Academic Writing

Rewriting and
Proofreading
UNIT
1.12
In exams, you have no time for rewriting, but for coursework it is important to take
time to revise your work to improve its clarity and logical development. In both
situations, proofreading is essential to avoid the small errors that may make parts of
your work inaccurate or difficult to understand.

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An interview can be defined as a conversation with a definite structure and

objective. It goes beyond an everyday discussion with no particular purpose.
There are many possible interview situations, but all involve an interviewer and
an interviewee. It is normal for the former to ask the latter direct questions, and
record the answers. The questions may be prepared in advance or they may
occur as the interview develops. The recording is often done on paper, but may
also be done by audio or video recording. Interviews can take place anywhere,
in a street, café, office, bar, restaurant, etc. It is hard to say how many
interviews can be carried out in one day. I personally think that two is the
maximum because it can get very tiring. A lot depends on the subject being
researched.
1.12: Rewriting and Proofreading
79
Suggestions for improvement
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
Comments on the first draft might include some of the following:
(a) Too much space given to basic points
(b) No references are given
(c) Sentences are too short
(d) Style (e.g. I personally think) not suitable
(e) Question in title not addressed
With these points in mind, the introduction could be re-written as follows:
Organising an interview involves a series of steps (Davies, 2007), including
recruiting interviewees, finding a suitable venue and writing appropriate guidelines.
However, depending on the research subject, a more flexible approach can be
adopted, resulting in a less structured interview (Cooper and Schindler, 2008). For a
Master’s dissertation, interviews must contain data relevant to the research topic,

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