Contextual Information in Social How-To Questions That Initiate Documentation

Abstract

This study introduces social question-and-answer (SQA) documentation to technical and professional communication scholarship. It conceptualizes SQA as interactive, user-generated documentation and describes contextual information types within social how-to questions that initiate documentation. It also explores whether contextual information associates with answers that complete the interactive documentation. Results reliably describe 15 information types based on content analysis of 3,529 contextual information types from 500 questions. Exploratory statistical analysis suggests that askers may increase answerability by including less speculative thought, more error messages, and less general situation information. To facilitate complete SQA documentation, the study calls for additional research into question content and answerability.

Understanding user‐generated questions in social Q&A: A goal‐framing approach

“…Askers in social Q&A can describe their problems with various cues. Question cues include informational cues (e.g., complexity), contextual cues (e.g., task specifications), emotional cues (e.g., sentiment, users' experiences), and social cues (e.g., socioemotional statements, politeness) (Baker, 2020; Calefato et al, 2015; Chua & Banerjee, 2015b; Deng et al, 2019; Hertzum & Borlund, 2017; Ostermaier‐Grabow & Linek, 2019; Ruthven et al, 2018; Sin et al, 2018). By adopting the GFT framework, we divide question cues into three dimensions: gain, hedonic, and normative goal‐frames.…”

“…Secondly, self-disclosure refers to the revealing of personal information in questions (Choi et al, 2013). Many askers describe personal information, situations, and experiences in questions (Baker, 2020;Hertzum & Borlund, 2017;Ruthven et al, 2018). The disclosure of personal cues tends to receive feedback with similar self-disclosure (Raban, 2009).…”

The effects of question cues on responses and responders in community question-answering: a goal-framing approach

“…To Zhang et al, 2017). Previous studies demonstrated that most CQA services are free, and some online Q&A services (e.g., Google Answers) closed due to their paid service (Baker, 2020;F. Lin & Huang, 2013;Shah et al, 2009).…”

“…CQA askers describe their problems with various cues such as informational cues (e.g., complexity), contextual cues (e.g., task specifications), emotional cues (e.g., sentiment, self-disclosure), and social cues (e.g., socioemotional statements, politeness) (Baker, 2020;Calefato et al, 2015;Deng et al, 2019;L. Wang, Liu, et al, 2022;Ostermaier-Grabow & Linek, 2019;Ruthven et al, 2018;Sin et al, 2018;Stokhof et al, 2022).…”

“…Secondly, self-disclosure refers to revealing personal information in questions (E. Choi et al, 2013). Many askers describe personal information, situations, and experiences in questions (Baker, 2020;Hertzum & Borlund, 2017;Ruthven et al, 2018). Prior work revealed a positive association between selfdisclosure and responders' favorable feelings (Kashian et al, 2017).…”