IMBA Test Area:
Draft of Embedded Picture, IMBA web link (currently a copy/paste page)
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ACCT 5320: Business and Economic Concepts for Auditors
Writing Tips Once upon a time, this class had a technical writing grader... she provided this list, I highlighted some items I felt were particularly important, and I added the final seven items (which come from a different source).
Week 1: Discussed (1) the syllabus (focused on grading), (2) accounting fundamentals, (3) the state of the U.S. economy, (4) clear communication, and (5) IFRS. The class bombed somewhat severely. Miscommunication seemed to be the reason... the instructor is partially to blame. Instructor gave a practice pop quiz.
Week 2: Instructor attempted to clarify that the class is a seminar (as opposed to a lecture). The instructor assigned a relatively long task involving Blockbuster Video (BBI).... this relatively time intensive assignment was for 'practice' feedback purposes. (Note: the grading weight of this assignment was unclear to class participants at the time of the assignment - the instructor feared the effort level might be negatively affected if the assignment was explicitly not part of the final course grade.)
Week 3:
The class
finalized
the syllabus (on the third class day) and class participants self-reported the
following: those without internship experience expect to use their
"accounting abilities" (loosely defined) much more frequently (i.e., by orders
of magnitude) compared to the self-reported average experience of class members
who have worked in public accounting. Specifically, those with an
internship experience report, roughly, that 15% of "charged" time involves
"accounting abilities". One question to consider is, what skills are
needed during the remaining 85% of the time?
Discussion topics from class included: (1) the current CPA job market (not
a stellar job market... but a whole lot better than most alternative job markets
given the current world economy), (2) Pop Quiz 1 (generally speaking, more
thought is needed if the class is to achieve a 3.5 average GPA), (3) the
Blockbuster assignment (discussed more below), and (4) The Myth book. The
instructor talked more about accounting fundamentals and clear communication and
IFRS. The class did not bomb as severely as week #1 bombed.
The relevance of some topics (the Myth book) was rightfully questioned. Instructor will work on a better explanation regarding the importance of history for Week 4. Instructor, reflecting upon the Blockbuster assignment & the current weekly assignment decided further guidance would be helpful. Specifically, the weekly assignment as documented during class was (1) read and very briefly "tell the story" of the 16 Blockbuster cases distributed during class and (2) provide a grading rubric for these cases (i.e., what overall characteristics / qualities significantly affect each class member's quality ranking of the Blockbuster cases).
Further guidance is as follows.
Regarding part 1, please DO NOT conclude "this author has no story" without serious consideration. In some (many?) cases, the author does have a story, but the story is not immediately apparent because the story needs simplified. As a loose example, almost (?) all class members do (and should) include the following as part of their story: "Blockbuster is facing a tough business market..."
When reviewing each of the 16 cases, ask yourself, "and so... what?" The answer to this question might be the author's story... the "so what" part. If you can find a story, you should be able to summarize that story in a sentence or two (three sentences starts pushing the limit a bit). Ideally, your sentences should be short and use common language (if possible).
Regarding part 2 ("assessment rubric"), please put material weight on 'following directions'. The instructor notes that a nine-step "suggestions" list (see the Blockbuster assignment) is likely the most detailed set of instructions to be given all semester. Class members were not required to complete all nine steps and it was explicitly noted that deviation was allowed if the class member felt an alternative approach was superior. That said, in auditing, you need to think carefully before deviating from the audit program... when creating a grading rubric, how do you account for such high risk / high return deviations? (As an audit analogy, was your personal audit program better than the one provided?)
The Blockbuster case is similar to auditing in that deviations from provided guidance is a high-risk, high-return proposition... in the case of authors who did not follow the suggested steps, did these risky deviations lead to high returns? How does your rubric evaluate such risky deviations?
Week 4: Some history:
http://www.aicpa.org/Becoming+a+CPA/CPA+Candidates+and+Students/150+Hour+Requirement.htm
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2008/608/essentials/p62.htm
http://www.calcpa.org/Content/Files/150/150.History0609.pdf
Week 5: Business first, accounting second. Sell / Verify.
Later weeks - format change to class emails.
Oct 29th: Regression Data
Subsequent weeks: class taken 'off-line'