Recommendation Reports Issues

Introduction u State the purpose –Saying “recommendation report” is may not mean much to the readers u Provide an overview of the report –State the criteria. Don’t justify them here. –Don’t give the conclusions –Include a forecasting statement

State the purpose up front u In my analysis, I will evaluate two accounting text books to be used by the Accounting 2401 course taught at East Carolina University. They are Corporate Financial Accounting, by Carl S. Warren and James M. Reeve, and Financial Accounting, by Jan R. Williams, Susan F. Haka, Mark S. Bettner and Robert F. Meigs.

Don’t say what audience knows u The most important thing an accounting student will need to succeed in the Accounting 2401 course is their text book. There are many textbooks that can be used but there is one that is always better than the other. The instructors, as well as the student, have to be captivated by the textbook. The student has to want to know more about the subject and the instructor has to want to teach the subject to the best of their ability. Having an impeccable text book helps both the student and the teacher be able to perform to the best of their ability. Some text books only last a few semesters, some last longer. I plan to recommend a text book that will surpass all the expectations and last for more than 2 or 3 semesters; it will last for 2 or 3 years.

Use lists u Hard to find specific points in a long paragraph u While both text books are great in comparison, one text book clearly has a better advantage over the other. The content in each book covers all the possible aspects of accounting that need to be covered. However, the Corporate Financial Accounting text book was much easier to read. The Financial Accounting text book was much more difficult because it did not use as many figures and captions as the Corporate Financial Accounting text book. There was a lack of example problems in the Financial Accounting text book, whereas in the Corporate Financial Accounting text book, there was an abundance of example problems in each chapter. As far as the complexity, the Financial Accounting text book would be much harder for the average accounting student. Both text books used an array of different figures and captions; the figures and captions in the Corporate Financial Accounting text book were much more appealing because of the colors. The Corporate Financial Accounting textbook had complex problems; however, they were much easier to understand because of the breakdown of the problems

Hard page breaks….not returns

No extra returns

Figure captions are not text boxes

Identify book in figure captions Figure 1: Normal Ledger Account Balance Chart.

Figures must have meaning

Tables must be meaningful

Criteria u Define the evaluation points u Justify why these evaluation points u Explain how you will measure them u Put in own section. Not with evaluation. u Might include a section on why other points were not used as criteria

Evaluation u Evaluation each option separately –Evaluate as stand alone item u Compare the options u Do not mix the evaluation and comparison u Finish with a clear statement of which option is best u Use sub-headings

Conclusion u Summary and restatement of evaluation u Longer than the executive summary u Restate criteria and evaluation –Never assume rest of report has been read –A table works well u Make a clear final conclusion and justify it

Long enough???

No new information in conclusion u This must be found in the analysis section

Table showing conclusions

End