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
