The ability to write research papers in specific disciplines is highly required for graduate students. Usually, it takes a long time to raise the level of academic writing. Thus, reading articles in the particular field and learn from them can be regarded as the initial stage. In this paper, I chose a journal article “On the global acceptance of IAS/IFRS accounting standards: The logic and implications of the principles-based system (Carmona & Trombrtta, 2008)” as the study object to analyze its structure and language presentation.
Language Feature Analysis Focusing the inherent property of a special accounting approach, the key words of the article are globalization, accounting harmonization, convergence, principles-based standards, rules-based standards. It uses plain language on whole without many complex sentences or accounting terms, therefore, it is understandable even for students. In a relatively formal tone, the authors argue that it is the built-in flexibility in the principles-based approach, which advantage characteristics of rules-based accounting standards that enhance the global accounting harmonization. Basically, the article make a formal arrangement by avoiding contractions, applying single verbs, putting adverbs in mid position, precluding “you” pronoun, and precisely listing essential information. Firstly, the article uses long term instead of contractions for a clear, formal presentation. Although contractions are common in personal writing and text message, they should be avoided in academic writing since some sentences may be confusing by using contractions. We can see good examples in the third paragraph: “… they are principles-based instead of rules-based” (Carmona & Trombrtta, p. 456). On the other hand, formal negatives can be notices as well: “… these forces do not suffice in explaining how…” (P. 456). Secondly, single verbs are employed to make the whole article concise. For example, in the sentence “Daske et al. (2007b) examined the economic consequence…” (p. 458), the authors use the verb “examined” which give the same information as “figured out” to make the sentence briefer. Thirdly, while adverbs usually are put in front of verbs, however, according to Swales and Feak, the adverbs should be posited in the middle of sentences (2004). This article carefully obey this rule, for example: “In some countries, this will ultimately involve substantial changes in the training and educational programs of accountants” (p. 458). But adverbs can be seen at initial of a sentence with the aim to show a logical structure: “Consequently, IAS/IFRS leaves it up…” (p. 456). In addition, based on Carmona & Trombetta’s theory, neither “I” or “you” shall be used in academic writing while pronoun “we” is commonly adopted in co-authored papers (2008). So that we can see pronoun “we” in the article, yet no sentences with pronoun “you” can be found: “In sum, we have addressed the principles-based notion underlying IAS/IFRS” (p. 461). Finally, to make the focal information stands out, the article uses “e.g.,” and detailed examples properly. For example, in the case of an investment made by Pirelli in Telecom Italia, to suggest economic fundamental of a company should be figured out for it counts in deciding on accounting treatment, the article precisely lists the name of specific firms associated with Pirelli instead of using ellipsis: “… revealed that the Chairman of Pirelli at the time was also the Chairman of Olimpia, the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Olivetti and the Chairman of Telecom Italia” (p. 457). Yet when there is no need to reveal every single country occupying rules-based accounting systems, the authors use “e.g.” in their sentences “Countries using rules-based systems (e.g., Germany) …” (p. 457). Similarly, when compares principles-based approach with rules-based ones, it is clear enough by mentioning the US rules-based standards as the single example “… the highly prescriptive nature of some national standards (e.g., the US) does not provide the best context…” (p. 459). Vocabulary Analysis Since the purpose of the article is to indicate the advantage of principles-based system in accounting globalization. Thus, this article shows a preference on present tense in general. “Analytical research also provides some interesting insights…” (p. 457), and “Under a rules-based system, accountants obtain access to detailed implementation…” (p. 457) both suggest general facts. In the article, finite verbs are adopted to demonstrate an agreement with true occurrence when discusses specific cases, for example: “In 2001, Pirelli subscribed to 60% of a firm called Olimpia” (p. 457), “subscribed” is a finite verb implying this case happened in past. Moreover, the authors also use nonfinite verbs to add diversity of sentences. For example, in sentence “This enabled the isolation of the incentive effect and its comparison with the mandating of adoption for companies” (p. 459), “mandating” is a nonfinite verb modifying the noun phrase “adoption for companies”. Also, in sentence “firms may adopt the label of IAS/IFRS and then use its flexibility to retain existing accounting policies” (p. 459), “to retain” is a nonfinite verb indicating intention of companies. As for determiners, the authors use determiners appropriately. For instance, in sentence “A distinctive feature of the IAS/IFRS standards is that…” (p. 456), the authors use “a” to modify noun subject “feature”, and “the” to modify terms “IAS/IFRS”. Determiners are also used to make sentence clear and brief: “…the number of global clients in favor of globally harmonized interpretations will arguably increase and this will enhance…” (p. 460), “this” is a determiner refers to an increase in the number of global clients. Discussion Indeed, with the aim to improve academic writing ability, it takes way more effort for one to read and practice than merely examining a few research papers. However, analyzing the language use of academic articles can be beneficial to graduate students for providing an effective studying approach. When analyzing the article On the global acceptance of IAS/IFRS accounting standards (Carmona & Trombetta, 2008), I notice several linguistic features that may be helpful for academic writing such as formal negatives, mid-position adverbs, and the use of finite and infinite verbs. As a graduate student majored in accounting, I am supposed to write research papers in present tense while the tense depends on specific cases with the use of finite verbs. To make articles easy to read, I should not use too many complex sentences or terms especially when audiences have little accounting knowledge, though the language use always ought to be formal. References Carmona, S., & Trombetta, M. (2008). On the global acceptance of IAS/IFRS accounting standards: The logic and implications of the principles-based system. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 27(6), pp. 455 — 461. Swales, J., & Feak, C. (2004). Academic Writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
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Research on Professor Kelly Wentland In order to learn more about professor Wentland, and recognize what factors may positively affect academic success, I did a research on Kelly Wentland, who works in George Mason University as a full-day instructor specializes in taxation. This research was basic on on-line information from George Mason University school website. Academic Qualification and Professional Employment Professor Kelly Wentland works in George Mason University School of Business as an instructor from fall 2015. She is a Certified Public Accountant in State of Virginia, and got her accounting Ph.D. diploma from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015. Since 2012, professor Wentland had been working as a teaching assistant for Deloitte Corporate Taxation and an instructor for Managerial Accounting in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Instead of kept on doing research in a narrow field, professor Wentland extended herself strategically. Before started her teaching in George Mason University 2015, she had accumulated abundant experience in teaching taxation courses. During 2006 — 2010,she had worked as audit staff, tax staff and tax senior associate in KPMG LLP, which may come from her interest on taxation. Before becoming a full-time instructor, professor Wentland had devoted herself to academic research in accounting for at least ten years. She made an enduring, engaging record of studying, getting accountancy and mass communication skills from a double-degree program in Miami University. Her academic life must be busy and challenging, and might be hard to hold on, fortunately, professor Wentland successfully carried this out, which should be admired deeply. Also, it should be an inspiring fact for her students that after going through various difficulties, they may accomplish their academic goal. Research Interests With research interests on taxation, accounting information and firm decision making, professor Wentland finished her doctoral dissertation named “Does Industrial Diversification Enable Firms to Pay Lower Taxes?”, which helped her won Grant Thornton Innovation in Accounting Education Doctoral Dissertation Award in 2015. She also had two unpublished working papers, both of them discussed a central issue of making decisions about taxes: “Firm Tax Uncertainty, Cash Holdings, and the Timing of Large Investment”, and “Analysts and Taxes”. In August 2014, professor Wentland finished a reporting paper “Analysts and Taxes” with Sangwan Kim and Andrew P. Schmidt, which focused on how to forecast individual’s annual earnings by changing effective tax rate. Besides, she attended at least five accounting conferences and gave eight presentations during 2011—2015. It is obvious that professor Wentland is always being keen on her academic studying and daily work. In order to accomplish a particular goal, specific interest and eagerness to achieve are the most crucial to be born in mind. Reference On-line C.V. of Kelly Wentland. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/th6nnit80r09tpz/C.V..docx Kim, S., Schmidt, A., & Wentland, K (2014). Analysts and Taxes. Retrieved from SSRN. (2482733) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2482733 Journal Analysis
Journal Name Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (JAP) Publisher Elsevier Language English First Published Year 1982 Frequency Bimonthly Number of Volumes Per Year 10 Number of Issues Per Year 4 Number of Articles Per Issue 6 Types of Writing Published Peer-reviewed academic journal Audiences Scholars and students in accounting major Stated Purpose To suggest a connection between accounting and public policy ISSN 0278-4254 5-Year Impact Factor 1.845 (2015) Online Website http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-accounting-and-public-policy For accounting major scholars and students, it is short-sighted merely to do research in sole subject. The Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (JAP), which is one of world’s top journal, helps to make a bridge between accounting and other areas, to name a few, economic issues, political science, sociology and legislation. The very first JAP journal was published in 1982, since then it was published bimonthly till present. Thus, there have been 35 volumes and over 840 high-quality articles that can be applied to conveniently. Generally, JAP is published in English, yet it discusses international accounting cases as well. For example, there is a special issue on Accounting and the world economic crisis (Vol.33, Issue 3., 2014), and another special issue on Accounting regulation and politics (Vol.35, Issue 3., 2016). Also, there are specific original research articles focus on global accounting issues, for instance, On the global acceptance of IAS/IFRS accounting standards: The logic and implications of the principles-based system (Vol 27., Issue 6., 2008), by Salvador Carmona & Marco Trombetta. The number of special issues keeps increasing after 2002, which may reflect a dynamic progress of global economy. For single issue, each begins with IFC page from the editorial board stating the aim and scope of JAP. It conveys latest information in accounting field and provides audience with beneficial effect on research or decision-making. To innovate helpful insights, JAP has a preference on papers through theoretical or empirical analysis especially beyond existing researches. For that reason, fresh research methods and the originality of a journal paper are highly regarded (Zwaaf,2013). At the ending part, there are biographies for each particular issue showing that authors are usually professors or associate professors of accounting from different universities which indicates a high reliability of those research papers. As one of pioneer journals in accounting field, JAP shows high diversity in deciding editorial board members. While Lawrence A. Gordon, the editor-in-chief, is a native American scholar from University of Maryland, JAP itself has a big editorial board which is consist of 75 scholars from worldwide. Among these editors, eight of them come from Asia, nine are from Europe, while domestic Americans predominate — there are exactly forty-seven editors who are from the U.S. As a result, audience could have knowledge of American economy policies meanwhile acquiring professional viewpoints from an international perspective. The JAP has established linkages between accounting subject and actual policies and legislations. Since the journal articles are relatively short, the JAP could both be a fine resource for accounting major students to get latest insight on economy issues, and a good approach for individuals who take an interest in this area to expand their field of vision. Journal Article Analysis
For scholars, researchers and students, journal articles in their field are always good resources for innovative ideas. As a post graduate student, I am supposed to read research papers as much as possible not only for latest information in the specific area, but also for improving academic writing skill. Additionally, as a post accountant, it is crucial to catch up with the newest adjustments in rules and regulation as well. In this paper, I am going to look over a journal article mainly by analyzing its structure and language use. The article comes from a famous on-line journal: Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (JAP), and it is credible for being the most downloaded during last 90 days. The article “On the global acceptance of IAS/IFRS accounting standards: The logic and implications of the principles-based system (Carmona & Trombrtta, 2008)”, focusing on global accounting harmonization, is of great value for both professional accountants and accounting major students. The article uses APA style to cite resources, and its abstract part anticipates a straight-line structure in general. Though not including an experimental research, this paper still follows the IMRD pattern: the first part gives an introduction of progress that the International Accounting Standards has made, and points out a gap of current fact and its explanation. Latter, in next three parts, the article discusses how the IAS/IFRS works in business transactions as a principle-based system. Within these three parts, the authors dig deeper step by step by coming up existing problems at the end of each paragraph. For example, the second part ends up with stating that more issues about business globalization that affect financial reporting and auditing should be taken into consideration, while the third part focuses on the accounting and auditing professions under IAS/IFRS. Finally, the fifth part gives further discussion, then concludes that it is the inherent flexibility of IAS/IFRS that promotes global accounting harmonization. When analyzing with “Harris’ Rhetorical Concepts”, the object of this article is to discuss why IAS/IFRS can be successfully applied to global accounting. After providing an example of how accounting can be distinct under two different accounting standards, which are US GAAP and Germen GAAP, the article points out that though IAS/IFRS has been generally adopted, the reasons of its acceptance have not been demonstrated. This article does not raise an obvious driving question, yet it emphasizes that IAS/IFRS and a principle-based system are interrelated and interact on each other. The authors make a horizontal comparison by comparing divers accounting system in Germany, Italy, Australia, the U.S., and China to show the advantage of principle-based system over a traditional rules-based system. This study is relevant for accounting and auditing professions from all over the world as it suggests a better understanding on accounting harmonization. At the end of this article, the authors also expect more empirical researches addressing in developing countries at the same time (Carmona & Trombrtta, 2008). When applied to the CARS model (Swales & Feak, 2012), this article can be divided into three basic moves. First, to set a research territory, it shows move 1a: since the International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has been applied into world-wide, it should be investigated whether it works well as expected. The article shows move 1b, which reviews existing research, by providing an example of Daimler Benz AG there was a 1,224 million decrease in annual income in 1992 with different accounting standards, and stating “harmonized accounting standards need to meet some technical features to enable acceptance by countries with diverse cultures and reporting traditions” (Carmona & Trombrtta, 2008). Then, to establish a niche, move 2 of this article implies a gap between the fact and explanation by showing that some international accounting standards have been generally accepted while the reason have not been clearly demonstrated (Carmona & Trombrtta, 2008). Finally, to fill the niche, illustrate research purpose, and list findings, this article shows move 3 by indicating “In the current article, we examine the logic of IAS/IFRS……across countries” (Carmona & Trombrtta, 2008). In general, this article uses flat language to present main ideas without many terms or data tables, making it easily understood even for audience who have no accounting background. Moreover, as a journal paper published in 2008, the citation resources it utilized has a time range from 2002 to 2008. Then it comes up with a fact which should not be ignored: in order to make a research paper credible, revisions and amendments in accounting field should be taken timely. |
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