An Academic Summary on How to Create a Wikipedia Article
The article Writing for the World:
Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic Writing, by Tardy (2010) describes, in eight
steps, the process of composing an article for Wikipedia, the collaborative
online encyclopedia. In this way, the author introduces a way of developing academic
writing skills for foreign students.
As a first step, it is
necessary to find out what students know about Wikipedia and identify the topic
they are going to write about. Then they
start their research. In the third step, the students organize the information
gathered and create an outline, which includes the paraphrasing from the original
source. Step four
involves drafting, in which students have to focus on the creation of a clear
and well-developed text. In the fifth step, students
must revise their work. Tardy (2010) mentions that peer editing is valuable at
this stage. After the students have received feedback they can concentrate on
style, which must be objective and with no use of first person, among other
lexico-grammatical features.
Once
the students have found their topic, gathered some information, created a draft
and developed a coherent text, it is time for the next step. Step six is
concerned with creating in text citations in the form of footnotes or general
references. In step seven, students are supposed to check spelling, vocabulary,
grammar and punctuation; before being able to publish their works. It is necessary to register
beforehand as a Wikipedia user. Some articles can be published immediately,
while others are sent back to the authors for error correction.
To
sum up, Tardy explains that foreign students
can practice their academic skills by creating and article for Wikipedia. The
students are supposed to follow eight steps in order to successfully publish
their articles. Once the article has been published, it is available worldwide
and can be edited or revised by any other user.
References
Tardy, C.M. (2010). Writing for the world: wikipedia as an introduction
to academic writing. English Teacher Forum, 1, 12-19,27. Retrieved from http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/10-48-1-c.pdf
