I’m new here.

3670465986_3ac609277d_oWhen you are brand new to something and you want to grow, you can look up to others for examples and guidance. The 2015-16 nest of newbie bloggers doesn’t have to go far to find good models of how to blog well–we have seven years of Huzzahnian Grads to show us how to hatch and grow a blog. From them we can learn much about writing interesting, thoughtful posts, designing inviting blog pages, and commenting in a way that creates a conversation.

Your task:

First, read the Commenting Guidelines written by past Huzzahnians. They capture the big ideas about commenting. They set the standard that we will go by here.

Next, start reading and noticing quality in the blog posts below–you don’t have to read them all–pick one or two. Read the comments below them:

***These are retired blogs; please don’t comment on them as the bloggers likely won’t reply.***

(Are you noticing that blogging is about reading, first?)

Finally, in your comment below: Share one commenting guideline that you think is particularly important and why it is so. (*Hint:* You may have to use the word because.) Then tell us about a post that you read: give the blogger’s name and post title AND a one sentence summary of the content. Then say what you found interesting or inspiring, and showed quality in blogging to you. Also share what you discovered about the comments you read–do they follow commenting guidelines?  (Hmm, your comment is going to be five or more sentences long…one might almost call it a paragraph!)

Huzzahnians, remember to copy your comment into your  Google doc.  Soon you’ll be ready to hatch a blog of your own!

Visitors, if you think you have an exemplary post we should read, include the url (address) in your comment and we will visit and comment.

Photo Credit: CaptPiper via Compfight cc

207 comments

  1. Hi Mrs. Smith,my name is Dane. I like how t the end of the post you said things about what you are going to teach your students. I wish you added what Huzzanian means. I wonder who those role modes are for the newbie bloggers. Get on my blog at http://blog.elanco.org/newswang5s4/ . Have a good day.

  2. I think that the most important guideline is proofreading. I think because you have to make sure all your words are spelled correctly. I read Sophie’s post titled pens. In the post she wrote about that favorite school item is a pen and why they are her favorite. I found out that most of her comments are long and responds back to them a lot. Most of the comments I read did not follow the guidelines but some of them did.

  3. n my opinion, the most important commenting guideline is to proofread your post. Posts that have a lot of misspellings or incomplete sentences are hard to read and may be passed because it is confusing.

    I enjoyed reading Sophie’s Blog @ http://sophiehz3.edublogs.org/2012/12/12/pens/. In her post, she talks about her favorite school item being a pen. I don’t agree with her because my favorite school item is a highlighter. I do like pens though and the way she described the pen was really interesting and new. I also liked how she ended with a question that got people thinking. Come and visit my blog @ http://jadahallbill.blogspot.com/

  4. Kia Ora
    I think that your slide on how to comment is very helpful, and the blogs are incredible. I hope that maybe one day I will be able to write like that. I think that comments shouldn’t be too long, but not too short either, because if it is too long, the author might not bother too read the comment, but if it is too short, it might not properly convey your feelings about the post.

  5. Hi There,
    I really enjoyed reading through a few of those blogs, the are so relatable and just amazing in general. The key things to commenting are to not overuse punctuation such as exclamation marks and to complement the author is always a good way to start off. I believe that your slideshow covered everything readers need to know.
    Thanks,
    Sarah

  6. I think that the most common error made while blogging is that of spelling and grammatical faults, because a comment with multiple grammar errors and spelling mistakes is a comment I that will disregard. Also many people will start to go off topic and talk about other things than what the actual blog is about this can be very frustrating for others wanting to have a quality conversation.

    Robert-http://robertroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz/

  7. One important thing about a good comment is to ask questions because that gives the writer confidence that people actually like their writing and are wanting more. I read a post from Ayla’s blog titled If I woke up as a Neanderthal. A Neanderthal is a early human that could speak fluently. This was cool because I didn’t know this and it was fun to learn about it. The comments seemed to be in line for the most part with the videos.

  8. Hi,
    I come from the student blogging challenge. I like the guideline about staying on topic. I think it is really true and before I read this, I put it on my poster so we have similar thinking and it is very true. I liked the post by Sophie : Pens, it was about her favourite classroom object, which happened to be a pen. I like it because it is her opinion and you get to see her thinking about it. The comments are controversial, which leaves you wanting to reply or have a debate.
    Most of the comments follow the guidelines but a few, there are always some, do not follow. ( a few spelling errors etc.)
    Thank you!

  9. Hi,
    I come from the student blogging challenge. I like the guideline about staying on topic. I think it is really true and before I read this, I put it on my poster so we have similar thinking and it is very true. I liked the post by Sophie : Pens, it was about her favourite classroom object, which happened to be a pen. I like it because it is her opinion and you get to see her thinking about it. The comments are controversial, which leaves you wanting to reply or have a debate.
    Most of the comments follow the guidelines but a few, there are always some, do not follow. ( a few spelling errors etc.)
    Thank you!
    My blog url : http://meghanaroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz/

  10. I did the student blogging challenge. I think the most important part about the commenting is spelling. Because it would be weird to read something spelled wrong. I read Ethan’s post on Mine craft. It showed good quality that he gave you tips on the game. Most of the comments were up to the guidelines.

  11. I think that most commenting mistakes are to do with punctuation and grammar. On my blog I won’t put comments that have incorrect spelling because it shows that they have not proof-read their work. People also stray off the topic making it hard to have a good conversation

    My URL is: http:/www.nicholasbnms.blogspot.co.nz

  12. Hi,
    I am really liking the student blogging challenge. It is my first time and I just got my blog a few months ago. I have surprisingly been getting a lot of comments lately. Especially on my avatar! I am also getting a lot of visitors from other countries! It’s awesome! Visit my blog at http://blog.elanco.org/wilsona9d/.
    From, Ella

  13. Hello I’m Joel.B from Ms. Heckers class near Lancaster P.A,
    I think that one important commenting tool is punctuation and grammar. I think that because many new bloggers (and older bloggers) make many punctuation errors like run on sentences and missing a period. They could also have a capital letter in the middle of the sentence. I think that grammar is a key thing because the blogger may think it sounds good but it may be a grammar error and they don’t think so. Grammar and punctuation are two of the main things that I say are important to blogging.
    I read Ethan.P’s blog about video games. He wrote about different games and what do on them. What I found interesting was what the video games do and some games I haven’t ever heard of. Something that shows quality is that he didn’t just do one huge paragraph but in chronological order. Some of the comments have followed the guild line but a few don’t follow them at all.

    My blog address is http://blog.elanco.org/benedijw

  14. I think that the most important comment guideline is to proofread your comment. If your comment is grammatically wrong, full of exclamation points and uses many text shortcuts, then it will look unprofessional and wont start a conversation with your audience. If you proofread and correct these mistakes, it will look more professional and start more conversations with others.

  15. I think one of the important commenting guidelines was thinking about your digital privacy.It’s important because if your not private that could end bad for you.I read a post on Liam’s blog about his pets.He had lot’s of different pets and I thought that was cool.I don’t have any pets but I really want a pug or a husky.They are both dogs that I really like.

  16. Hi I’m Ruby,
    I think the most important things to commenting are
    1.) asking a question to the writer.
    2.) relating to the writer e.g maybe you have something in common about the piece.
    3.) compliment them on something about the post e.g ” you put a lot of detail into this post”
    Thanks Ruby 🙂

  17. Hello,
    One of the subjects that I found important in leaving a good comment is staying on the topic. I believe this is true because, if you were leaving a comment on someone’s blog post about dogs. But the comment you put was about cats, it’s the total opposite and will confuse the blogger, and the comment wont be effective as a one about the blog would be. I read Elysa’s blog on: 10 jobs I might like to have, this post was mainly about what Elysa would like to have as her job. What I found interesting was the way she hooked the reader with her opening sentence, also how she orginized her blog by the 1 then 2 etc. then underling the career choice. After reading the blog I looked at the comments; all of them stayed on topic, and were polite, not to mention they had there name ( no blog tho ). It was really great skill building to read these!
    Thanks! ( http://sassyteemo.blogspot.com )

  18. Hey!
    I am from the student blogging challenge. One commenting guideline I think is important is staying on topic. I think this because staying on topic is very important for your readers so that they don’t get confused when you write about a bunch of different topics. I loved the post by Maya who posted, “Being a Lunch Monitor.” This blog post was about how Maya was a lunch monitor for 2nd graders. She told how it was very crazy, but still exciting and fun at the same time. I found how Maya related working at a zoo to being a lunch monitor for 2nd graders to be very interesting. It gave a connection we could understand, and it showed quality blogging. Other comments I am reading are great and follow the commenting guidelines, but common mistakes I am finding include quite a few punctuation errors.
    Thanks!
    http://laxlover101.blogspot.com/

  19. The commenting guideline that I think is the most important is pay attention to the tone of your comment. I think this is the an important guideline because, if you say something, but the tone of it isn’t very good, then you can hurt the bloggers feelings, which can result in them stopping to post, or them blocking you(if you can do that with blogs). The pros I read was by Liam, and was called My Pets. The post was telling the readers about all of his different pets, there personalities, and what makes them special to him and his family. I found quality in Liam’s post in all of his sections of the post. He really took the time to make sure that the readers understood how important his pets are to him. Lots of the comments I saw did follow the guidelines.
    Here is the link to my blog: http://sambolicousstem.blogspot.com/

  20. Hi There,
    I really enjoyed reading through some blogs, I can make so many connections and just amazing in general. The key things to commenting are to not overuse punctuation such as exclamation marks (Like This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)and to complement the author is always a good way to start off. I believe that your slideshow covered everything readers need to know.
    Thank you,
    Ian
    http://thestookyblog.blogspot.com/

  21. Hi, I’m Annika, a few years ago we had a little birds nest out on our front porch. There were three little eggs. One time though my mom looked out and found that one of the baby birds fell out of the nest. She tried putting him back in but the mother rejected him. I felt really bad for it. My blog link is http://stemsteroonie.blogspot.com/

  22. Hi my name is Alec I really liked your blog post. I think the most important guideline for commenting is staying on topic. Staying on topic is very important so the blogger your commenting to knows what you are trying to tell them. I liked the post by evelynyvonnetheriault:Orca Whales. The blogger told about how sea world is not aloud to breed whales. Most comments do follow the guideline except I do see a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

  23. Hello, I am writing this about the student blogging challenge. I believe that one of the most important guidelines to follow while commenting is to start a conversation. Personally I believe most of the comments here follow most recommendations. Although there are always some spelling mistakes, or comments that repeat. Another quite important commenting tip seems to be staying on a certain topic, such as the topic of commenting. Which tip do you feel is one of the most important?
    My blog-http://colemblog.blogspot.com/

  24. Hi! I read Liam’s post about his pets! Called My Pets from Liam’s Blog. However, before I go into it, I think the most important blogging guideline is to keep your digital security, you don’t want to let people know where you live and where you go to school. Anyway, back to liam’s post. I love pets, like love them. What I saw was the fact he had multiple. After seeing a Snake, Gecko, Chicken, Birds, and Dog? I see why he loves them. My favorite was the Snake, I’ve always been interested in snakes and I just think that’s really cool!

    Thanks:
    ~Ben

  25. Hello,
    I think the most important guideline would me to check the content of your comment. I think this because a good comment can start a conversation going on the blog. I had just read Kassy’s blog and really enjoyed it! I read the post about making a shadow figure. I like how she added a finished product to show the outcome of it when it’s done. It kept me interested and excited to do it sometime!

    Visit my blog, and learn more about me!
    http://blog.elanco.org/BernekZEZ/

  26. Hi there,
    I like the way you talked about being new and added a photo of a baby robin that is new to the world. The instructions are very helpful on commenting good comments that are safe for the internet. I will definitely keep these instructions in mind when I am commenting on any blog post. Have a nice day!

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