An Academic Summary

 Wikipedia for Academic Writing

In the article “Writing for the World: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing ” (Tardy, 2010), the author describes Wikipedia as a tool for developing  academic writing skills for writers of a second language (L2), and hence he produces a research project based on the electronic encyclopedia for undergraduate writing students.

According to Tardy (2010), paraphrasing, summarizing, citing sources, researching are necessary skills for academic writing; and also their level of difficulty grows for L2 writers, as he states “…students need to learn to paraphrase and summarize –skills that tend to be more difficult in a second language” (p. 12). The author proposes developing these skills by means of writing an article that meets the requirements needed to be edited and published in Wikipedia. In order to achieve this, L2 students are led through eight different steps as it follows: “examining Wikipedia, gathering information, outlining and paraphrasing, drafting, revising, formatting sources, polishing, and publishing” (p. 14).

To conclude, Wikipedia research project  not only represents a source for developing and practicing academic literacy skills, but also it provides L2  writers with the opportunity of addressing a worldwide audience and enjoying  “the satisfaction of seeing their work published on a high-traffic global website” (Tardy, 2010, p.18).   

  

References

Tardy, C. M. (2010).  Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing.

     English Teaching Forum, 1, pp. 12-19, 27.  Retrieved October 2012, from

     http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/10-48-1-c.pdf