Beyond that, engaging questions can fit into the following genres. Think of them as templates of sorts and teach yourself to look for places in a talk or a paper where one of these will organically make sense.
- Clarifying questions: “On page 13, you say X implies Y. Can you say more about how one follows the other?
- Challenging questions (but be nice about how you ask): “Isn’t it possible that that passage/quote/dataset can be also interpreted in ABC way, which would imply XYZ about the larger argument?”
- Suggestions disguised as questions: “Do you happen to know the work of this obscure and/or brand-new scholar? They look at XYZ in a way that resonates with your approach. You may find it of interest.”
- Process questions (which people like because they like talking about their research):”Can you say a little bit about how you chose this particular example/case study/methodology?” (This is really a reliable fallback.)
- Intellectual-team questions: As long as you are clear on the contribution of the work to a body of theory, you can ask something like, “So, obviously your work speaks to issues in the Big Polarizing Theory Debate. How do you see your research situated in relation to XYZ aspect of this scholarly conversation?”
Source: The Professor Is In: How to Ask ‘Smart’ Questions | ChronicleVitae
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