Academic Summary

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