Some Principles for Online Comments Too?
Greetings again. I hope that all is going well for you.
One thing that I like about teaching graduate students is the chance to learn from their work. Reading their work adds to my knowledge and sometimes gives me new ideas.
A few days ago, for example, I reviewed a draft of a graduate student’s thesis proposal. The literature review section contained an interesting list of principles that editors at newspapers seem to follow when deciding which letters to the editor to publish.
These principles, which appeared in a journal article, were as follows:
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“Relevance”: The letters generally should discuss topics already raised.
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“Brevity”: The letters should be relatively short.
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“Entertainment”: Ideally, the letters should be lively.
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“Authority”: The letters should have good grammar and follow the conventions of writing style.
The graduate student had been reading journal articles about letters to the editor because she was planning some research about online comments—which in ways are like letters to the editor.
On reading the list and thinking about online comments, it occurred to me: The features that help make some letters publishable also tend to be characteristics of good online comments.
For example, it seems that generally the most effective reader comments appearing on the AuthorAID website are relevant to topics that AuthorAID covers and are fairly short. Lively writing, though optional, is a plus. Well-crafted writing also is an advantage.
What do you think? Feel free to post a comment.