Help in Writing a Commentary

When you face with new kind of writing, you need a detailed guide to follow. Exactly such an approach helps the writer to make the text exciting, readable, and informative. The same is fair for commentary. What is this, how to write it, using actual requirements – you would get your answers in the following guide.

The Definition of Commentary

Commentary is a kind of paper that means in-depth analysis of another text. It differs from other similar tasks, such as thesis, essay, etc., so has its own rules in writing. Commentary is useful for different companies which publish short news and articles, such as newspapers. With this kind of paper, you can make a place for discussion of different topics by opposite points of view.

As a result, commentary belongs to critical tasks but has a respectful tone of voice at the same time. There are several particularities of the process of commentary writing according to its origin.

Proper Style and Tone of Voice

So writing commentary means making a critical analysis of the primary source. Your text must contain the description of the current situation and potential consequences in the nearest future. The writer can’t use only his fantasy because the document must be fair and relevant. So prefer facts, events, and other pieces of evidence from the original paper. Only such approach allows reaching readable and exciting commentary.

Besides, the author should use his knowledge and skills in the exact field to make new paper based on the focal article. As a result, you can start an interesting and constructive discussion for your topic.

Note, that you can’t change the focus of your commentary. Make sure that your paper is concerned on the main subject of the original text, but not minor facts of the author’s personality. Such mistakes are very spread among young writers. Of course, your aim is a critical analysis of someone else’s job, but keep it respectable. Use the only constructive tone of voice and writing style to let your readers make conclusions on their own.

The Guide for Making Commentary

Be sure to highlight all the important points from the original text. According to this material, you can collect, sort, and finish important ideas in one document. That’s why you will make a draft, write an outline, proofread, and finish your commentary. In general, you aim to prepare the main aspects and share them in your text. So you will pass the following steps in your writing.

Preparation Stage

You must make all the preparations beforehand so there would be no misunderstanding in the future. Read the original text for several times. Such an approach guarantees getting all important facts. You must remember and understand each sentence, not to miss any vital point of view.

Make notes with the most important facts and write your ideas while getting acquainted with the text. Such highlights will be a base for your commentary and text outline.

Create an Outline

An outline is the next part of the preparation stage of your commentary. You can start writing this block of text only after reading a primary text for several times and making highlights. This is like a basic preparation for outline preparation.

To make a great outline, you need to review the original article structure. According to its particularities, you can create your bullets. Each one sentence should be relevant to your future text and primary source. Your outline will contain an introduction, several pieces in the body, and small conclusions. This is a simple example of an effective outline that will be great for your commentary.

Collect Data for Introduction

The introduction cannot be overvalued because this block of the text creates the first impression of your commentary. It would be great if your introduction will be not only interesting and readable but also catching and exciting. Make sure you did your best to make this block.

So, first of all, you should identify the most important information. You should read and note the title of the paper, its genre, author, and date of publication. Be attentive to find there anything interesting for your paper. Remember, that commentary essay requires from the writer to add such information at the beginning of the text.

Besides, you can use interesting facts connected with your primary source. For instance, explain the whole collection of writing, where your text for the analysis belongs. But you must distinguish interest and unimportant details, such as the author’s favorite color. Such a mistake can cost you a lot because no one likes to waste your own time on third rate content.

Identify Subject and Target Audience

With such elements, you will start your body. It is created to explain all facts, data, events, etc. exactly in this part. You can create a list of questions for yourself and answer them in the body. Such a simple method helps to identify constructive parts in original text and share them in your commentary. Also, you may find the main accents in the primary source, highlight them, and rewrite in your essay.

So remember your general aim: to share the main ideas and the focus of your primary source in the body. This section is called to explain the basic information for your readers: the main points of view, the author’s purposes, etc. It is okay to share only the main ideas, but not all of them, so keep ranging all highlights according to your taste.

Explain the Text

This is a place to observe the structure of the writing (for example, poetry, prose, type of essay, etc.). Usually, writers have requirements in the structure, but also they can get a free blueprint. That’s why you can feel free and share your expressions in a commentary in any structure you are comfortable with.

The most popular is prose. It is a simple note without any additional requirement. Just use your plan and don’t think about special rhythm or text melody. Additional advice: don’t push yourself into the unusual structure of the text, if it is not obligated. Yes, sometimes you need to risk gaining the best results. But experience shows that a good job is based on your skills and abilities. So experts in prose shouldn’t risk it all and write poems.

Choose the Text Presentation

Then you need to identify the type of the voice (the first or second person) and the tone (friendly/official). To identify the type of person, you need to check who speaks the text. If you note the words like ‘you’ and ‘we’, then you will describe all characters in the article. If there is only ‘I’, then using the first person is obviously.

All such particularities must be described in your commentary. Don’t think that amount of heroes is not important. It is as vitally important, as the main goals and ideas of the article.

Understand the Proper Tone of Voice

The tone of voice is a style of expression of the author’s points of view. He can do it in any manner he is comfortable. Also, the choice of voice depends on the target audience and tasks which the writer had. For instance, the friendly tone of voice is extremely popular among youth in entertainment and job. They prefer sharing any information with strangers as they are friends. In other situations, you may need a serious tone of voice to highlight the particularities of the issue.

Be sure that the tone of voice can change the impression from any situation. Even the choice of exact words can play a great role in the text destiny. The author’s mood and experience cause the proper tone of voice, so such characteristics are unique for all types of content.

There is also no special requirement for writers, so choose the most proper tone and type of voice for you. Most authors tend to use a neutral tone of voice, which looks like a smart combination of friendly and official language. But on special topics, you can’t rely on a neutral impression. For instance, serious historical facts require more logical structure, and the story of the exact piece of art needs an emotional background.

Highlight Important Language Tools

Language tool is a special element which is used to increase the power of exact meaningful sentence or word communication. You can add metaphor and impress someone with your in-depth understanding of the subject or choose strong quotation to support your own point of view. In any case, such elements are strong tips for your text. All such language tools mean a lot for your commentary.

That’s why you should note the literary tools in the text. You may highlight metaphors, conclusions, hyperbolas, alliterations, and so on. It is highly recommended reading special guidelines to identify tools and their meaning literally. Sometimes such elements in the text can mean more than a simple language tool.

Besides mentioning these elements, you also must explain the meaning for the writer and his paper. Never make a mistake with the meaning of the language tool. It is worse than to skip this part at all.

Add Quotes to Your Commentary

Quotations are not obvious parts of your commentary, but they can bring it much more weight. The phrases from the original text will support your ideas and make your readers excited. There is no situation which cannot become better with the relevant quote.

For instance, if you discuss the role of religion for the famous scientist in his researches, you should find his point of view with the keyword ‘religion’ or other thematic words. Use his direct speech in quotation marks to support the exact fact. This would be the best evidence for your commentary.

So choose the relevant sentences and take them in quotation marks in your essay. Such a simple tip will bring you great advantages in writing a commentary.

Make a Summary

The summary is the final conclusion for your commentary. This part is small, but it means a lot for writer, readers, and the text in general. To make a great summary, you should remember all the details of your text and use them as briefly as you can to share the last words.

So write the final sentence to conclude the primary source and your job with absolute calm. Make several samples of summary and choose the best one. Try to put yourself in your target audience’s shoes and make this paragraph exactly for them.

Remember that this part shouldn’t present new information, but support all previous facts and ideas in the commentary. Your body is a place for new facts, but not the conclusion. If you place here anything that was not mentioned before you will make a serious crime in the academic writing field, so let your summary be just a summary with your final words and nothing else.

Keep Your Text in Presentable Form

Presentation is very important for any job. You can create the best content but make weak presentations. Such a situation will cause only issues and will not bring any advantage. Or the writer may hide the weak content under the mask of impressive presentation and get more chances for success.

But the best way is to keep both elements awesome. Your text must be excellent, and the presentation should be logic, nice, and pleasant. Prefer traditional writing styles and improve them with modern tips like pictures or scales. The tone of voice, writing manner, and paper quality are also important. Keep the balance of facts, descriptions, humor, information, and other elements in your commentary.

Ask for a Feedback

The feedback is an opportunity to hear the thoughts of your target audience. If you read your commentary in front of other people, you can get their first impressions and pieces of advice. Besides, you are also able to post your commentary online and get users’ comments. Their points of view can help you improve your content, its structure, tone of voice, and other particularities.

So always give final proofreading to your friends and ask your audience for feedback. Get all advantages from people’s criticism and analysis. It is quite simple to encourage them to share their thoughts, so keep your voice friendly and let people support you.

Proofread and Improve Your Paper

The proofreading is a key to good commentary. There is no way to finish your material and do not polish it in several days. This is a very important rule among all editors, so always prepare time for such stage. Usually, proofreading requires from several hours to several days. The more time you have, it is better.

The best way is to proofread your commentary in several days after you finish writing. The point is the author can be blind for his own text because he spends so many time on it and even can play by memory each sentence. In several days your brain will rest and be able to make independent proofreading.

Also, remember the traditional requirements for all kinds of papers. Keep out mistakes and misprints, make the text readable, pleasant, and exciting. Of course, you are not a machine and can miss misprints, but your commentary will be damaged. Try to use the help in proofreading, for instance, special online tools or professional editors.

Let`s Start It!

Commentary isn’t so simple as you can think for the first time. But you have all chances to execute such job on the highest level. Just keep these guidelines and follow all recommendations while making commentary. If you feel you need help, then just ask for professional support right now.