Asking Effective

Questions in Consultations

By: Brooke WhiteSweetland Peer Writing CenterUniversity of Michigan

240x

Low Level

High Level

Can be answered with a simple “yes” or

“no”

Long-answer, specific, deep-reasoning

questions

Low Level Questions

1. “Can you write in a way that talks about you more?”2. “Did those experiences push or change you in some way?”3. “Do you think this is a good thing to add?”4. “Does this add to your argument?”5. “Is there a way you could combine those into a more

concise sentence?”

High Level Questions1. “What do you mean by that?” 2. “How does that affect you?”3. “Why you? Why medical school?”4. “How did that make you want to be a physician?” 5. “What do you think about that?”6. “Why should I let you into medical school?”

Problem Questions

● Think critically

● Find a solution

Challenge students with high-level questions asking them to:

Let’s try formulating some high level questions for this sample of writing

Low-level questions=

Necessary evil

Teach students to use

high-level questions

Take-away Tips1. Ask yourself: What’s the goal?

2. One question at a time

3. Be specific

4. End statements with a question

5. Always ask if they have questions