Simple English Wikipedia: Simple Explanations To Not So Simple Things

If we took a poll right now, it would be a safe bet to say that most would say they loved using Wikipedia. For good reason too as Wikipedia provides people with easy access to information they would otherwise spend a bit of time looking for on the Web. But what about those who aren’t native English speakers or children who are still developing their vocabulary? Fortunately, there’s a Wiki just for them.

Simple English Wikipedia is similar to Wikipedia.org except for one thing, everything written on Simple Wiki uses simple English. The main page will look familiar to any regular Wikipedia user.

I’m sure you’re curious to see how much simpler it is compared to the standard Wiki so let’s take a look at a specific page from both. Let’s take a look at how both Wikipedias discuss the Aurora Borealis, more commonly known as the Northern Lights.

This is Simple English Wikipedia’s Aurora Borealis page

This is a snippet of the page’s article:

“Aurora is like fire that sometimes comes to the sky at the cold areas of Earth. In fact, the Roman Emperor Tiberius thought a city was on fire, so he sent fire engines to that city. The city on fire was actually a city against a backdrop of a red aurora.”

Another part from the same page states:

“Auroras can only be seen at night because their light is not as strong as the light of day. However they can happen during the day as well.”

Here’s Wikipedia.org’s page on the subject

This is part of the article:

“Auroras, sometimes called the northern and southern (polar) lights or aurorae (singular: aurora), are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar regions. They typically occur in the ionosphere. They are also referred to as polar auroras.”

See the difference? Simple Wiki provides a good reference source for people looking for real simple explanations. It’s definitely a good idea.