Immersing Students into the
World of Academic English
Summary
The following is a summary of an article written by Christine Tardy for
English Teaching Forum. Its title is Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an
introduction to academic writing. This article deals mainly with how to
guide students into the production of academic writing, using Wikipedia as a
tool for such aim. For students’ production to be accepted into Wikipedia
website, Tardy (2010) explains what requirements and steps must be fulfilled.
To start with, according to the author, it is essential to raise awareness
in learners of the importance of avoiding plagiarism. Writers should be able to
paraphrase, summarize, cite and quote in order to successfully write in an
acceptable academic style. Moreover, the academic style requires from the
students knowledge of the appropriate genres, styles, register and a high level
of expertise on the topics dealt with in papers. In addition, for written
pieces to be accepted into Wikipedia, not only knowledge is required, but also
reliable sources of information.
Furthermore, the writer lists the steps to be followed in order to
successfully write in academic English and, thus, to have the written piece
admitted into Wikipedia. First of all, students should start by examining
Wikipedia to have an idea of what is expected from them. Then, gathering
information follows with outlining and paraphrasing so as to organize what is
to be written together with the sources where information was taken from. The
last steps are concerned with the writing process. Students should be
encouraged to draft, revise, format sources, and polish, being revising and
polishing better achieved, as the writer suggests, if they are carried out by
peer review. Finally, publishing takes place.
To conclude, the author aims at providing the teacher with tools to immerse
students into the community of academic English. Students’ productions are
accepted into Wikipedia as long as they meet the requirements of academic
style. Therefore, as Tardy (2010) asserts, writing to publish in Wikipedia
gives students a real purpose and real audience to use academic English, which
is assumed to help students gain valuable learning.
Tardy, C. M. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction
to academic writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, 12-27. Retrieved from http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/10-48-1-c.pdf
