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Effective Commenting with NowComment®

Author: Brandon Marsh


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Here are a few tricks for effectively commenting with NowComment:

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1. Different Conversations for Different Topics

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If you're saying something on the same topic as an existing comment, just click the "reply" link to join the existing conversation. You can reply to anyone, not just the most recent commenter.

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But if your comment introduces a new topic, then start a new conversation by double clicking (on text to comment on the specific sentence, on the paragraph number for a general paragraph comment, or on the Document-level link at the bottom of the page for a comment not tied to any particular passage).

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2. Write communicative, informative Summary Lines

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Just as emails have subject lines that help you decide what the message is about and whether main point and whether it's relevant to you or not, NowComment comments have Summary Lines so people can skim them to decide which comments they want to read. If your Summary Lines don't do that, we'd recommend expanding them.

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If everything you have to say fits on the Summary Line, it's fine to leave the rest of the comment empty; better to have an expressive Summary Line!

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3. Summary Line Don'ts

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  • No need to say that you're responding to a comment — your comment will be automatically indented below the other comment to show that connection.
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  • Don't write your name or the paragraph# — the system adds both automatically.
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  • Don't repeat someone else's Summary Line when you reply to it; your Summary Line should communicate your main point!
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Here are some interesting samples of good commenting style:

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Commenting on Images and Photos

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The mesmerizing painting The Raft of Medusa portrays desperate sailors stranded at sea:

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painting of Raft of Medusa

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I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Mar 30
Dan Doernberg

I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Dan Doernberg (Mar 30 2012 9:18AM) : Théodore Géricault worked for 18 months to depict a historical event that happened three years earlier, the aftermath of the wreck of the French ship Méduse. more

Per Wikipedia:

“In June 1816, the French frigate Méduse departed from Rochefort, bound for the Senegalese port of Saint-Louis. She headed a convoy of three other ships…it ran aground on a sandbank off the West African coast, near today’s Mauritania. The collision was widely blamed on the incompetence of De Chaumereys, a returned émigré who lacked experience and ability, but had been granted his commission as a result of an act of political preferment.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa

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Mar 30
Marie French Marie French (Mar 30 2012 9:23AM) : It's incredible that anyone survived 13 days adrift on the raft... but a few did. more

147 people started out on the raft but only 15 (10%) survived the 13 days of starvation, dehydration, cannibalism, and madness.

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Jessica Phillips is an English major with a focus on business… (more)

Mar 30
Jessica PhillipsG

Jessica Phillips is an English major with a focus on business… (more)

Jessica PhillipsG (Mar 30 2012 9:35AM) : Géricault's stylized rendering shows them muscular and healthy. This seems inaccurate; given their conditions I'd think they would be in terrible shape. more

That Wikipedia article says that Géricault spent a lot of time on research, including how to render the flesh tones of dead bodies; I’m surprised he drew the survivors as he did.

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Mar 30
Brandon Marsh Brandon Marsh (Mar 30 2012 9:42AM) : The King was blamed for the incompetence of the French captain, it was a political black eye for the king. more

In fact, the king didn’t have a say in the captain’s appointment.

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Brandon Marsh Brandon Marsh (Mar 30 2012 9:39AM) : The picture is truly larger than life, 16 feet tall x 23.5 feet wide. I've seen it in person, it's amazing; the dark sky and high seas really convey the overwhelming power of the storm.
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Commenting on Text

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How much do you know about the origins of Thanksgiving, our Fall harvest holiday? Most Americans just know that we eat a lot of turkey on the fourth Thursday in November (vegetarians excluded).

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Jessica Phillips is an English major with a focus on business… (more)

Mar 30
Jessica PhillipsG

Jessica Phillips is an English major with a focus on business… (more)

Jessica PhillipsG (Mar 30 2012 9:48AM) : The phrase "Black Friday" was coined in Philadelphia to describe the heavy and disruptive traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. more
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Mar 30
Brandon Marsh Brandon Marsh (Mar 30 2012 9:44AM) : The origins of Thanksgiving go back to George Washington more

“On October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as an official holiday of “sincere and humble thanks” (for victory in the Revolutionary War and for the new Constitution).
Information from a page on the National Archives website: http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=2591

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I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Mar 30
Dan Doernberg

I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Dan Doernberg (Mar 30 2012 9:46AM) : That same articles highlights Pres. Lincoln's role in making it an ongoing national holiday more

’On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln made the traditional Thanksgiving celebration a nationwide holiday to be commemorated each year on the fourth Thursday of November. In the midst of a bloody Civil War, President Lincoln issued a Presidential Proclamation in which he enumerated the blessings of the American people and called upon his countrymen to "set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of “Thanksgiving.” ’

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Mar 30
Rachel Wang Rachel Wang (Mar 30 2012 9:54AM) : Other countries and cultures have autumn harvest festivals similar to Thanksgiving: more

• Argentina: Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia
• Barbados: Crop over:
• China: August Moon (mid-Autumn) Festival
• Germany: Erntedank
• Ghana: Homowo Festival
• India: Pongal
• Japan: Niiname-sai, Shinjo-sai
• Jewish: Sukkot
• Korea: Chu-Sok
• Mehregan: Iran
• Nigeria: Ikore
• Poland: Doynki
• Turkmenista: Hasyl toy
• Vietnam: Tết Trung Thu

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Mar 30
Marie French Marie French (Mar 30 2012 9:51AM) : President Roosevelt unsuccessfully tried to change the date of Thanksgiving more

“In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy still recovering from the Depression. The move set off a national debate and was reversed in 1941.”

Source:
http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2012/nr12-29.html

Commenting on Videos

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You can use start and end times in the Summary Line to point people to particular segments of a clip. For example, here's one of the first (and creepiest) film adaptations of Bram Stoker's Dracula, director F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu:

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Brandon Marsh Brandon Marsh (Mar 30 2012 9:56AM) : 2:57-3:37 and 28:20-28:33 - Makeup is used to accentuate the characters' pale complexions. more

Note also the very defined eye makeup.

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I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Mar 30
Dan Doernberg

I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Dan Doernberg (Mar 30 2012 10:00AM) : 22:34-23:50 - Even without sound or dialogue the actors can communicate what they're thinking and feeling. more

This is the scene where the real estate agent cuts his finger and then becomes unnerved when Dracula suck the blood off it. He displays his fear through facial expressions and by backing up. When the music score changes to something like a heartbeat it really ratchets up the tension!

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Jessica Phillips is an English major with a focus on business… (more)

Mar 30
Jessica PhillipsG

Jessica Phillips is an English major with a focus on business… (more)

Jessica PhillipsG (Mar 30 2012 10:02AM) : 30:57-31:15 and 35:44-36:22 are two other good examples more

These are when the real estate agent hides from Dracula and when he discovers Dracula’s coffin.

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I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Mar 30
Dan Doernberg

I’m the head/founder of Fairness.com LLC. We really hope you … (more)

Dan Doernberg (Mar 30 2012 11:18AM) : sample reply more

blah blah

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Mar 30
Brandon Marsh Brandon Marsh (Mar 30 2012 10:04AM) : There's a meme that Max Schreck, the actor playing Dracula, was a real vampire! more

Film scholars analyzing the film found places where he had no reflection in the mirror… and others in the cast and crew said they only saw him at night (and that he kept to himself). Nicholas Cage produced a 2000 movie Shadow of the Vampire about this, see the trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyBt5DDFcQY&feature=player_embedded

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Mar 30
Rachel Wang Rachel Wang (Mar 30 2012 10:06AM) : 1:22:29-1:22:48 shows one theory of what happens when a vampire is exposed to sunlight. more

In this movie he dies. But in the popular “Twilight” films vampires glow or sparkle in the sun…quite different!

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DMU Timestamp: March 15, 2012 22:35

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