Introduction

We have been talking about engagement in the last few months here in the community. If you have been a around for some time now, you must have heard about it. While we encourage everyone to engage with publications on the platform, we need to understand the first and most basic element of engagement - making a comment. So we will see how to make a great comment in a masterful way.

To begin, let's look at 4 important things that must be done to make a great comment. They are

• Read and Understand the article
• Starting a great comment
• Quote a specific portion of the article
• Reply the quoted portion of the article

Now lets start without delay.

Step 1: Read and Understand the article

This is the very first thing that must be done while preparing to make a great comment. Interestingly, this is also the place most people get it wrong. The truth is that if you do not read an article very well and understand the main points, you will struggle to make a great comment. While reading the article, look for headings and subheadings, those are where the main points usually are. Try to understand the language of the author and the points they want to drive home. You need time and patience here.

Some readers simply do not have time to patiently read a publication till the end. That is absolutely wrong. In fact, that is the beginning of making a poor comment. When you simply scan through the article or just read a portion of it, you will definitely miss the whole picture. So do not be in a hurry. It is better to make a few really quality comments, than rushing over several articles just to make several comments that will turn out to be of low quality at the end of the day.

So please, take your time to read the article comprehensively. If you do, you have taken the right first step towards making a great comment

Step 2: Starting a great comment

No that you have read and understand the article, its time to start your comment. I usually start my replies with commendation. If you are a content writer, you will agree that writing an article is not so easy. Some writers spend hours researching the topic, getting their facts right, proofreading the post and even checking for plagiarism. These are time consuming tasks that go into making a publication. So to encourage the author, I usually start with a few words of praise or commendation.

When you start with a commendation, you motivate the author. Those kind words uplift the author's spirit and make them feel appreciated. In your first few words or sentence, so something positive about the article. Do this even if you will disagree with the some of the authors views. When you start positively, it will make for a cordial and more friendly conversation afterwards.

Check the section labelled 1, of the image below and see how the responder started with positive words of commendation

_{Screenshot from source}

Remember, starting with commendation is not a rule, but a suggestion which I have discovered to work. It puts the author at ease and makes them want to see other things you wish to say. Now after starting positively, the next thing is to give a meaningful response to a portion of the article. Lets see why this is important.

Step 3: Quote a specific portion of the article

Since it is not possible to respond to everything written by the author, you have to reply to at least 1 portion of the article or more. This is important because it shows you read the post and have interest in that selected portion. Many readers make a mistake of replying a portion of the article, without identifying which portion they are replying. That is very wrong. The correct thing is to show which portion you are replying. If you look at the section labelled 2 below, you will see how I copied and quoted a portion of the article:

_{Screenshot from source}

Once you have copied the section you wish to reply, you need to show that it was copied. To do that, put ">" at the beginning of a fresh line and paste the copied portion. See how to do it below:

When you look at the result in the previous image above, you will see that the copied text looks faint and has a line at the beginning. That is how to show that the text is not yours, but copied from source.

So when you copy and quote a specific section of the post, the author will know which area you are responding to. It is also another way to show that you actually went through the article. Its not wrong to reply more than one section of the post. That would still be highly appreciated.

4. Reply the quoted portion of the article

This is the most important part of a great comment. Now that you have quoted a specific portion, you have to respond to that section. Its up to you to know what your response will be. For example, you can agree or disagree with the author, share an experience, ask a question, give a suggestion or say some other things you wish. Try to make a meaningful contribution.

I have seen some responders make mistakes here. They simply quote a section and say something like this: "I agree with you", "this is true", "Nice point above", etc. Will you call the following meaningful contributions? That is very very poor. After quoting the section, try to contribute meaningfully. You can even raise a question in your response. Just try to be creative and contribute well. Take a look at section 3 of the image below:

_{Screenshot from source}

You can see that I did not just agree with the author, I contributed meaningful too, giving reasons for my agreeing with the authors views. This is a great comment overall, and it would be easy for the author to come back and respond to my comment and the conversation continues.

Conclusion

Engagement carries the making or having meaningful conversation. That starts with the first comment you make to post. The quality of your comment will determine if the conversation has a chance to continue or simply dies off. If you make a poor comment, the author might be pushed to just say "thank you!" and the engagement ends. But if you follow the suggestions above, your comment would be great, the author will be motivated to reply and that is the beginning of a great discussion.

I hope that by going through this article, your next comment would be amazing and we would promote quality engagement in the community.