ABSTRACT
Mortimer Adler, the eminent American philosopher and education reform leader, first formulated the three kinds of questions in 1948 in A Guide for Leaders of Great Books Discussion Groups. This chapter discusses three kinds of questions: factual, interpretation, evaluation. A factual question has but one correct answer. It asks the reader to recall something that the author said or to read a passage from the text where an answer can be found. Its answer depends more on memory than thinking. An interpretive question has more than one correct answer because a difference of opinion about meaning is possible. It asks the reader to explain what the author means by what is said. An evaluative question asks one to think about his or her own values or experiences. Such questions sometimes ask readers to consider how they would act in a situation similar to one a character in the story finds himself/herself in if they had a similar experience.
