How+to+Write+Good+Comments

Blog Commenting
Commenting on other blogs is a skill easily attained by following a few simple practices. Take time to talk about these practices with your students and refer to them as you review blog comments together as a class.

Be nice to each other. Don't be mean to other commenters. Even bloggers have feelings. We're putting ourselves out there for the world to read our thoughts.

Connect to the post. Have a point when you comment on someone's blog. Don't ramble.

Read the whole post before you comment. Don't just comment on the comments. This will help you write a thorough and thoughtful comment.

White space is your friend. It's hard enough to read from a computer screen. Use short sentences, and short paragraphs. Write in an active voice. At least try to be grammatically correct.

Sandwich Comments This one way we use in the classroom to comment on blogs in our quadblogging group. First Layer/slice of bread Hello (name) Feeling: I loved your story. Your story was great.

Second layer/filling My favorite part was…because… When you wrote…it reminded me… (or use a starter below)

Last layer/slice of bread Feeling sentence Ask question to writer about story/content.

Here are a few other comment starters that can help raise questions and provide useful feedback for bloggers.

Thanks to [|Edublog Insights] for these starters. For more thoughts and ideas on blog commenting visit [|Langwitches Blog]
 * This made me think about…….
 * I wonder why…….
 * Your writing made me form an opinion about…….
 * This post is relevant because…….
 * Your writing made me think that we should…….
 * I wish I understood why…….
 * This is important because…….
 * Another thing to consider is…….
 * I was reminded that…….
 * I can relate to this…….
 * This makes me think of…….
 * I discovered……
 * I don’t understand…….
 * I found myself wondering…….