Essay Workshop_2013

AC100 /AC102 /AC104

Essay Writing Workshop

12/12/2013

Ana Simpson, Department of Accounting

AC100 Essay Writing Workshop I 1

Ana Simpson, Department of Accounting

Neil McLean, Teaching and Learning Centre

Purpose of this workshop

Not to advise you on the content of the essay

To provide you with tips on how to approach the essay

Suggested references – not an exclusive list!

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Suggested references – not an exclusive list!

AC100 Essay Writing Workshop

Essay writing in practice…

Guidance on:

• Essay topic

• Essay structure

• Essay style / presentation

3AC100 Essay Writing Workshop

Essay writing in practice…

Christmas Vacation Essay 2013/14

Discuss and evaluate the following statement:

‘Uniform accounting standards produce uniform financial

reporting.’

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reporting.’


Essay topic

Suggestions

o Understand the question

o Develop your argument

o Back up your arguments with evidence from the literature

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o Back up your arguments with evidence from the literature

o Treat evidence from the literature in a critical way

o Providing recommendations


Essay topic

Understand the question: key elements

1. Uniform accounting standards

� across companies?

� across industries?

� across groups of countries?

� worldwide?

2. …produce uniform financial reporting

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� distinction between uniformity in standards and uniformity in reporting

� Uniformity of standards driven by globalisation

� Implementation issues

� Incentives of preparers (managers) and enforcers (auditors,

regulators, analysts, shareholders, etc.) remain local – shaped by

political and economic factors


Essay topic

Understand the question – choose your focus:

- The European Union – IFRS as adopted by the EU

- The countries that have adopted IFRS (81 countries*)

- The whole world – potential IFRS adoption by the US and the rest of the non-IFRS countries

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* You can find the list of IFRS adopters on the IASB website (www.ifrs.org)


Essay topic

Develop your arguments in balanced way

Arguments for:

1. The idea of uniform accounting standards

- advantages, disadvantages, obstacles, need….

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- advantages, disadvantages, obstacles, need….

2. The achievement of uniform financial reporting conditional on

the existence of uniform accounting standards

Back up your arguments with evidence from the literature


Essay topic

Treat evidence from the literature in a critical manner

• Ball (2006) argues: “…it is costly to develop a fully detailed set of accounting

standards to cover every feasible contingency, so standards are not the only way

of solving accounting method choices. Some type of "functional completion' is

required. For example, under "principles based' accounting, general principles

rather than detailed standards are developed in advance and then adapted to

specific situations with the approval of independent auditors. It is therefore not

AC100 Essay Writing Workshop 9

specific situations with the approval of independent auditors. It is therefore not optimal for all accounting choices to be made according to uniform standards.”

So what is the main idea put forward by Ball (2006) above?

‘It is not clear that uniformity in financial reporting requires uniform accounting standards’

Avoid rehearsing phrases, say things with your own words

Essay topic

When providing recommendations be as precise as possible. Avoid vague and unclear recommendations

‘Accounting regulations need to be reshaped ’.

In what way?

‘Rather than looking for alternatives, an improvement in the current

accounting settings will help getting to the end of the crisis and help

stepping up the recovery’

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stepping up the recovery’

How?

‘Changes to the rules and a revision of the way things are done seems to be

the way forward.’

What changes?

If regulation is to be reshaped, should there be more measurement bases

in the financial reporting framework?; Should we amend financial

reporting or bank regulation? Is it voluntary or mandatory disclosure

that could be amended?


Essay structure

Suggestions

o Introduction

o Main text

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o Conclusion


Essay structure

Introduction

� Put the topic in context

Why is the topic important?

What is the topic about?

� Guide the reader

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� Guide the reader

Provide a brief roadmap for the essay content


Essay structure

Introduction – Avoid definitions and unnecessary details

‘A definition of accounting will help highlight its connection to the economy in essence its “concerned with collecting, analysing and communicating financial information” (Atrill and McLaney 4th ed), it’s this decision making process that financial documents are produced to make more educated decisions’.

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to make more educated decisions’.

This is a basic point, no reference required just convey the main idea:‘Accounting provides information for economic decision making and is therefore inextricably tied to economic stability.’

Be critical and straight to the point.


Essay structure

Main text – many ways to structure it

One possible way:

Start with your view/thesis

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Then provide arguments for and arguments against

State why the arguments for are stronger


Essay structure

Conclusion – Summarize and conclude

� Add an insightful concluding remark

� Provide paths for future research/thoughts

15AC100 Essay Writing Workshop

Essay style/presentation

Use proper citations/references

Plagiarism!

‘All work for classes and seminars as well as scripts (which include,

for example, essays, dissertations and any other work, including

computer programs) must be the student's own work. Quotations

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computer programs) must be the student's own work. Quotations

must be placed properly within quotation marks or indented and

must be cited fully. All paraphrased material must be

acknowledged. Infringing this requirement or passing off the work

of others as the work of the student, whether deliberately or not, is

plagiarism’.



Proper citations

‘Research results have also shown that IFRS adoption has a positive impact on lowering cost of capital for MPLCs. For example, Daske and Günther (2006) examine the quality of the financial statements of Austrian, German and Swiss firms… reporting quality improved considerably under IFRS in the three European countries and firms which voluntarily or mandatorily adopted IFRS experienced a

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which voluntarily or mandatorily adopted IFRS experienced a reduction in cost of capital.’

References

Daske, H. and G. Günther (2006). International Financial Reporting Standards and Experts Perceptions of Disclosure Quality. Abacus42( 3-4), 461-498.



Adapt to a proper style of citations

�� Ref: Ball R. ‘International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): pros and cons for investors’.

�� Ball R.

�� Ball

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�� Ball

�� http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/12964698

�� Ball (2006)



Literature recommended sources:

� Papers published in academic journals (LSE online library)

� Academic textbooks

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� Working papers uploaded in SSRN (www.ssrn.com)

� Articles in other journals / newspapers (especially for

examples)


Useful links (Only suggested and not-exclusive list) :

• Ball R. (2006) ‘International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): pros and cons for

investors’ Accounting and Business Research Vol. 36 (Special Issue), 5-27.

• Jeanjean, T. and H. Stolowy (2008) ‘Do accounting standards matter? An exploratory

analysis of earnings management before and after IFRS adoption’ Journal of Accounting

and Public Policy Vol. 27 (6), 480-494.

• Bradshaw, M. and G. Miller (2008) ‘Will Harmonizing Accounting Standards Really

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• Bradshaw, M. and G. Miller (2008) ‘Will Harmonizing Accounting Standards Really

Harmonize Accounting? Evidence from Non-U.S. Firms Adopting U.S. GAAP’ Journal of

Accounting, Auditing and Finance Vol. 23 (2), 233-264.

• Hail, L., C. Leuz and P. Wysocki (2010) Global Accounting Convergence and the Potential

Adoption of IFRS by the U.S. (Part I): Conceptual Underpinnings and Economic Analysis,

Accounting Horizons Vol. 24 (3), pp. 355-394.

• FT: www.ft.com

• IASB website: http://www.ifrs.org


Planning an answer

• Analysing a question -

‘Uniform accounting standards produce

uniform financial reporting.’ uniform financial reporting.’

Initial observation – this is an absolute statement, in which

one thing always leads to another – sounds unlikely


Planning an answer



uniform financial reporting.’

Asking questions of the question -

Which standards are you going to write about?

How / why are they not uniform?

Could they be uniform?


Planning an answer




Asking questions of the question

Which financial reporting are you going to write

about?

How / why is this not uniform?

Could this be uniform?


Planning an answer




Asking questions of the question

What is the relationship between standards and

reporting?

How / why might uniform standards ‘produce’

uniform reporting?

How / why might this not work?


Planning an answer

• Essay structure

– Intro

• Why is the question important?

• What is your answer?• What is your answer?

– Yes – uniform standards would produce uniform reporting

– No – uniformity of standards wouldn’t achieve uniformity of financial reporting

• What is your argument?

– Why ‘yes’? / why ‘no’?


Essay Workshop_2013

Documents

Transcript of Essay Workshop_2013