Introduction to Academic Writing in Wikipedia:

 A Summary of Tardy

     The article written by Tardy (2010) presents the challenges students of English as a second language may experience in using their literary skills to write an article in  Wikipedia. She also explores the different steps students should follow in order to write pieces that could be published.

     The author suggests that students should first be acquainted with Wikipedia itself and learn about its aim and style by analysing some published articles. The next steps are to gather the relevant information to support the chosen topic and to create an outline as well as to include the sources. Subsequently, writing the first draft in a coherent and cohesive way is encouraged.

      Tardy (2010) suggests that the next step to follow is peer review of the work done so far. In order to avoid plagiarism, the author proposes to pay attention to how sources are cited, respecting Wikipedia´s documentation style, MLA (Modern Language Association) or Chicago. Then, proofreading and polishing the text are recommended to avoid spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation mistakes. Wikilinks should be identified so that readers can check other existing articles. Finally, students submit their final versions to be published.

     Tardy (2010) concludes that producing pieces for Wikipedia helped her students to improve their academic literary skills and that they “gained a sense of real audience and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing their work published” (p.18).

References

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

writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, pp.12-19, 27.