I was listening to a call-in show yesterday morning (because it was relevant to my job) and I was amazed at the number of people who called in with...no actual question.
Oh, they had a question all right, that wasn't this issue. The issue was their inability (and I'm talking here about every single caller but one) to formulate an actual question. I felt so bad for the special guest and the host.
There would be a rambling thirty second...um...discussion...and at the end they would have to find a polite way to ask the caller what the question was. And they had to do that SIX times.
I used to work with someone who wrote things out before she made a phone call. At the time I thought she was being overly fussy but I'm finding myself thinking she could teach a class in marshaling your thoughts before you speak. Or perhaps all we need is a class in high school entitled "how to ask a question".
The Girl takes a class called "Life Transitions". It's an excellent idea, actually; a class about things like basic banking, renting an apartment or buying a house. Paying bills and finding a doctor, or a lawyer or planning a foreign holiday. The skills you need when you go from living at home to living on your own. Surely knowing how to frame a question is a needful skill? And from what I've heard lately it's quickly becoming a lost skill.
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