When 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.
Hi Mrs.Smith,
I manaaged to get through all of your retired bloggers blogs. The posts were detailed and interesting. I especiall liked Nicholas’s as I am rather sporty too! I also thouroughly enjoyed reading Greyson’s WWII German King Tiger Tank post. It was intruging to know German heavy tank production started before the war around 1937. This made me think about why Germans did this. Were they preparing for war?
Claire
Great questions, Claire. I’m glad Greyson’s post made you think and connect some dots.
Thanks for visiting.
Ms. Smith
Hello
One of the things that I thought was the most important was the don’t insult others. Even if they have spelling mistakes, bad grammar or you don’t agree with their opinion be nice and respect their opinion.
I read Faiths post about the books and I found it very interesting. Its always good to see that other people like different books from you and those books sound really interesting. One book that I would definitely want to read would be Bootleg. It sounds like a good read.
Cheers
Lucy
bloggingwithlucy.edublogs.org
I really liked the post, it was really cool. My favorite post was Ethan’s with the video games and its hilarity.
I think we can ALL agree that being nice and respectful is the most important commenting guideline. Who would want to look at their comments and find mean insults? Not me, and not ANYBODY else. I looked at Liv’s blog. Her post was interesting because it actually inspired me to say that being nice and respectful is the most important commenting guideline. Thank you, Liv! Also what’s cool about Liv’s post, is that it also followed commenting guidelines!
If you enjoyed my post, please reply.
Hi Mrs. Smith,
One of the guidelines that I thought was important was to not be over sarcastic or offensive with humor. I thought that this was important because sometimes people don’t know that someone might be joking instead of actually making fun of them, because you can’t show tone on a text or comment.
I also read Greyson’s blog about the tanks and thought it was very interesting!
Max
One of the most important commenting guidelines to me would be to be make sure all your comments are appropriate and polite. To me, it’s important because if you make mean comments on other people’s blogs, you leave yourself and your class with a bad reputation because others may view your comment.
Hey Mrs. Smith,
One of the most important commenting guidelines, for me, is to be respectful when commenting on a blog. I think this is the most important because if you are not respectful when replying to a blog, the other person may not even read your comment. You are supposed to help make their blog the best it can be with helpful tips not hurtful ones. Also, teachers might hpthink it is a form of cyber bullying. The blog that I found interesting was my Andrea and her title was “Technology and Disaster”. It is about how technology can be helpful in moments of crisis. It is interesting because it gives me a ne look on the topic. It expands my horizons of thinking. The matter that I found held quality was that it was detailed and thorough. I discovered that comments to people are often people who are friends of the blogger. They share personal opinion based on being with them many times. Also, I found that many comments do not follow proper guidelines. They often write short one-word comments. Thank you for assigning this challenge.
Sincerely,
Becca
https://6rebeccab.edublogs.org/
Hello
I think one of the most important thing to include in a post is a question because if you are confused about something, or you don’t get what the post means, asking is a great way to get answers! It also gets a good conversation going. I read Elysa’s blog. Her post is about the different jobs she would like to have. I liked the way she wrote. Her beginning paragraph was very attention-grabbing. The comments were ver positive and I think they followed the commenting guidelines.
Dear Mr. Smith,
I believe an important aspect to writing a proper comment one one’s blog is, remember to write a comment with correct, grammar, spelling, and it has to relate to the bog post. Ava’s post ”NASA Confirms Presence of Liquid Water on Mars” (her website is http://avac2015.edublogs.org/) is a well written piece explaining how they finally found water on Mars. The majority of the comments follow the guidelines because most of them have good grammar and stick to the point.
From,
Brianna
A commenting I think is really important is having good grammar because having horrible grammar can ruin the quality of a comment. I really enjoyed reading Ava C’s blog about finding water on Mars. The link to her blog is below:
http://avac2015.edublogs.org
I think it’s really interesting that Mars may have had life on it because they found frozen water. She also cited a NASA source that was really cool.
Jacqueline Gewert
My Blog: http://6jacquelineg.edublogs.org
Dear Mr. Smith,
One commenting guideline that I think is particularly important is grammar and spelling. I have read many comments most with incorrect spelling and grammar which makes you want to go look at a different blog. I read a blog by Ava (http://avac2015.edublogs.org/) about how they found water on Mars. Over the years, they thought their might be rivers and lakes, turns out there are. I found her article, interesting and to the point. I enjoyed how she talked about it enough to make it interesting and get all the facts in, but not long and boring. I found that many comments were poorly written with incorrect grammar and spelling.
Sincerely,
Brianna
Hi Ms. Smith,
I think the most important thing when commenting is to add in a compliment, even if you are writing about something that you don’t like. It is always nice to put in something kind because it is a kind deed and lightens up the comment.
I liked reading Elysa’s blog for I liked the ideas she had for all her different jobs! Like her, I would love to be a clothing designer!
– Sophie
Hi Mrs Smith,
I really enjoyed reading this post, it gave me some great guidelines for commenting that I had never come across before! I think it has helped me get a better understanding of how to post effective and useful comments that provide feedback as well as being polite. My commenting guideline would be refrain from using capital letters as it may give the blogger/reader the impression that you are angry. Because there is no facial expressions in commenting they don’t know if you are shouting in EXCITEMENT or ANGER. Therefore it is hard to distinguish the meaning in the comment.
I read a few blog posts and I felt that they all had a witty feel about them. I enjoyed Charlie’s humerous “10 ways to annoy your brother” which explained the most creative ways to get on your brother’s nerves without creating an enemy. I also read Sophie’s explanation of why she prefers pens over pencils or laptops, she explained her favourite items in school stationary and then connected with her commenters and asked what their favourite stationery item was. And lastly I enjoyed Elysa’s “10 jobs I want to have” because it gave me some ideas of the jobs I would aspire to have when I grow up.
In all blogs that I read I noticed sufficiently short comments like “good post” or “I really enjoyed it” but I did also notice well planned and structured comments that comply to the commenting guidelines that you have stated. I enjoyed reading all the blogs and learning about different comment styles and how I can improve my commenting!
http://bloggingwithanjali.edublogs.org/
Dear Ms. Smith,
I think it’s important to write a proper comment so that the writer can see if their work was appreciated or not.
Sincerely,
Katelyn
Hello Mrs. Smith,
Thank you for helping us with blogging and commenting. I am a new to the Student Blogging Challenge, and this really helps me. I will try my best to follow your advice.
Naho
Hi Liam,
I really like animals and I think you are a animal person too. I think is really neat that you have so many pets! I would have to say you really love your animals. What I really found interesting about your post was that you seem to have deep love for your animals. I discovered that some people can treat pets like they are the only thing in the world. (Witch is good.)
-Lillian
Hi Mrs. Smith!
I read Sophie’s “Pens” post where she wrote about her favorite item in school (a pen) and why it is her favorite from describing the color and feel to the item. I really found this interesting because I personally love pencils, so to see the liking from a different perspective was very grasping. The most important guideline is to be polite like Sophie’s commenters were. Even when they disagreed with her, they were explanatory and were not rude to her remark of favoritism. This is so important because the internet was not made to bash on people for expressing their feeling. Just because you might not feel the same way does not mean other people do not either, and gives nobody the right to be rude to the blogger who was only sharing a very valued opinion.
~ Kataeya
Ms. Smith,
In my opinion, contributing in some way to the post is the most important commenting guideline. You can contribute by asking a question, answering a question, or adding new information to the post. A good comment is one that adds something new to the post. Comments that don’t contribute or don’t have relevant information are comments with no purpose, so they don’t need to be there.
I read Ethan’s blog, with the post titled “Top 5 Video Games (In My Opinion)”. I enjoyed reading this because I enjoy playing video games and it was interesting to learn somebody else’s opinion about certain games.
Sincerely, David
One of the things that I thought was most important about commenting is don’t insult each other because you can really hurt someone’s feelings, even if you don’t mean what you said. Even if you don’t like what they wrote, you should be nice and respect their opinion.
My favorite post was Faith’s. I enjoy it when people give me advice on what books to read. I can never decide!I think I am going to read “Bootleg”, the second book on her list. It sounds like an interesting book with a various amount of adventures, the type of book I like to read.
-Jessica
Hi Mrs Smith,
I think one of the most important commenting guidelines to get a conversation going is, always say more then this, “Great post! Come visit my blog!”
Here is how I would improve this comment…
First let’s imagine that you are commenting on a blog post about how someone got a new puppy, first you should introduce yourself and say a bit about your personality…
“Great Post! My name is Emme and I also have a dog, two in fact!! Come visit my blog!”
Now add a question to start a conversation…
“Great Post! My name is Emme and I also have a dog, two in fact!! What are you planning on calling your dog? Come visit my blog!”
That’s just a basic example of a “good” comment. If you compare my first comment to my last comment you can see how easy it is to improve your comments with just a more words…
“Great post! Come visit my blog!”
“Great Post! My name is Emme and I also have a dog, two in fact!! What are you planning on calling your dog? Come visit my blog!”
Here is a summary of Maya’s blog post…
Maya’s blog post informed me about being a lunch monitor and was very helpful. It was smart how she compared looking after them like looking after a zoo. Here is the link to the post, http://mayahz1.edublogs.org/2014/11/21/being-a-lunch-monitor/
Mrs. Smith,
I think an important commenting guideline is privacy because your personal information should not be shared. If the wrong thing comes out, it could be very dangerous for you.There might be nothing more dangerous than giving personal information out.
Dear Mrs. Smith,
I went to Ethan’s blog and I liked it. The commenting guideline that I liked is the part that they didn’t have any grammar mistakes. Grammar is very important because they can look the same, but mean a totally different thing. Tell your old class that they did a great job!
hmschris
Hello Ms.Smith,
I think that one commenting guideline that is particularly important is “Proofread your comment”. I think that it is important because if you do not proofread, you may make a colossal error such as a major spelling typo or bad grammar. One of the blog posts I read was a post called “WWII German King Tiger Tank” on the blog by the name of “Greyson’s History Page”. It was a summary of a tank that the Germans made for the Axis Powers, and the post was very written and detailed. I found that the content within the post was very intriguing. I myself am a history buff so the post was exciting. The blogging was very nice and well styled. Some comments I found did not follow the commenting guidelines, but they may have not known about them. If you wish to reply, come on down to my page at https://delaneyas2.edublogs.org
Thank you for helping me and giving me information about blogging
The information above is very helpful! I had many questions about commenting until I came to this blog, and it answered every one! Love the advice and tips. This is very helpful for many people. Great work!
~Maryn
After reading the comment guidelines I believe the most important rule is not being rude in your comments.
The most important commenting guideline to me would be punctuation. I was looking at Sophie’s Blog and saw her post called Pens. In the post she tells her readers about how her favorite school item is a pen and why. In the post she misspells the word read for red. I like how she posted about something very simple and asked readers what they thought about her favorite school item.
Abby
Mrs Smith,
Thank you for all the help for all us beginners that don’t know a lot.
From,
HMSdashiell
I like how you put a baby bird as your theme and i’m new to bloging too.
Hi Mrs.Smith,
I think it is important to write about solmething interesting because if you write about something boring you miht make the reader fall asleep. I really liked Sophie’s blog because it was interesting and caught my attention. It had alot of things that I should include in my blog; it also talked about pens. Science I am kind of new to this blog stuff can you please check out my blog. Here is the link: http://hmsjena.edublogs.org/.
Sincerely,
Jena
Dear Mrs. Smith,
I think that the most important thing from the commenting guidelines is to be respectful and not be rude because I have seen and people’s remarks in skpe and social media. Also, on my computer games, I have seen people’s remarks in chat that are very rude and is a form of cyber bullying. The post that I read was Top 5 Video Games of all Time! (in my opinion) by Ethan P. His post was about the Platform games, Minecraft, Sunset Overdrive, Tetris, and Super Smash Bros. that he felt were the five best video games. I found this interesting because I enjoy playing video games. He wrote it from his opinion and didn’t say anything that would offed others. I feel that most of the comments followed the commenting guidelines.
Sincerely,
Justin O.
Dear Mrs. Smith,
I found this post very helpful to me. I like the cute baby bird with the blue eggs next to it. This post will help me in the future.
-Kyler
Dear Ms. Smith,
Thank you for making this activity. I will try to use these guidelines to make better comments. One important guideline to me is to always stay on topic so that you don’t confuse other commenters or the blogger themselves. To be honest, I haven’t really visited many blogs and much less commented on them but I hope to do so in the near future!
~Yuma
Hello Mrs. Smith
I think the most important thing when it comes to commenting is that you should always be constructive. Whether its positive or just suggetstions its always good to try and help people better themselves.
-Jace
Hello Mrs Smith,
The two blogs I looked at were fantastic blogs – Elysa’s and Sophie’s. I liked Elysa’s because I have so much in common with her! I love designing houses, doing art, cooking and making clothes as well! Sophie’s was good because she asked questions to engage the readers to her post. My favourite classroom tool would probably be the pen too because I always use it and I like the slimness and darkness that it prints out onto my page. I think one commenting guideline that I find important is the proofreading before you post it because I find it really annoying when people take no care in what the are commenting on. I wonder what is your favourite commenting rule?
Keep blogging!
-Elspeth
http://bloggingwithelspeth.edublogs.org
The most important thing is that while the comment on deos not offend others.
That if we do not like something I say this in a nice way, without bad words, just to point out the omeission. Rude comments do not even need to read. Their privacy should be to preserve and to respect someone else’s. There are a lot of abuse. Should show respect to everyone.
Dear Ms. Smith,
I read Sophie’s post, pens. Her post is about how pens are her favorite writing tool in the classroom. I really like this post because she describes why she likes pens so much.
I think the most important fact is to not give out your personal information. I like this one because if you give it out someone could come to your house and harm you.
-Meghan
Dear Ms.Smith,
The most important commenting guideline to me is that we need to be polite to people online. This is because even if you don’t say it directly to their face it could still hurt them deep inside. The blog that I read was from Liam’s blog. The title of the blog was called “My Pets.” The post was about what kinds of animals he has, and he has a lot of them. Some qualities that I can learn from this blog is that you can write different stories and still make them flow together. In the comments Liam and this other boy named Brayden had a connection because Brayden was telling about his pets that he has. Maybe one day you would like to come and comment on one of my blogs . If you do then here is my blog URL
http://hmsalexandrianna.edublogs.org/ .
Sincerely,
Alexandrianna
Hi
I read Ethan’s top 5 video games, and I think it was very interesting because he talked about his favorite video games, and took time to explain why, I thought that when he explained, if I didn’t know the video game, I could now understand the game, and explain the game to other people.
-Joe
https://hmsjoe.edublogs.org
hi
I think people should respect others. Even if they don’t agree you should use kind words. Not everyone has the same opinion, Some people opinion might be different to others.
Hi Mrs. Smith,
Thank you for teaching me things about blogging that I didn’t know. This will help me to blog.
Hunter
http://hmshunter.edublogs.org/
I think that the digital privacy is very important because it is very important not to give out any personal information, such as your full name, address, phone number, school name, and your email. I read a post by Ethan and the post is called “TOP 5 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME! (IN MY OPINION)”. I liked this post because these games are definitely one of the best games I have ever played, and it also inspired me to play some of these games that I have never played or even heard of. Most of the comments on the post meets most commenting guidelines, some people forgot to indent and some people forgot to address themselves and have some punctuation and spelling errors.
~ Alexandra
Hi Ms.Smith,
I think one of the important commenting is writing it in letter format. I think this is important because then you can address the person directly.
Sincerely,
Isabella
Hey Mrs Smith
I think that the comment constrictively but nicely was important because you might hurt someones feeling if you say some very bad things about his or her post.
Kody
Dear Mrs Smith,
Very informative information, I like the way you wrote it, you put it in a very interesting way. It was also a very helpful information, beginers like me learned a lot from it.
Thanks
hmsdashiell
Dear Mrs. Smith,
I think an important commenting guideline is staying on topic. I think that because it is good to have a good conversation on a topic. If comments weren’t on topic it would be a mess and confusing. Also I read Ethan’s post, Top 5 Video Games of all time (in my opinion). It was about his favorite video games he likes to play and why. It was interesting to see someone else’s opinion on games. The comments loosely followed the guidelines, but not perfectly.
I think the most important rule is to never give out personal information because if you do you could be in danger and people could try and find you.
From Cartia
Hi Mrs. Smith,
I think the most important thing is be friendly, polite and inspired, even if we don’t agree with others’ ideas. Because we are not writing comments to judge others, we are writing comments to tell others our own opinion. It’s just like a discussion in class, respect is the first thing we should considered.
I read a post by Charlie about how to annoy your brother. Although i don’t have a brother, it’s funny for me to read it. I like its perspective and its way to demonstrate the idea. And since it’s a interesting post, the comments about it is also fun, people communicate their experience on it.
Camille
I think that one of the most important guidelines would be expressing opinion. Because that can get other people to see that new thing you posted about like I could post about a random video game and my followers could have no idea about it. Today I read Ethan’s blog, the name was The best video games ever ( in Ethan’s opinion) he basically posted a little about platformers, Minecraft, Sunset Overdrive, Tetris, and super smash brothers then he gave his opinion on the game and what influenced him to put it on his list.
Hello Mrs. Smith. I would like to thank you for all of your help so far, you have made this activity fun and educational. In my opinion the most important rule when commenting is not giving out your personal information. If we give a complete stranger our information, the might stalk us or steal our identity. Well thank you again Mrs. Smith I hope you have a nice day; also what do you think is the most important rule of commenting?
Hi Alexis,
I would say the big idea in commenting is to have a meaningful conversation. That means a person should read the blogger’s post, think about the content and respond in a way the creates a connection. Agree, disagree, add information, make a connection, question. You are on the right track, Alexis. Good luck with your blogging!
~Ms. Smith