If we can understand the following components (Booth et al., 2016), our writing will improve:

1. Warrant. Our first sentence is our topic sentence, which "establishes a reason to support the claim and prepares the reader for the content that will appear in the paragraph" (Lumen Learning, 2017). This is "the principle that lets [us] connect [our] reason and claim" (p. 117)
2. Claim. This is our "assertion" for which we need to show our evidence. Our claim can be one sentence (which is easier for readers to follow), or several. The main thing is that we stay focused on supporting our claim in our paragraph, anchoring our writing around answering this claim.
3. Reason. This is our 'because' statement. We connect our claim to a broad-ish principle.
4. Evidence. This is the specific data or facts that we offer to prove our claim.
5. Acknowledgement. These are alternatives, opposing views, or questions which we cannot yet answer which we need to explain in the paragraph in order to present a balanced view.
6. Response. This is how we respond to the variables which either strengthen or weaken our paragraph claim.

Then we pull these ideas together, and use the model from Booth et al. (2016, p. 117), we get the following:

It is surprisingly difficult to write this way, but it does help to see a simple example.

Sam

References:

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M., Bisup, J., & FitzGerald, W. T. (2016). The Craft of Research (4th ed.). The University of Chicago Press.

Lumen Learning (2017). Warrant. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/olemiss-writ250/chapter/warrants/

Mewburn, I. (1 December 2021). Writing as an imaginary conversation with your reader. Thesis Whisperer. https://thesiswhisperer.com/2021/12/01/imaginaryconversationsinwriting/

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Covid-19 and the New Zealand response

I was invited by an asker to answer a question on Quora recently: People that live in or have visited New Zealand during the pandemic, what are they doing differently compared to other countries to have such a handle on COVID? (Ronald, 8 October, 2020).

An interesting question that started me thinking about what we are able to do differently here in Aotearoa compared to other nations.

From what I understand, Taiwan still has the market cornered on having most effective Covid-19 response: with a population of 24m, they have had just over 500 cases, at a test rate of 4,000/1m population. What has been a game changer for them is that they have a phone tracker app. As pretty much all payments are made in Taiwan using phones, if people go out, their movements are monitored from their phones. The Taiwanese also allocated enough police resources to immediately track people breaking quarantine. This meant that spread in Taiwan was contained very, very quickly. Recidivist quarantine breakers were locked into their apartments or imprisoned.

I don’t think that approach would have suited Kiwi culture, and neither did we have (a) the police resources, nor (b) traceability via phones, nor (c) the phone payment technology. Not a go for us, then.

However, Aotearoa New Zealand does have some element of our early pioneering spirit, and a more collective culture than Australia, the USA, or the UK (Hofstede, 1980, 1984, 1994, 2001; House et al., 2004). Our government (a) had time before the crisis hit us to plan, (b) took the advice of scientists, and (c) were able to plan before our first infectious case was imported. Kiwis saw what would be good for our community, and did it. NZ’s strategy was public information, using people’s goodwill and understanding to do what had to be done for society’s benefit. We knew how we needed to behave for public safety, and - once the virus was detected in our community - we locked down and followed the rules in the first wave. This brought infections under control relatively quickly, as we ramped up testing, and learned new ways to protect each other. We dumped elective surgery to make hospital room for a potential avalanche of cases (not required, as it turned out). We watched what was happening overseas and applied what seemed to be working.

In the second wave, most of the people who were caught flouting the Covid regulations were either those newly returned to the country, or newly independent young people (16s to mid 20s). Our numbers are still only 1850-ish infections for a 5m population, with only 5 deaths, and testing at a rate of 200,000/1m population.

Why we were able to lockdown, twice in Auckland's case, is because New Zealand - like Taiwan, the UK, and China - is a single ‘state’. The Government of the day can act under emergency powers without the complication of state and federal legislature contretemps. We have seen, from the sidelines, how the state/federal divide adds unneeded complication in Australia and the US. Our simplicity of Government has worked in our favour.

We have a lot to be thankful for which was purely serendipitous. We have a left-leaning Labour party in coalition with a Green party, which made for protective and socially-focused government. The government planning response was collaborative. We have a current Prime Minister who takes a collaborative approach to leadership. We have a superb Director General of Health. We had a microbiologist and journalist whose voice was heard clearly about hygiene. The media suddenly stopped 'infotainment' and became journalists again.

And another couple of final points. Like Taiwan, New Zealand is an island, so border controls are simpler to implement than in nations with land borders. Cross-border importation was our main source of Covid-19 cases. Both nations are relatively small. Many other nations do not have the luxury of that simplicity.

We can congratulate ourselves on our good response to the virus, but we should not be too smug. Luck, the simplicity of our government, and our geography also had a large part to play.

Sam

References:

• Hofstede, G. H. (2001). Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Hofstede, G. H. (1994). Uncommon sense about organizations: cases, studies, and field observations. SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Hofstede, G. H. (1984). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values (Abridged Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Hofstede, G. (1980). Cultures Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. SAGE Publications, Inc.
• House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., & Gupta, V. (Eds.). (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. SAGE Publications, Inc.
• New Zealand Government (5 October 2020). Unite Against Covid-19 Update [Tweet image]. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FEjheqCxU0AAiOKZ.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fcovid19nz&tbnid=Z9Bh-I_mW1fTmM&vet=12ahUKEwiX2p2pzKXsAhUTRysKHTDIASsQMyg0egQIARAd..i&docid=oN7dMIGvzcswiM&w=1200&h=675&q=New%20Zealand%20Covid-19&ved=2ahUKEwiX2p2pzKXsAhUTRysKHTDIASsQMyg0egQIARAd
• Ronald, J. (8 October 2020). People that live in or have visited New Zealand during the pandemic, what are they doing differently compared to other countries to have such a handle on COVID?. https://www.quora.com/People-that-live-in-or-have-visited-New-Zealand-during-the-pandemic-what-are-they-doing-differently-compared-to-other-countries-to-have-such-a-handle-on-COVID

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Creating a set of data collection questions

Data collection questions are largely created from the reading we have done for our literature review. From all the good quality research papers we have read, we should be starting to form a picture of how we too can answer our research question, using good quality research examples to help us to construct our questions, our strategy to ask our questions, and how we might analyse the data from the questions we ask.

The process that I like to use is:

· Download the template “03 Data Questions Framework v3.docx”, available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hIwdCTq0ro0RX5IsTeH0A8W22COyITh2/view?usp=sharing.

· Go through the research sources found in the literature review, and explore the methodology, to see what questions they asked which provided the same type of results you are seeking

· List all the questions that you may have to ask in the first column of the Data Questions Framework table then:

o detail what type of answer you want to get to this question in column 2

o add a citation for where this question has been used in previous research in column 3

o consider how you will analyse the data you get from this question in column 4

o map all the possible questions to its relevant research aim in column 5

o indicate that you have checked for sense, clarity, have proofed the question, and have checked that the instructions are clear in column 6

· Try to answer each of the elements above are detailed as fully as possible

· Keep adding questions to the framework until you will have potentially gathered enough data to answer your research question

· Refine the wording of each question, to make them all as clear and unambiguous as possible

· Reorganise the questions in what would be the most logical order to ask them

· Save this framework. Then create another copy, which you will edit further than the next step

· Before sending to your supervisor for review, check that:

o each question asked is a single question: i.e. one ’question’ does not contain three questions, for example: “What are your views on the work conditions for your current jobs? (e.g. working hours and pay) Are they different from your expectations? If so how?”. This should be split into three questions

o you do not have more than 15 questions overall for a one hour interview; you do not have more than 20 questions overall for survey

o you are not unintentionally asking the same things in different ways (we may intentionally ask the same thing in different ways to cross-check for validity)

o personal questions, such as demographics, are asked at the end of the data collection instrument.

This process seems to work well for students.

Sam

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PDF colours not displaying properly

For some time - probably since either a Windows 10 or an Adobe upgrade - I have not been able to view colour pdfs as they were created. I have discovered over time that this is actually two problems: one issue is that I cannot print pdfs in full colour, and the second is that pdfs which I open online display properly in colour in the web browser, but once I download them to my PC, they no longer display in full colour properly.

Every now and again, as I strike the problem, I go for a look for a fix for each. Recently I found a fix for the second problem; the "how to display pdfs in full colour properly" issue. It was a surprisingly easy fix. Simply open the document which is not displaying properly, go into File | Preferences | Accessibility. Then ensure that I"Replace Document Colors" is UNTICKED.

The problem goes away, just like that.

Now, I must admit, that Accessibility is NOT where I would have looked for pdf colour settings. The Adobe developers must have squirrelly brains like a pretzel.

The second issue is still proving elusive. I wish it was as easy to solve (five months and no fix).


Sam

• Reference: Paul V (7 July 2017). Certain colors not showing up in pdf when being preveiwed. https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/certain-colors-not-showing-up-in-pdf-when-being-preveiwed/td-p/9202522?page=1

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Research project skills

Ah: the things we don't know until we see how someone else has presented them! I have been reading Machin et al's (2019) book, "Transversing the Doctorate". Chapter 1 has a lovely section, where the chapter authors - Bautista and Escofet - cover five elements which they feel PhD candidates require if they are to complete their doctorates successfully.

Those five elements are (Machin et al, 2019, p. 18):

1. "Information: identify, locate, retrieve, store, organise and analyse digital information, judging its relevance and purpose". In other words, we can handle data, and we can turn it into information that adds value to our project.
2. "Communication: communicate in digital environments, share resources through online tools, link with others and collaborate through digital tools, interact with and participate in communities and networks, cross-cultural awareness". We can tell others about the data, and explain how we turned it into information, using expert evidence, in a way that is respectful and expansive.
3. "Content-creation: Create and edit new content (from word processing to images and video); integrate and re-elaborate previous knowledge and content; produce creative expressions, media outputs and programming; deal with and apply intellectual property rights and licences". We can fit that data and information into new frameworks, make it work in different environments, and see how other's work fits with our own. We can translate our research understanding into other fields.
4. "Safety: personal protection, data protection, digital identity protection, security measures, safe and sustainable use". We know how to protect those whom we have promised to protect, how to keep our own data safe, and can see what there is of value, and how that too can be protected as much as it needs to be.
5. "Problem-solving: identify digital needs and resources, make informed decisions as to which are the most appropriate digital tools according to the purpose or need, solve conceptual problems through digital means, creatively use technologies, solve technical problems, update one’s own and other’s competences". We can extrapolate situations to their logical conclusions, and develop appropriate contingency plans. We get a feel for what we don't know, and set out to either learn, acquire or contract in the skills and tools we need to complete our project. We know how to stay on track. We have planned what 'done' looks like, and can manage to that.

This is a broad, but solid group of skills. It is also easy to see how this fits into almost any aspect of our working lives.

Sam

• Reference: Machin, T. M., Clara, M., & Danaher, P. A. (2019). Traversing the Doctorate: Reflections And Strategies From Students, Supervisors And Administrators. Palgrave Macmillan.

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When pdf bookmarks are incomprehensible

One of the most useful things in pdfs is the ability to create bookmarks. They can be used as a document outline, highlights of key phrases, or to take me to important places.

All we need to do is to bring up the left-hand document navigation pane (F4 if you can't see it). then we simply highlighting the text we want to show in our bookmark, then click on the bookmark icon (that's the one that looks like the end of a ribbon).

Once we have created all our bookmarks, we can then move them around, and next them underneath each other to make a tree (you can also get a bit of free kit, thanks to keen volunteers, which allows us to print out a bookmarks list, which can be viewed here).

However, recently I got a new pdf, and started making my usual outline of the document... only to find that the font on each bookmark was gobbledygook. For some reason my computer was reading the font as something other than English, and was doing its best to make sense of it... and having an epic fail.

I went looking for a solution, but suspect that my wording or syntax was inadequate for the task, because I couldn't get a solution. I tried going into Edit, then selecting each object, and setting the font to Times New Roman (as it is so ubiquitous) but that didn't work either.

So I created a new file from the original, by printing to pdf. The file then had to be rescanned using OCR, and resaved. There is probably an easier way, but for now, at least, I can create my bookmarks.

Sam

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Review: Money Hacks by Lisa Rowan

Ah: finance. It can be the bane of our existence.

Books of financial tips can be extremely useful. I was quite pleased to see that my digital library service had a new book called "Money Hacks: 275+ Ways to Decrease Spending, Increase Savings, and Make Your Money Work for You!", a brand, spanking new book by Lisa Rowan, and available for loan. Just released in September, I thought that during Covid-19 was an ideal time to think about being prudent.

It was a quiet, rainy Sunday, and I settled in for a good read. Ah. Only to be disappointed in Hack 1, Avoid the Spending Trap!, with the promise that "you can strategize how to pull back. Think about breakfast the night before to avoid the morning rush. Send your friend a Venmo request for their share of the bill while you’re still sitting at the diner. Set an alarm on your phone so you don’t order 'just one more drink' after happy hour has ended. Head to the store after work—when you have less time to browse" (Rowan, 2020). I have none of these habits. If I am having dinner with someone we will have sorted out beforehand who is paying, and we pay at the register. I only shop when I need something. I don't eat breakfast, but have snacks already in my backpack. I definitely don't do happy hour before I drive home (in fact, I don't drive if I have even one drink). Oops, already feeling like I am the wrong demographic.

Hack 4 suggests using calendar entries to pay bills on time. Why make payments manually? Doesn't Lisa know about bank authorities and automatic payments? Hack 6 suggests that we use Kristin Wong's 10/10 rule, which is that if we want to buy something that is over $10, we wait ten minutes. If we still want it then, we buy it (Rowan, 2020). OK: I usually wait somewhere between a fortnight and six months before buying. Yep, Definitely the wrong demographic.

The coffee hack (7) that Lisa suggests feels Starbucks-oriented, carrying large denomination notes (10) unusual, using a store discount app unworkable (11), following brands (12) unlikely, and free shipping (14) impossible down here in the Antipodes. Membership clubs (19)... ah, we don't really have those unless you are a Farmlands member - which is totally the wrong demographic! What is 'overdraft protection' (30)? Who uses Venmo (33)? A little American-centric then. Adding on streaming services and subscriptions? Not possible in my universe.

Some were impossible in a cashless society: living cash-only (36). Some were silly: start a new hobby (39) - how will you fund the kit?! If you already have the kit, then it is not a new hobby... is it?

This was not going well. I persevered. Some hacks were good: when we go grocery shopping, don't use a trolley, only purchase what we can carry (16). Keep a notebook and list what you spend as you spend it (17), which might work... if we are disciplined enough to later review our spending. The Dan Ariely-inspired 'anti-goal' idea of having a set amount to spend on entertainment was good: that if we blow out on one line in that category, we sacrifice another (32). Set up a holiday account (34). Have a no-spend month (35). An impulsive supermarket shopper may benefit from getting groceries delivered to avoid rash purchases (43).

One entry was really telling, about framing a positive narrative (25): it appears that saying "I can’t afford that" is not something that Lisa thinks we can say. Perhaps she hasn't been to Uni: we all got very good at saying that we were discretionarily skint, and I have never lost that habit. Ah well. It now doesn't surprise me that the USA is the world's largest consumer of electricity, oil and consumer goods (OurWorldInData, 2020). If this book got a publishing contract, many Americans would appear to have appalling finance habits.

If you are one of the 7.5 billion who do not live in America, skip this book. If you live in the Antipodes, DEFINITELY skip the book, and join the Simple Savings website instead (https://www.simplesavings.com.au/).

Sam

References:

• Rowan, L. (2020). Money Hacks: 275+ Ways to Decrease Spending, Increase Savings, and Make Your Money Work for You! Adams Media
• OurWorldInData (2020). Energy use per person, 1965+. https://ourworldindata.org/energy

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How to finish a PhD

I watched an interesting vlog by Tara Brabazon (2016), providing ten tips for finishing a PhD, which I thought were quite a useful summary.

1. Planning is everything: "start with the end in mind" (Covey, 1989); predict and plan to meet likely challenges; have data by the end of the second year; assess your data; understand and explain the dataset including strengths, weaknesses and critique them; ensure there is time to cut away most problematic pieces of the work and therefore strengthen what remains.
2. Have clear priorities: our job is to write a PhD; everything else is secondary. But temper this with the next point...
3. It's ONLY a PhD: determine clear boundaries so we focus on what the job is, and getting it complete. Do not agonise about it not being perfect: done is better than perfect (after Mewburn, 2012). It is the first real piece of research we do, and our academic career starts after it.
4. Discuss feelings: talk about how we feel with partners, supervisors, peers. In particular, supervisors will have solutions that we - and those close to us who have not lived through this many times before - will not have thought of to help; but only if we let them in.
5. Check software, hardware, wetware: ensure the support systems work, regularly. Backup, backup, backup. Email a copy of our work to ourselves every week. Use version control.
6. Read University Regulations: ensure we understand ALL submission and IP requirements. Check that our document will fit those requirements. Ask questions. Ensure that there will be no surprises at submission. Treble-check dates.
7. Prioritise health: fitness, food, sleep. Use a diary to carve out time for health activities, use software, technology, relationships to ensure that the wetware does not fail.
8. Career planning: think past the end of the PhD programme. Talk to your supervisor about post-PhD publications, and next steps.
9. Build relationships: Again, take advice from our supervisors, our colleagues, our peers and our networks to ensure that we keep networking, building research partnerships, and keep connecting. Remember that only 30% of jobs are advertised.
10. Endings matter: finish our supervisory relationships well, so we have a long-term, professional academic relationship. Finish the PhD well, so we have a document we can be proud of. Finish the University relationship well, so they would have us back.

All good advice.

Sam

References:

• Brabazon, T. (9 September 2016). Vlog 24 - How to complete your PhD. https://youtu.be/yWT5z02zWgI
• Covey. S. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Franklin Covey [www.amazon.com ebook]
• Mewburn, I. (2012). How To Tame Your PhD. Thesis Whisperer Books [www.amazon.com ebook]

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Finding hidden Windows folders

For all of us who have been driven batty by: hidden Windows folders; by circuitous, arcane routes to installing software; or by hidden folders where we need to store a piece of kit to make an add-on work and stymied by not being able to find it; then this little shortcut should help!

Simply go to the Windows search box (beside the start button, as per the illustration accompanying this post), and key in:

%APPDATA%

Those pesky hidden personalised folder options will appear. Keying return will open the Windows Explorer folder.

That enables us to find whatever the software folder it is we are looking for. So easy, yet so hard to find when you need to.

Not any more though: we have it right here :-)

Sam

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Cleaning up Facebook activity

In July of this year I posted on how to delete our old Facebook activity (here), but Facebook themselves moved on with new platform updates. There is now more data, easily available, which we can dump from our profiles, such as old searches, and the videos we have watched.

Why? Getting rid of this information helps to reduce FBs ability to target advertising to us, or to 'accidently' have a data breach to a marketing company with our preferences et cetera.

In addition, the link to find our own FB activity is simpler. All we need to do is to log in to our Facebook account, copy the URL below, and simply replace the 'our-user-name' element of the URL with our Facebook user name, and we will be taken to a page which contains all our activity:

https://www.facebook.com/[our-user-name]/allactivity

Then simply scroll down the links in the LEFT-hand sidebar, as shown in the accompanying image, click on the post you want to delete, and a grey circle with horizontal menu dots will appear. Simply click on that, and you will see the options available for that particular piece of data. For example, if we hover over a 'like', then we will see an option to "Remove reaction".

To misquote Hill Street Blues - for those of you old enough to remember it - let's be invisible out there.

Sam

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Create a GoogleScholar alert

To be briefed regularly on what is happening in our fields, what I have done is to set up a GoogleScholar search on keywords I am interested in. I get emailed daily.

The process is pretty simple:

1. Be logged into your Google account
2. Run a search in GoogleScholar using Boolean search terms (e.g. Career+"Career Practice"+"New Zealand"; this will return any new entries which contain ALL of these terms; career, career practitioners, New Zealand will return any entries which contain any one of the four; "Career Career Practice New Zealand" will return only those which contain these four words in order).
3. On the left-hand side of the page you will see a link beside an envelope icon, "Create alert". Click the link
4. On the Alerts page, set up how many options you want to see each day (I set this for 20), and double check that the email is correct
5. Click "Create Alert"

Additionally, we can review our settings in our GoogleScholar profile here: https://scholar.google.co.nz/scholar_alerts?view_op=list_alerts&hl=en.

Done.

Sam

• Reference: Walden University (2020). How do I set up a search alert in Google Scholar?. https://academicanswers.waldenu.edu/faq/134432

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Finding an author on Quora

If you have ever answered a post on Quora, then you may understand my perplexity in trying to find the source author of Quora questions. I have spent ages trawling the site trying to find out just whom I am replying to. You would think it would be easy.

But no.

In fact, it is so complicated to find the information, that users are continuously asking how to do it. Lots of questions. It has been asked at least 286 times, phrased in slightly different ways, and Quora's AI has merged those questions into in ONE post:

1. How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
2. Why don't we see who wrote the question in Quora?
3. How can I get to know who asked the question on Quora?
4. How can you determine who asks a question on Quora?
5. How do I find a questioner on Quora?
6. Where do I find the name of the questioner in a Quora question?
7. How will I know who added the question on Quora?
8. How can I know who is the questioner on Quora?
9. How do you find out the questioner on Quora?
10. Often I see answers mentioning the name of the asker, but I only see the question. Where is that information?
11. Where can I see the question-asker on Quora?
12. How can I find the asker of a question on Quora?
13. How can I check the asker of a question on Quora?
14. How can I see the asker of the question on Quora?
15. Do people sometimes ask a question and answer it themselves? Where can we see the names of those who ask the questions on Quora?
16. How does one see who wrote a given (not anonymous) question?
17. How can I see who raised Questions on Quora?
18. How does one see who wrote a given (not anonymous) question?
19. How can I see who raised Questions on Quora?
20. How do I view the name of the person who raised the question on Quora?
21. How do you know the name of a person asking questions on Quora?
22. How do I see the name of the person asking the question on the Quora website (not on the mobile app)?
23. How can we see the names of who asks all these endless "beating a dead horse" questions?
24. How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
25. How do you tell who asked you a question on Quora?
26. Can anyone see who posted the question on Quora? If so, how? merged into How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
27. How do I see who is asking the question on Quora? I see the name and short bio of the person answering, but I never see the name of the person asking the original question.
28. When I see a question with an answer on Quora, how can I see who asked the question?
29. How can I see who posted the question in Quora?
30. How can we see who asked a question on Quora?
31. How do I see the person who has asked the question on Quora?
32. How do you see who has asked a question on Quora?
33. How can you see who posted the question on Quora?
34. How do you see who is asking the question on Quora?
35. How can you see who has asked the question?
36. How do you see who asked a question on Quora?
37. This might be pretty basic Quoraing, but how do I see who has asked a question?
38. How do you see who asked a question?
39. How do I see who has asked a question on Quora?
40. On Quora, how do you find out the name of the person who asked the question?
41. How can I see who has asked a question?
42. How do I find the person who asked question on Quora?
43. How do I see who has asked the question in Quora?
44. How do you find who has asked question on Quora if it's not anonymous?
45. Can I find out who added a question in Quora?
46. How do I find out who asked a question on Quora?
47. How do Quora users find out who asked a question?
48. Quora: How do I find out the name of a person who asked questions on Quora?
49. Where on Quora can I find who WROTE a question?
50. How can we see the person in Quora who wrote the question?
51. How do I know who wrote a question on Quora?
52. Can I, or can't I see who posted a Quora question? If affirmative, how do I go about that?
53. Feel like a newbie asking this, but how does one see the author of a question? I have never been able to see it, yet others seem able to track down who wrote a question.
54. How do you know who posted a question?
55. How do I know who it is that is asking a question I am viewing on Quora?
56. Assuming it wasn't asked anonymously, how do I find out the original writer of a Quora question?
57. How can I find out the author of a question on Quora?
58. How do I know who is the author of a question on Quora?
59. How do you find out who asked the question on Quora?
60. How can you see who is asking the question on this website?
61. Is there a way to see which user asked a question on Quora?
62. How do you see who the person was that asked a question on Quora?
63. How do you find out who asked a question in your Quora feed?
64. How can I see the writer of question in Quora?
65. December 2018. Can I, or can't I see who posted a Quora question?
66. How do we see who posted the question in Quora?
67. How can you see the author of a question on Quora?
68. If we see a particular question on Quora, then is there a way of checking who asked the question?
69. Assuming it wasn't asked anonymously, how do I find out the original writer of a Quora question?
70. In Quora, how do you know who ask a specific question?
71. How do you see who posted a question on Quora?
72. Where can I find the author of a question asked on Quora?
73. How can I know who posted the specific question on Quora?
74. How does one find the profile for the OP of a Quora question?
75. How do people identify the author of a question on Quora?
76. How do you tell who the author of a Quora question is?
77. How could we know the person posting the question on Quora?
78. How can I identify who asked a question on Quora?
79. Feel like a newbie asking this, but how does one see the author of a question? I have never been able to see it, yet others seem able to track down who wrote a question.
80. How do I identify the person who asked a Quora question?
81. What are some ways to find the owner of a question on Quora?
82. How can we know the name of the person asking question in Quora?
83. How do I find who asked a certain question on Quora?
84. How do I know who it is that is asking a question I am viewing on Quora?
85. On Quora, how do I find the author of a question when using the Android app?
86. How can you see the user who writes a question on Quora?
87. How do I find out who asked a certain question on Quora?
88. How do I know who is the original asker of a question at Quora?
89. How do you find the author of questions on Quora?
90. How do you know who posted a question?
91. How do I find out who asked the question on Quora?
92. Using an iPad with the Quora app, how can I tell who the questioner is?
93. How do I know who is the OP of a question?
94. How can I see who asked a given question?
95. How can I see a poster’s identity?
96. How do people know the names of the posters on Quora?
97. Can I know who asks me questions on Quora?
98. Is there a way to know who asked a question on Quora?
99. On Quora, how do I know who has asked/posted the question? merged into How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
100. Why doesn't Quora tell us who asked the question?
101. Do we see who questioned on Quora?
102. Can I find out who added a question in Quora?
103. May be a stupid question, as it may be a setting I have selected, but how does one see the author of a question here on Quora?
104. How do I find out who asked a question on Quora?
105. How can I determine who specifically posed a question on Quora?
106. How can I find out who asked a question on Quora?
107. How can you see who wrote a question on Quora?
108. How do I view an entire Quora question, such as who the asker is and what examples/pictures they use?
109. Why can I no longer find out who has written a question on Quora? 'Question stats' has disappeared.
110. How do I find out who posted a question?
111. How can I see who wrote a question on Quora?
112. Where do I see who asked the question on Quora?
113. How does one know who the person writing a question is, if it is not listed on the heading?
114. How do I check who asked a question on Quora?
115. How can I come to know who posted a question on Quora?
116. How do I see who wrote a question on Quora?
117. Is there a way to know the identity of those who post questions on Quora and if the questions are genuine?
118. How can you tell who wrote a specific question (click on question, but is there a 'written by' tab) on Quora?
119. How do you see who is asking a question on Quora?
120. Perhaps I'm an idiot, but how can I tell who asked a question on Quora?
121. How do I see who is asking the question on Quora?
122. How do you "see" the author of a Quora question?
123. How does one know if a Quora author is anonymous or find out who wrote the question?
124. How can I see who asked a question on Quora if they didn't use the anonymous tag?
125. How do I see who asked a question of interest?
126. How can you tell who the asker of a Quora question is?
127. How do you find out who asked a question on Quora (posted by visible accounts, not anonymous)?
128. How can you see who wrote a question?
129. I may be stupid but how do I find who the original poster of a question is?
130. How do you find the person who asked a question on Quora?
131. How do you see who wrote a question, when you see questions that come up on your home page?
132. Can you see the names of people on here from the questions they ask?
133. How can you view who asked you a question on Quora?
134. Can you see the names of people on here from the questions they ask?
135. How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora on a web browser in the PC?
136. How do I find out who asked a question? I don't see anything that lets me do that.
137. How can you tell who wrote the question on Quora?
138. How can I see details on who posted a question on Quora? I can only see the question itself and the posted answers, along with details on who posted the answers, but never any details on the questioner.
139. How can I know who are the users who send questions?
140. How do I ascertain who posted a question (basic)?
141. How can I foin out the name of a person who has posted a question on Quora?
142. How does one find out who asked a question on Quora? The reason I ask is that the answers to this question given previously outline a process I am unable to replicate.
143. Is there any way to find out who is the asker of a question on Quora?
144. From where can I learn who has asked a particular question on Quora?
145. How do I find the author of a question in Quora?
146. If a question comes up that you like how do you find out who wrote it?
147. How can readers find out who asks the questions? It looks like you only allow seeing who answers the questions.
148. How do you find out who composed a question on Quora?
149. How do you look at the author of a question on Quora?
150. How can I see who has asked the question on Quora?
151. How do I determine the author of a question?
152. Can you see who asks questions on Quora or are all questions posted without any info about who asked?
153. How do I see the OP of a question?
154. Is it possible to find out who the author of a Quora question?
155. How can I see the name or background of a questioner? I frequently see other commenters reference that information.
156. How do we find the author of the question on Quora?
157. How do I see the authors of the questions on Quora?
158. Can people see who wrote a certain question?
159. How can I see who asked a question on Quora if they didn't use the anonymous tag?
160. How do I see the person who have posted a question on Quora?
161. How can you determine who posts a particular question on Quora?
162. Can you find out who is asking a question on Quora? If so, how?
163. How can someone know the author of a question in quora.com?
164. How do I find information about the person who initially posted a question on Quora?
165. How can I find out who asks the question on Quora?
166. How can I see who asked a question on Quora if they didn't use the anonymous tag?
167. How do I check who asks the question in Quora?
168. How do I find out who asked the question I am reading on Quora in the new version?
169. How do we find out who asks the questions on Quora?
170. When someone asks a question on Quora, some people act as if they know who asked it or if it was asked anonymously, but I can't see anything on or around the question that you can click to see who asked it. Is there a way it can be done?
171. How do I find the author of a Quora question?
172. When answering a question on Quora, how do some people have access to the writer's name? I don't appear to have that info and would appreciate it if it's available.
173. How does one find the original poster of a question on Quora?
174. Where do you see the author of a question? merged into How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
175. How do I check who asked the question on Quora?
176. Is it posssible to see the profile name of someone that asked a question?
177. How can I find out who asks silly questions on Quora?
178. How do you find out who an original poster is?
179. When a question is asked on here, how do we find out who the original poster is?
180. How do I find the name of the person posting a question on Quora? For some reason the names do not appear with the questions. I am using an app (Quora Insights) and not a web browser.
181. Why can't I see the names of people posting questions?
182. I am not much into technicalities of Quora. How can I find out who has asked a question?
183. How can I tell who has asked a question on Quora?
184. How can you tell who is asking a question?
185. How do I see who posted a Quora question if they're not anonymous (like me)?
186. How can we tell who asked the question on here?
187. How can I find the authors who ask a question in Quora?
188. Where can I see how old the question is? Or who posted the Question on Quora?
189. Can you see who asked a question in Quora?
190. How do you find out who authored a question asked on Quora?
191. How do you find the name of the person asking a question on Quora?
192. Is it possible to see who wrote a question on Quora? If yes, how?
193. How do I know who have asked the question on Quora, as their name is not visible while replying?
194. How do I find the person who is asking the question in Quora?
195. How do you find the name of the questioner?
196. How does one know who the OP of a Quora question is?
197. How do you who is asking the question? It is not always visible.
198. How do I see the name of the questioner on Quora?
199. How do you find out who is asking the question on Quora?
200. Where do you see the author of a question?
201. How can I read the questioner's name? The only options I see when clicking on the three dots don’t include a name.
202. Where do you see the author of a question?
203. I'm Curious: how do you find out who is asking a question on Quora?
204. How do I see who asked a question on Quora?
205. How do you see the original poster of a question on Quora?
206. How do you find out who asked a question?
207. How do I find who is the author of a Quora question?
208. How can I find the author of a question in Quora?
209. How do you view who asked a question on Quora?
210. How can I find out who asked a particular question?
211. How do I tell who asks a question and add details under a question that I ask?
212. How can you tell the person who asked a question?
213. How were you able to discover the person that is asking questions on Quora?
214. How do you see the author of a Quora question?
215. How can I see who asked the question?
216. How do I see who posted a question on Quora?
217. How can I find out who asked a particular question?
218. How do you know which Quora user asked a question?
219. How do I find out who wrote a question on Quora?
220. How do you find out who has posted a question on Quora?
221. How do I see the name of the user asking a question?
222. On Quora, where and how can I find the name and profile of the person whose question I'm answering?
223. How can I see who asks the questions on Quora?
224. How do you see the OP of a question?
225. How do you view the profile of the user who asked a question on Quora?
226. How do I see who posted a Quora question if they're not anonymous (like me)?
227. How can I identify the Quora user who asked a question?
228. How can you tell who asks a question on Quora?
229. How can I see who asked a question on Quora (desktop)?
230. Can I see the profile of the person who asks a question?
231. How do you figure out who the OP is? It’s confusing that we only see names of people who are answering.
232. While I've been reading Quora for quite some time, I have noticed times when a person answering mentions checking the original posters profile, etc. I've clicked on the question and still cannot find who posted it. How do you do that?
233. How do you figure out who the OP is? It’s confusing that we only see names of people who are answering.
234. How can you see who asked a question on Quora?
235. Where can I see how old the question is? Or who posted the Question on Quora?
236. How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
237. How do I find who wrote the question I am reading on Quora using a desktop application?
238. How could you know the asker of a question on Quora?
239. How can we find out who posed a question on Quora? It would help to know.
240. How do you know the original question asker of a Quora question?
241. How do you see who wrote a question?
242. If the question isn’t asked anonymously, can we locate the source?
243. How do you see the OP of a question?
244. How do you view information about the OP of a question?
245. How can I see who asked a question on Quora?
246. How can one find out who is posting a question on Quora?
247. How can I find out who wrote the Quora question?
248. How do I find out who asked the Quora question?
249. How can I find a person who wrote a question?
250. How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
251. How do I find the name of the questioner? I only see the name of the answerer.
252. How do you view a profile that posted a Quora question?
253. How do you check the writer of a question on Quora?
254. How can I find out who asks question on Quora?
255. How do you view information about the OP of a question? I see other posters referring to the number of times someone has asked a question or the types of questions they have asked in the past, but I have never been able to find a link to get there.
256. How can I find out who asks question on Quora?
257. How can I determine who posted a question on Quora?
258. How do I find the questioner profile on Quora?
259. How can we find the question author in Quora?
260. How do I identify who asked a question on Quora?
261. How can I see who asked a question on Quora?
262. How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
263. How do I identify the author of a question on Quora?
264. How can one find the owner of a question on Quora?
265. How do I find the name of the questioner on Quora?
266. How do I find who wrote the question I am reading on Quora using a desktop application?
267. How do I check who is asking the question on Quora?
268. How do I find out who is asking a particular question on Quora?
269. How do we find out on Quora who wrote the original question, and if it has been edited?
270. How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading?
271. How do I get to know the identity of the questioner in Quora?
272. How do you see who wrote a question in Quora? There used to be question details if you click on the "…". That is no longer available.
273. Why don't we see who wrote the question in Quora?
274. How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
275. How can I see who asked the question on Quora?
276. When someone posts a question, how can I tell who posted it?
277. How do I find who wrote the question I am reading on Quora using a desktop application?
278. How can I see the name of the poster of a Quora question?
279. How can I find out which user asked a question?
280. How do I see who wrote a question?
281. How do you find out who wrote a question?
282. Can I find out who added a question in Quora?
283. How can I find out who wrote a question?
284. How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
285. How can I see who wrote the question I am viewing?
286. How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading?

Message for Quora: if this site were my piece of kit, I think I might be saying "Gosh, there are a lot of people who don't know how to do this. Perhaps I should make it easier?"!!

While we want to be polite and say "Hi Brent" when we answer someone, we generally find ourselves unable to do so, as this bit of info is buried deep. However, what we need to do is to click on the header for the question, and click the menu icon (...) on the right-hand side. Then select "View Stats and Log" from the pop-up menu.

Then we will see the page of information as shown in the illustration at the top of this page. We need to ensure that we scroll right the way to the bottom, else we may will pick up the identity of someone who has answered the question, not someone who posted the question.

I hope that helps!

Sam

• Reference: Woods, B. M. (6 September 2017). How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora? https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-find-out-who-wrote-the-question-I-am-reading-on-Quora

read more "Finding an author on Quora"