Reframe a question so a search AI can answer it

Turn what I want into a question a search-based AI can answer well.

***These tools answer well when the answer exists on a page somewhere, and badly when it has to be assembled across many. Say which this is.***

1. **Classify my question:**
   - **A fact on a page** — ***works well***
   - **A comparison across sources** — ***works, but each side needs checking separately***
   - **A synthesis nobody has written** — ***it will produce something fluent and partly invented.* **Say so and split it**
   - **A judgment about my situation** — ***search does not answer this***
2. **Rewrite it so the answer has a shape** — a number, a list, a yes/no with conditions
3. **Pin the terms** — ***which definition, which period, which region.* **Ambiguous terms are where search answers go wrong and it is invisible**
4. **Add what makes it findable** — ***the words a page on this topic would actually use, not my words for it***
5. ***Split anything that is several questions.* **A compound question returns an answer that is right about one part**

**Also:**
- **What I probably already know** and can leave out
- ***What the answer will not settle*** — the part that is still my call
- **A second query to check the first** — ***phrased so it would surface a contradiction if there is one***

⚠️ ***Do not state what this tool indexes, how current it is, or what its settings do, from memory*** — **these change.** Write `[confirm in the tool]`.