politeness - How to phrase a follow-up question politely, if there's evasion?

Suppose that someone's trying to avoid, dodge, or hedge at a question, by either:
♦ ignoring the question, even though I wrote it in a letter
♦ answering irrelevantly or a completely different question
♦ or pretending to misunderstand or request clarification.

What are the polite, cordial ways of requesting that my question be answered?

My first try is "Since you didn't answer my question, could you please clarify"?
Yet this sounds too cutting and barbed.

2nd try: "Since you didn't seem to answer my question, ..."
This is less outright, but can do I better?

Answer

Assuming that they did reply to you in some form, but conveniently left out the information you wanted: Try not to accuse them of anything. It's possible they made a mistake. Even if they are being deliberately obtuse, politeness is still in order (to a point).

The main idea is to avoid attributing the action (or non-action) to them. This often sounds accusatory. Instead, phrase it so that you took (or didn't take) the action.

I'm still unclear about a few things. Could you please clarify the number of years of experience you have with...

If there are a large number of questions you need, you could even lay out a series of numbered questions.

Thanks for your reply. In order to [whatever] I'll need some additional information from you. Please answer the following questions in your reply:

1. 
   

   Have you ever...

   
   


2. 
   

   Do you want to...

   
   
   

Getting any more forceful than that requires a bit more knowledge of the context that this is in. It would depend on the social relationship of the involved. For instance, a boss can demand answers succinctly. A potential business partner needs to be more nuanced.