Guide to Crafting Effective Accounting Essays

If you major in finance or management or take GCSE courses, you will definitely have to write a plethora of accounting papers or research paper connected with the topic of business.

The accounting essay is one of the most complicated types of papers. Many students have a lot of problems with the theme, style, and structure. These three components are extremely critical when we are talking about an accounting essay. Therefore, the aim of this article is to consider the most popular strategies for choosing relevant accounting essay topics, determining a proper style and building a clear structure of an accounting paper.

How to choose an accounting essay topic

The first and the most significant step, which everyone should do, is to choose the theme for an essay. There are three different strategies, which students often use.

The first is to choose a topic that you are already familiar with. Many students and even scientists prefer to use this writing strategy because of its reliability. They need less time for collecting and examining new materials and sources. Also, they have already had some previous sources that they can use for their papers. It allows them to save time and to work on style and structure. Also, they can be sure for 90 percent that they will do everything in time and will have a good result. Thus, if you have some previous knowledge concerning accounting essay topics – use it for your paper.

The main point of the second approach is to find out something new. It means that you should look for further information, read the latest relevant papers concerning accounting and try to find something that attracts your attention. Of course, you should realize that you need a lot of time for searching new info and analyzing it. Thus, it is vital to distribute your time correctly in order to do everything in time.

The third, and maybe the easiest way is to ask your professor to assist you. However, you should be familiar with the most popular and relevant accounting essay topics to discuss them with your professor.

Accounting essay topics examples:

• What is Impairment?
• Purpose of Ind AS.
• Why AS-31,32,33 is still non-mandatory. What problems companies will come across if these AS being made mandatory.
• Depreciation, its types and which type is suitable for each asset.
• DTA and DTL
• Three points of financial relationships: monetary losses, examining financial info, and the role of technology.
• Personal and machine accounting: pros and cons.
• Does accounting have future? What is the role and place of accounting in modern big companies?
• Accounting: a system of avoiding debts and giving predictions.

There are two types of topics:

• The first is very straightforward and sounds like accounting and modern software, types of accounting and its methods, historical aspects and approaches to accounting, etc.
• The second one is more complicated. It aims to solve some issue. For instance, you may read more and write about auditing collusion, taxes (ways and approaches to reducing companies’ fees), financial markets and their features in the global system, the role of information flow in accounting, impacts of culture and organization on the accounting, etc.

Style

Each essay has its own writing style, which you should follow. An accounting essay includes specific vocabulary and terminology. Thus, you should know all meanings to write your paper correctly. Besides, there are a few more rules:

• write your article in the past tense;
• define the main idea for each separate paragraph;
• provide necessary background info to reinforce your argument;
• formulate your thesis and hypothesis at the beginning of your essay;
• give your piece to someone who can check it for spelling and grammar mistakes;

Structure

One more important thing is the structure of your paper. Usually, you should use APA style for an accounting essay. However, the style may depend on the professor or university. If you are writing your article in APA, it should include such sections as:

Cover page with the topic, the name of the university or college, professor’s name and yours.

• Abstract – a brief description of the direction and features of your study.
• Introduction – an introductory part of your research, which should include general info about your theme, research question, and thesis.
• Background – a broad discussion of the topic issue.
• Literature review – the most authorized scientific researches on this topic.
• Methods – briefly describe the features and the ways and approaches, which you use to examine this topic.
• Results – write about your findings: whether your thesis was right or wrong.
• Discussion – briefly describe the central debate on your topic.
• Conclusion – present your findings based on received results.
• References – the list of papers, books, articles, etc., which you use for your writing.
• Appendix – you may add some additional info or statistic data concerning your essay.

The most crucial point of writing an accounting essay or report is that it must contain relevant and accurate information based on facts. It is essential to assure that opinions are backed up with figures and facts in compliance with the up-to-the-minute financial reporting standards and that the paper presents all viewpoints. The outline and presentation are also crucial in composing a good-quality accounting essay. An introductory part to start an essay is significant for two reasons: first, to present the topic, and second, to define the target audience. Before going about writing, the writer must precisely know who his essay is aimed at as readers may have different levels of accounting literacy. Additionally, the paper must have an objective conclusion to assure the paper has addressed the set accounting question.

Step One: Introduction

Before answering a certain accountancy question assigned for an essay, the writer must establish a precise understanding of the question he/she will address, as well as lay out this question to the readers and highlight the objectives of the paper. It is an indispensable part of any paper writing, as it defines the ultimate goal of the essay.

Step Two: Structure and Resource Planning

As soon as the writer acquired an understanding of the question which will be discussed in the essay, he/she must ensure that the structure of an accounting essay is observed. A handy and short plan will assure that all necessary subject areas, such as appropriate Financial Reporting Standards (FRS’s), Accounting concepts and current developments in International Accounting Standards (IAS’s) crucial to the essay topic have appropriate references in answering the question set in the introductory part. Apart from this, the writer should define what resources will be necessary for his/her essay, such as technical accountancy publications, library databases, primary and secondary research, etc.

The purpose of the research is to gather referencing material from accountancy scholars and researchers to support thoughts and viewpoints put forward in the paper. The quantity of references in your paper is dependent on the length and the nature of the essay. While dealing with an accounting essay, you will have to resort to research carried out by others, as it is usually almost impossible to carry out primary research. Thus, in the case of an accounting essay, using references conducted by others make sense, but the writer should make sure that he/she uses the material which increases the value of the essay, backs up or challenges a certain accountancy concept or FRS.
At this point of the writing process, brainstorming can be helpful feeding the writer precious information and ideas for the creation of a top-notch essay.

 Step Three: Include Calculations/Analysis

This part is especially significant for composing an accounting paper since the nature of the subject area requires the usage of example calculations to make an analysis of various accounting treatments in question, hence, treatment of intangible none purchased goodwill. The writer should only include calculations, figures, charts, and graphs if he/she holds it is necessary for the subject area but their usage will make the essay more valuable. One must be extremely careful since not all accounting subject areas presuppose the use of numbers. Sometimes, the task of the writer is to discuss and understand essential accountancy concepts.

Step Four: Conclusion and Recommendations

The conclusion of the essay is instrumental in answering the question set in the beginning. This part sums up what was discussed in the main part of the paper and also provides the results of any analysis or calculations that were conducted. This section is meant not only to delineate the findings or the conclusion but also as an opportunity to display the writer’s own thoughts and recommendations concerning both the question that was put forward and suggestions for further research and studies in the domain of the subject area.

Accountancy essays often have a form of an evaluation, and thus, there is no correct answer or conclusion. For this reason, thoughts and opinions will vary, and when concluding an evaluation essay, the writer must remember this fact and take into consideration all viewpoints.

Other Considerations

While writing an accountancy essay, one should make sure that the proper level of language is being used. It applies not only to accounting essays but for business writing. Because the use of inappropriate language will discourage the readership to read the paper, in an accountancy essay, the aim of which is to give explanations of the benefits of understanding accounts for none finance managers, you need the use comprehensible and concise language. You should write your paper in plain language without burdening it with complex accountancy terminology. However, while presenting the methods of valuation for financial derivatives, the writer must possess profound accounting knowledge and use necessary terms and acronyms.

Having created the draft of your essay, you need to proofread your paper, and this is an editing part of your accounting essay process. It will help you to make sure that all work has been properly referenced and all grammatical structures are used correctly. Additionally, proofreading is fundamental in assuring that your paper corresponds to the objective of the essay set in the introductory part. It is also an opportunity to check whether all the paragraphs are valuable and relevant. It is especially helpful in lengthy essays where the writer wants to meet the word limit requirement without adding unnecessary value to the paragraphs.

At times, you are unable to write a decent accounting career goals essay irrespective of the efforts you put forth. In this case, the best option is to hire a reliable essay writing service that would master your task professionally. Not all services can produce top-tier accounting essays, thus make sure you take a deliberate choice.