title: check element if a member of a list
body: <p>i want to do a iterative function to compute if an element el is a member of a list and returns an 
  atom. </p>
  
  <p>;;; this is the list
       (setf lst '(a b c d e 1 2 3 4 5)) </p>
  
  <p>;;;this is the function to check whether it is a member of the list.</p>
  
  <pre><code>(defun checklist (a lst)
             (if (member a alist)
                 a))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>when i put the input -> (checklist 1 lst) , it return the number ... but when i input alphabets, it return me error. .. anyone can help me state out what is the problem ?? thanks in advance . </p>
  
  <p>================================================================================</p>
  
  <p>when i input --> (question5 a lst)</p>
  
  <p>it give me error like this . </p>
  
  <p>CG-USER(7): (question5 a lst)
  Error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `A'.
  [condition type: UNBOUND-VARIABLE]</p>