diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/AbstractMarkupText.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/AbstractMarkupText.java
index 2b0e4108da27c6ef3c4ae5873bcad01842b7b675..905639706c89cf915c054a8b6e0c8d3197fabaa8 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/AbstractMarkupText.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/AbstractMarkupText.java
@@ -35,6 +35,13 @@ public abstract class AbstractMarkupText {
      */
     public abstract void addMarkup( int startPos, int endPos, String startTag, String endTag );
 
+    /**
+     * Adds a start tag and end tag around the entire text
+     */
+    public final void wrapBy(String startTag, String endTag) {
+        addMarkup(0,getText().length(),startTag,endTag);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Find all "tokens" that match the given pattern in this text.
      *