Asking Questions

INLS 180

1. Consider four kinds of questions that might be asked in a library or search engine:  known information retrieval (e.g., who, when, where), knowledge acquisition/generation (e.g., what, why, how), navigational (how to get to a place or answer), transactional (where to take an action).  For each of these question types, produce a question and express it in three different ways: 1 or 2 words; 3-9 words; 10 or more words (see the grid below).

                                    1-2 words    3-9 words    >10 words

Known item

Knowledge acq.

Navigational

Transactional

2. Consider a case when the question had to be expressed using a cell phone’s keyboard.  How would this affect the person asking the question?  How would it affect the person or the system responding to the question?

3. Consider a case when the question was related to a know item request for a piece of music for which you only recall a melody or few non-title words.  How would you like to be able to express a query for this music?

4. Consider a case when the question was related to a visual scene (e.g., photograph, painting, film sequence) for which you only recall color, style, or object depicted.  .  How would you like to be able to express a query for this scene?