Developing Academic Literary Skills through On Line Research Projects Academic Summary

 “Writing for the World: Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic Writing” (Tardy, 2010) is an article on the use of a free encyclopaedia to facilitate an understanding of academic writing rules. Writing academic texts involves facing various challenges as not only do the learners have to acquire the ability to use the community specific jargon, but also the particular genre. Therefore, Tardy (2010) notes that using a well-known website, at school, would encourage the students to begin utilizing academic literacy skills.

Tardy (2010) defines the term wiki as “a collaborative web-based spaced that can be modified by any users” (p.13) thus, enabling the students to publish their tasks. When dealing with the assignment, the learners can choose topics related to their interests while getting to know the format and characteristics of the site. Then, the students have the opportunity of following certain stages which are similar to those of academic writing. For instance, the learners have to do research, outline and paraphrase the projects, organize their writing, revise citations and references and finally, check word choice and spelling.

All things considered, it could be claimed that Wikipedia can be seen as an empowering tool to lead the students into the academic field. This web site allows for a progressive learning of the academic skills in a collaborative way.  Finally, Tardy (2010) points out that carrying out this assignment is a rewarding activity on the grounds that the students have the possibility of sharing their reports in a virtual community.

References

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