Blog Comments
The WHY
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.
While, ideally, this written exchange would be an organic process deriving from your intrinsic motivation to give feedback to your peers, as a function of school, I need to hold you accountable for commenting in order to give you credit for your work — not only for your work, but for your conduct as a “digital citizen.” Thus, there are specific guidelines you must follow when you leave comments on each others' blogs.
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.
While, ideally, this written exchange would be an organic process deriving from your intrinsic motivation to give feedback to your peers, as a function of school, I need to hold you accountable for commenting in order to give you credit for your work — not only for your work, but for your conduct as a “digital citizen.” Thus, there are specific guidelines you must follow when you leave comments on each others' blogs.
The Guidelines:
Guideline #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. (If I have to delete one of your comments because you have transgressed in this fashion, I will refer you directly to the Dean.)
Guideline #2: Your comments must be specific enough to reveal that you have actually read the post upon which you are commenting and not just skimmed it. You should avoid any comments that are just simple compliments (“I really enjoyed reading your post on ____”). If you want to leave such a comment in addition to the required comments each week, that’s fine, but such comments will not be counted for credit.
Guideline #3: Comments need to be in complete sentences and should be thoughtful, substantial feedback. One word comments or incoherent fragments also will not be counted for credit. Two to three sentences in each comment would be a good estimate to guide you.
Guideline #4: Comments that have excessive mechanical errors in them will also not be counted for credit. 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.
Guideline #5: You are required to complete three (3) comments for each blog entry assigned. (I will tell you when the comments should be uploaded.)
Guideline #6: You are welcome to comment on any blog post that is new to you; you are not limited to just the latest blog post a peer has written.
Guideline #7: (SEE EXAMPLE BELOW) Upload the links to your three comments to your "Blog Comments" document on Google Drive. Always place the most recent at the top.
Guideline #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. (If I have to delete one of your comments because you have transgressed in this fashion, I will refer you directly to the Dean.)
Guideline #2: Your comments must be specific enough to reveal that you have actually read the post upon which you are commenting and not just skimmed it. You should avoid any comments that are just simple compliments (“I really enjoyed reading your post on ____”). If you want to leave such a comment in addition to the required comments each week, that’s fine, but such comments will not be counted for credit.
Guideline #3: Comments need to be in complete sentences and should be thoughtful, substantial feedback. One word comments or incoherent fragments also will not be counted for credit. Two to three sentences in each comment would be a good estimate to guide you.
Guideline #4: Comments that have excessive mechanical errors in them will also not be counted for credit. 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.
Guideline #5: You are required to complete three (3) comments for each blog entry assigned. (I will tell you when the comments should be uploaded.)
Guideline #6: You are welcome to comment on any blog post that is new to you; you are not limited to just the latest blog post a peer has written.
Guideline #7: (SEE EXAMPLE BELOW) Upload the links to your three comments to your "Blog Comments" document on Google Drive. Always place the most recent at the top.
*You can count on my grading comments about 4 times per quarter.
Points
1 1 1 1 __/4 |
Category
School appropriate and mature. Specific. Complete sentences and free of grammatical and mechanical errors. Minimum of 3 comments. Total |