How to write a Great Blog Comment

Ever since my students started to write blogs I have stressed the importance of writing comments. Lately I have been fortunate to be a part of the “Voices from the learning revolution” and I know good comments on the posts are much appreciated. As we try to teach students how to be prepared for the future I am certain writing blogs and comments are skills they would benefit from excelling at. Comment writing is something of a new art form, and as many people who get comments will tell you, some are great and some are horrible. I don’t know any bloggers who don’t crave comments, but there are many more places than blogs that you can leave comments these days: on Facebook walls, news articles, photos, videos, and more.(Grammar Girl) When preparing my class on how to do this I found the material on Grammar girl. It is great web page I truly recommend. Here are some points I found. In addition to reading the text you can chose to listen to it!

1. Determine Your Motivation – why are you writing?
2. Provide Context – start by saying what you are commenting on
3. Be Respectful – you shouldn’t say anything you wouldn’t say in person
4. Make a Point – don’t say you love it but why you love it and it’s even more important to make a point when you disagree
5. Know What You’re Talking About – save your time for commenting about things where you can actually say something useful
6. Make One Point per Comment – a comment should be just that — a comment — not a manifesto.
7. Keep it Short – keep your comments short.
8. Link Carefully – don’t link to your own page unless it adds value to the conversation
9. Proofread – proofreading is important because if you have a lot of typos or misspellings, it undermines your authority

Watch this fun rap and see if you agree with the girls! Writing lame comments? Ha ha they are making fun of you!