diff --git a/wikiextractor/WikiExtractor.py b/wikiextractor/WikiExtractor.py
index 830235d..61cc61c 100755
--- a/wikiextractor/WikiExtractor.py
+++ b/wikiextractor/WikiExtractor.py
@@ -546,8 +546,13 @@ def main():
                         metavar="n[KMG]")
     groupO.add_argument("-c", "--compress", action="store_true",
                         help="compress output files using bzip")
-    groupO.add_argument("--json", action="store_true",
-                        help="write output in json format instead of the default <doc> format")
+    groupOFormat = groupO.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
+    groupOFormat.add_argument("--json", action="store_true",
+                              help="write output in json format instead of the default <doc> format")
+    groupOFormat.add_argument("--text", action="store_true",
+                              help="write output in text format (body only, no title) instead of the default <doc> format")
+    groupO.add_argument("--discard_empty", action="store_true",
+                        help="discard empty articles (such as redirects) rather than writing just the title")
 
     groupP = parser.add_argument_group('Processing')
     groupP.add_argument("--html", action="store_true",
@@ -584,6 +589,8 @@ def main():
     if args.html:
         Extractor.keepLinks = True
     Extractor.to_json = args.json
+    Extractor.to_text = args.text
+    Extractor.discard_empty = args.discard_empty
 
     try:
         power = 'kmg'.find(args.bytes[-1].lower()) + 1
@@ -607,6 +614,13 @@ def main():
     if args.debug:
         logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
 
+    if args.json:
+        logger.debug("Outputting to json format")
+    elif args.text:
+        logger.debug("Outputting to text format")
+    else:
+        logger.debug("Outputting to <doc> format")
+
     input_file = args.input
 
     if not Extractor.keepLinks:
diff --git a/wikiextractor/extract.py b/wikiextractor/extract.py
index a00e23d..c3bc284 100644
--- a/wikiextractor/extract.py
+++ b/wikiextractor/extract.py
@@ -974,7 +974,9 @@ def extract(self, out, html_safe=True):
         text = ''.join(self.page)
         text = self.clean_text(text, html_safe=html_safe)
 
-        if self.to_json:
+        if self.discard_empty and not text:
+            pass
+        elif self.to_json:
             json_data = {
 		'id': self.id,
                 'revid': self.revid,
@@ -985,6 +987,9 @@ def extract(self, out, html_safe=True):
             out_str = json.dumps(json_data)
             out.write(out_str)
             out.write('\n')
+        elif self.to_text:
+            out.write('\n'.join(text))
+            out.write('\n\n\n')
         else:
             header = '<doc id="%s" url="%s" title="%s">\n' % (self.id, self.url, self.title)
             # Separate header from text with a newline.