Principles for Comments and Replies

Posting projects, drafts, reading responses, comments, and replies will be a primary means of class interaction and discussion. The course description explains the purpose of this coursework

When commenting and replying to blog and other posts on the course website, follow all directions and guidelines listed in the course description or calendar. It will also be helpful to

• Review How to Post Comments and Replies.
• Read through all comments and replies in the thread
• Strive to be thoughtful and analytical in your comments.
• Try to find something new to say instead of repeating what has already been said in the original post or in other comments already posted.
• When relevant, feel free to share the personal experiences that shape your views on the topic.

You should also

• Provide links to additional resources on the Web that would better inform the discussion. You should always link to any other texts on the Web you mention, even those on the course website.
• Contend with and/or support the original blog post. If you are criticizing what the blogger has said, remember to do so respectfully, which encourages further dialogue. "This sucks" would not be an appropriate response. Neither would "That's great!" if you don't explain what you mean.
• Direct attention to related and relevant issues. You may find that none of the posts on the class website about a particular set of readings confront what you feel is an important issue on the assigned texts. As long as it is related to the general topic of the readings or the topic of this class, feel free to post a comment which turns the conversation in a new direction (use the subject line to clearly specify this new direction).
• Occasionally comment on blog posts not on our front page, which keeps dialogue with your peers lively and interesting.
• Use emoticons and acronyms to convey additional information (such as tone and intonation).

For those of you wishing to do more than the minimum requirements of the course, you might visit the class website additional times per week and post new comments and/or replies to any of the blog posts.