Comment Guidelines

Feedback on your writing and ideas is one of the best ways to improve your communication skills. Authentic feedback from a real audience is one of the major benefits of moving your writing online. Not only will you have real readers responding to your work, but you will be reading others’ writing and learning from the interchange of creative ideas with them.  Follow these guidelines to be sure you’re commenting appropriately. You will not need to do each of these on every post, but always start with a positive comment.

GUIDELINES

     1.  Comments must be school appropriate. As digital citizens, it is incumbent upon you to recognize that any comment you leave is a public document that can be read by anyone (from teachers to administrators to parents) and not just by your peers. Thus you must exercise maturity with what you write, not just out of respect for each other, but because real-world consequences will follow for any bullying or off-color commentary you publish.

     2.  Comments must show you read the post upon which you are commenting and not just skimmed it.

     3.  Comments need to be in complete sentences and should be thoughtful, substantial feedback. One word comments or incoherent fragments will not be counted for credit. Two to three sentences in each comment would be a good estimate to guide you.

     4.  Comments must be proof-read.  While I do not expect error free writing, I do expect you to do the basic proofreading needed to look competent with your writing in such a public forum.

     5.  Highlight and Praise.  Point out something positive that you appreciated or connected with in the original post. Tell them something nice.

     6.  Connect and Share.  Share how you connected or agreed with the post. You can talk about a time when something similar happened to you or how you have experienced something like they talk about.

     7. Respectfully Disagree.  You will not always agree with your peers. That’s ok! Be sure to make a positive comment before you offer an alternative opinion. Highlight their positive, and then share your counter argument in a kind and respectful tone.

     8. Ask Questions.  If you have a question about something they talked about, ask it!

56 thoughts on “Comment Guidelines

    1. That comment would not be approved and therefore the grade would be affected. My advice would be to stay on topic.

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