Mandatory Draft- IR

Introduction

                  Communication is the key to the success of every person.  Whether that is communicating with your parents about a, communicating with your friends about plans for this weekend, or communicating with your teachers. The best way to be successful in your goal as a person is to communicate effectively with the people around you.  This is done through effective communication. Effective communication however, can be different for different people and groups.  Clearly, people will communicate in different ways depending on the group they are communication with.  One of the main ways we communicate now is through writing, whether that is an email to a teacher, a quick text to a friend to tell them you are running late, or even a paper that will communicate your knowledge on a topic in school.

I was interested in what ways the profession that I want to go in to uses writing, and how the different types of writing are utilized by professionals in the accounting and finance fields. Through my research I have found this variation to be the same in the accounting and finance professional fields.  These professions, although do a lot of work independently, require communication with not only other people in the same fields but also the communication form other fields to achieve their goals.  There are many different genres of writing that are vital to being able to complete the work required in these professions.  Academic and non-academic writings play a significant role in the accounting and finance professions.  There are numerous different types of writing, all depending on the audience and the purpose of the writing. In an interview with Mrs. Burke, CFO of a local bank and a former accountant, emphasized, “In my present role and in all my past roles, writing is a part of every day”.

Academic Writings

Academic writing is very important when communicating with other professionals in accounting and finance.  Mrs. Burke says, “I don’t deal with academic articles directly in my position, but they can have an impact on the way we do business”.  Often they are new findings that one professional has discovered and wants to communicate that with all the other professional in the field.  With almost all of the academic writings in the fields of accounting and finance there is some use of graphs, charts, or tables to communicate information efficiently.  One thing that is commonly in academic articles is proposed problem and solutions in the accounting and finance systems.

One problem brought up is the problem of how to calculate human capital and put that into a financial statement.  The purpose of an article like this is to inform his fellow people in the accounting and finance fields and, more importantly, to help bring a possible solution to the problem.  These types of articles often have more of a persuasive stance and can use more influential language.  This can be seen in “Finance and Accounting’s Glaring Omission” by Tom Pryor, the author of five books, teaches at several universities, and is on the board of the Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance.  He states in the article, “The Human Capital Asset Statement proposed by the Human Capital Management Institute focuses on the value added by employees. I propose a human capital valuation method that encompasses education, accomplishments, and character.” (Pryor, 2015, 61-64).  He states the solution that has been proposed before, but he disagrees with solution by proposing a different angle of valuing employees in a company.  Another article discussing the role of accounting and finance in adverse selection.  Much like the article by Pryor, the article “Accounting, Finance and Adverse Selection: Illustrations and Applications” by Young, uses holds an opinion throughout the article in order to make the point that the author wants to make (Young, 2011, 69-101).

Another dynamic of academic writing is in informative and informational articles.  These articles usual have found some new formula, or statistic that can be used for the betterment of the whole entire field.  Using a serious and informative stance, these articles go into great detail into how this new discovered formula works and the process they took to get this formula.   The integration of a formula into a paragraph is not uncommon and is used to increase understanding of the intended audience, other professionals that could be utilizing this formula in their work. A team of researchers were studying the business cycle and how they could create a formula to create a quantitative model to economic fluctuations. In the article “Business Cycle Accounting”, the authors Chari, Kehoe, and McGrattan uses many different calculation and text explanations paired with charts and graphs to communicate the findings of the team.  Chari uses this combination of text and equations effectively for the audience, “Here T(st) is lump-sum transfers. The initial condition b(s0) is given. Each of the bonds b(st+1) is a claim to one unit of consumption instate st+1 and costs q(st+1|st) dollars in state st. The first-order conditions for the consumer can be written as −Ul(st)/Uc(st)= w(st)” (Chari, 2007, 831).  The authors use this type of writing here because the intended audience, other researchers and professionals can use this information. 

Non-Academic Writings

                  The most common form of writing in the accounting and finance professions is non-academic writing.  A balance sheet is one form of non academic writing that is used very commonly among the accounting field. A balance sheet is broken up into two sides, assets and liabilities.  The message being communicated in a balance sheet is just a quick summary in numerical form of where the company stands.  Using categories and placing a number value next to those categories, like in this line of a balance sheet, “Short-term Investments: $5,003” (2004).  This effectively communicates the information to the people that need it by keeping it short and direct.  Expense forms, like the balance sheet, use a direct method of communication.  An example of this can be seen in this balance sheet line, “Current Balance: $8,899.00” (SURC Accounting, 2004). The expense form displays a dollar value, but for a specific transaction.  Communication on an expense form differs slightly from an expense form because it includes signatures of the person submitting the form, the date of the transaction, and other details about the transaction. This grouped and direct form is exactly what Mrs. Burke refers to when she said, “One of the keys to effective business writing is understanding the message that needs to be communicated”.  The message portrayed by these documents do not need a long explanation, they merely need the dollar amounts with limited other information.

                  Another form of non-academic writing that is often used by businesses is the memorandum, or memo.  A memo is a short written note, often used as a reminder.  This reminder typically uses short paragraph form or bullet points.  The important part of making a memo successful is, “Understanding who the audience to whom I am communicating” (Brizee & Perkins, 2011).  How the memo will be formatted and what things will be stated in the memo all depend on who it is intended for. 

Conclusion

                  After researching many academic and non-academic sources along with an interview of a professional in the field I have found how vital utilizing many different types of writing can be in the business field. “Knowing that my writing is not only a reflection of me,” said Mrs. Burke, “but a reflection on executive officers in the company, therefore a reflection on my position and the company”.   Academic writing may be less common, however the things found in academic writing may be the some of the most vital writing to the accounting and finance professions.  Most of the communication that happens in the field is classified as non-academic and these types of writing are important because they are used every day on the job.  Clearly, writing is very important in the accounting and finance professional fields.

References

Brizee, A., & Perkins, C., (2011). Sample Memo. Retrieved from        https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/590/04/

Jagannathan, MuraliView, Schwartz, Steven, Spizman, Joshua, Young, Richard. (2011).            Accounting, Finance and Adverse Selection: Illustrations and Applications. Journal of   Accounting Literature, 30. Retrieved from                http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/docview/1356642860?OpenUrlRefId      nfo:xri/sid:primo

Pryor, Tom. (2015). Finance and Accounting's Glaring Omission. Journal of Corporate            Accounting & Finance, 26. Retrieved from                  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/doi/10.1002/jcaf.22081/full

Springfield Psychological Services. (2004). Balance Sheets. Retrieved from  http://www.apapracticecentral.org/business/finances/balance-sheet-sample.pdf

SURC Accounting. (2014). Expense Forms. Retrieved from http://www.cwu.edu/surc          accounting/expense-forms

V. V. Chari, Kehoe, Patrick J., & McGrattan, Ellen R. (2007). Business Cycle Counting. Journal of            Econometric Society, 75. Retrieved from                  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1468  0262.2007.00768.x/epdf