you can improve a question by opening and closing it. For instance, suppose one is grappling with the question Why is my father-in-law difficult to get along with? Like most Why, What If, and How questions, this question is open-ended because it has no one definitive answer. But note what happens when we transform this into a closed, yes-or-no question: Is my father-in-law difficult to get along with? Worded this way, the question almost forces one to confront the assumption within the original question—and to consider that it might not be valid
