0
$\begingroup$

There was a "check my work" question asked yesterday with an unusual characteristic: the OP had really gone through the problem carefully, checking units and magnitudes along the way. She had made a rather silly mistake in the mathematics along the way resulting in an answer that was a factor 10x off.

Here is my dilemma. On the one hand, it was a "check my work" homework question. On the other hand, it was an unusually good one. I had left a comment about not closing it, and it attracted no downvotes.

But when, after leaving the comment, I went through the work and discovered it all came down to a single typo, I wondered:

should this question be closed as being "too local and not interesting to future visitors", or should we leave it open as an example of a "OK" form of a check-my-work homework question? I couldn't decide, even after reading the answers to this question.

Many of you know that on the homework spectrum I lean towards the "helpful" over the "discouraging" end of the distribution, so I would like to hear the community's thought on this one. But I'd gladly give up my 15 rep points if it's decided this post has no further value on the site.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ I suppose the "it was a good check my work question" is settled by the fact that you did, in fact, help her find her issue. So yes, it's on hold and it should be, but she still got help. Not that I recommend answering closed questions as a way of fighting closing questions of course. $\endgroup$ – tpg2114♦ Oct 9 '14 at 23:07
3
$\begingroup$

I wouldn't say to delete it. Deletion is meant only for things that very obviously shouldn't have been posted in the first place: non-answers posted as answers, unintelligible gibberish, spam, and so on.

On the other hand, I do absolutely believe it should be closed. The reasons for making check-my-work questions off topic are unrelated to the quality of the post; accordingly, there is no such thing as an OK check-my-work question.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for your inputs. I have gone ahead and voted to close. Will leave this question open to see if any other people will chime in with their thoughts. $\endgroup$ – Floris Oct 8 '14 at 21:28

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .