The written communication skills that matter most for accountants

Tracey J. Riley and Kathleen A. Simons

Accounting Education, 2016, vol. 25, issue 3, 239-255

Abstract: Given the importance of effective written communication skills to the discipline of accounting, faculty must emphasize these skills in their classroom in order to adequately prepare students for successful careers in the field. Since 2000, only two studies in the accounting literature have examined which written communication skills are needed by entry-level accountants and consensus is that spelling, grammar, punctuation, and clarity are of utmost importance. We surveyed accounting practitioners and faculty to determine what exactly, within those categories, is most bothersome. For example, within clarity, is it wordy sentences, passive voice, or shifts in tense? By documenting the most bothersome errors, our findings can help accounting educators to focus their limited time on the appropriate skill emphasis.

Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09639284.2016.1164066 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:accted:v:25:y:2016:i:3:p:239-255

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAED20

DOI: 10.1080/09639284.2016.1164066

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting Education is currently edited by Richard Wilson

More articles in Accounting Education from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().