Melville Intermediate - Kate's Commenting Tips from Australia

Recently I discovered a fantastic comment from a student, Kate S whose a student in Mrs Viney classroom in Australia.  I really liked how Kate had identified some key area's of commenting, and this is her orignial comment:


Hello Mrs V,
How are you???
I think a quality comment is almost like a letter. You greet them, and you give them the message. You should always be considerate of others because lots of people from around the world will be looking at your response. If we were writing a guide I’d put in a few rules like:
1. Use the right punctuation; you don’t want to seem unfriendly, especially because others don’t know if it’s a joke or not if you use the wrong punctuation.
2. Don’t get straight to the point, greet them and ask a friendly question. You won’t seem really rude. After you write your comment, maybe ask them a question and say goodbye.
3. Be specific about what you’re writing about. If you talk about something that’s relevant but not specific, the other person may not get what you’re talking about, and the conversation might lose track.
4. It’s always nice to have answered questions, so you should answer people’s questions, you can get a nice conversation going.
5. Remember to use capital letters and full stops. Also, remember that you only use one exclamation mark when you’re excited because if you use two or three you might seem like you’re shouting.
That’s my guide to writing quality comments.
Kate S.

I gave all the students copies of Kate's wonderful work, asked them to review it and highlight the five most important facts in their opinion about the article and then instructed them to go us it for practical means and go and leave a quality comment.