Lastly, here we are in the living area, which, you’ll be pleased to hear, is still the heart of the family home. Let’s enter the room. Now, to the left of the entrance is the main seating area with a sofa, and directly opposite the entrance is an armchair. The sofa backs onto the wall and the armchair faces to the left, across the coffee table to a blank wall. So ’where is the TV?’ I hear you ask. Well, this entire wall is the television. The whole thing is a plasmid screen designed to show your TV, surf the Internet or, when it’s not in use, it displays anything you want from family pictures to famous works of art.
On the opposite wall to the sofa is a fireplace, which still has a real fire nothing beats that now. does it? But the rug in front of the fire now also monitors the temperature, and either opens of closes the chimney, so as not to overheat the room. It still has its normal uses though, as you can see, the cat likes it very much and is curled up on it, happy as can be.
What else is on offer? Well, for entertainment the family still reads books, so there is a bookcase on the wall to the right of the entrance. But what about the computer? Well, it’s inside your head and powered by those intelligent clothes you’re wearing. Imagine this: as you’re sitting relaxing on the armchair, you’ll be able to reach out and put your hot drink on the coffee table in front of the armchair. You suddenly remember that you need to send work an email. That same coffee table holding your cup is also a touch sensitive keyboard for you to type your email and then click    ’send’. All you need to do to activate it is say ’email’ and the image of a keyboard will appear.
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed your tour around the home of the future and that you’ll come visit again soon. Bye-bye.

P: Now, I have to say that I found the middle part more difficult to get through.
K: Oh!   I thought I had done that rather well.
P: Don’t worry — it’s not awful. It’s just that... well, try to take a uniform approach. Use one for each criteria people use when choosing housing. That way, you’re comparing like with like, rather than different things.
K: Ah, I see. So, I should stick with one as far as possible. Yes, that does seem logical. So, I don’t really need to get more data or write much more? Instead, I need to change... I’ve got it.
P: It just makes it a lot easier to read — that’s the main thing.
K: Yes, of course. How about the conclusion?
P: Based on the information you’ve provided, I think that you’ve done very well. You’ll have to see if the new information you include changes your conclusion at all. It probably won’t make a big difference, but you might see variations in some areas.
K: OK. Do you think that I used appropriate headings? And is the bibliography, OK? I know that a lot of professors look long and hard at that, while most students think it unimportant.
P: Yes, professors find the bibliography very useful — it tells us where you are getting your information from and whether those sources are appropriate. Your bibliography is fine, but you might consider changing the format. Here’s a printout of the most widely accepted format. You can keep that.
K: Thank you. And the headings?
P: I made a few notes. Here are some suggestions. Don’t feel that you have to use them — I won’t be offended! But some of your headings are long-winded whereas others are relatively short — as they should be.
K: Thank you. I’ll take a look at these later.
P: How long did you work on the whole thing?
K: Well, two months. Perhaps an average of three hours a day — not more than that. Probably, oh, 150 hours.
P: That’s about what I would recommend. Anything less than 120 is going to be detrimental to the project. You’ll probably need another 50 hours’ work on it in total, you’ve still got a month, so you should manage it easily.
K: Yes, a couple of hours a day. Easy!
P: I’d suggest that you come back to see me in... oh, about, let’s say, three weeks’ time? Then you should be virtually finished and I can have another look before you do your firm proofreading before handing it in.
K: OK. I’ll see you after one of the seminars to make an appointment. Is that OK?
P: Certainly. Thanks, Kara.
K: Thank you, Professor.