Accounting case

1

Case #1: ACCT 331, Section AE Spring 2022

Background Taylor Linley is a first-year college student in the business school. Although they know they want to study business, they have not decided on a major yet. To help with that decision, Taylor is trying to learn as much as they can about all the business majors. Taylor knows little about accounting; however, they have heard it has many different applications and offers students a variety of ways to work in the business world after graduating. Taylor is interested in learning more about the different areas within the accounting major and how they apply in the business world. Your task As upper-level students in a cost accounting course, you are going to help Taylor learn more about this one area within the field of accounting. You will first find a cost accounting-related current events article published in the last twelve months from one of the following four publications: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Financial Times, or The Washington Post. You can access these publications for free online through the Suffolk library. If you don’t know how, please see a reference librarian.

• Choose an article carefully! Simply containing the words “accounting” and/or “cost” is not enough to make it relevant for this assignment. Articles that discuss companies’ earnings announcements are not acceptable for this assignment.

Then, you will write a memo addressed to Taylor that includes the following:

• Summary: a summary in your own words about the article. This should not be copied directly from the article and your use of quotations should be minimal. Anything used from the article, whether quoted or paraphrased, must be cited appropriately.

• Significance: a detailed explanation of the significance of the article. This should discuss why you chose the article and how it relates to a specific cost accounting topic from class. Consider who this article impacts and how. Think critically about how the article connects to cost accounting, and how it helps to illustrate an application of something from cost accounting in a real company setting. What did you learn from reading the article?

• Appropriate language: recall that you are addressing a first-year college student who has not had any accounting courses yet, so your explanation should include key concepts of the topic but be in a language that a non-accountant could understand. At the same time, it is a formal piece of writing, so it should not include slang, jargon, or any other casual/informal speech. Written communication is important for all areas within accounting, and your memo should help demonstrate this point.

• Source documentation: this includes both in-text citations and a reference list. Please cite your sources using APA guidelines: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_g uide/reference_list_articles_in_periodicals.html

2

Memo format Please apply all the following memo format guidelines when preparing your submission:

• The header in a memo should be single spaced. • The header in a memo should include the following lines: To, From, Subject, and Date. • A memo’s subject should be brief yet descriptive/informative about the contents of the

memo. • The body of a memo should be single spaced with one line skipped in between each

paragraph. • Paragraphs tend to be short in memos because they are single spaced. • Paragraphs are not indented in a memo. • A memo should have a brief introduction that explains its purpose to the reader. It should

tell the reader why you are writing the memo. • Memos do not need an opening or closing salutation/greeting (e.g., Hello, Dear, To,

Sincerely, From, Best, etc.). • If you are using different sections in the body of a memo, the title of each section should

stand out from the rest of the text in the memo’s body (e.g., because the section title is underlined or in bold font).

Due date Tuesday, March 8, 2022  a Word document with your memo AND a PDF copy of the article should be posted on Blackboard in the Case 1 assignment area by 5:00 PM EDT/EST. Please note

• Late assignments will receive a 10-point deduction for each day late. Assignments more than two days late will not be accepted, and the Case 1 assignment will no longer be available on Blackboard after this time.

• Submissions that do not include a PDF copy of the article will receive a 10-point deduction.

• This assignment should be something new you have written for this class in this semester. If you have done similar work for any other class, please do not submit it for this one. All assignments on Blackboard are run through SafeAssign for plagiarism and if you turn in an assignment used in any other class, it will be flagged here and treated accordingly. Please pay attention to the University’s policy on plagiarism when writing your memo.

• This assignment should be completed individually. • Please see the grading rubric provided on the next page.

3

Grading Rubric: Performance Criteria

Below Expectations Average Exceptional

1. Summary of article (20%)

The summary consists mostly of citations from the article, whether quoted or paraphrased, and contains very little to none of your own words. Key parts of the article are missing from the summary, and others have been included but summarized incorrectly.

The summary consists of an even mix of citations from the article, whether quoted or paraphrased, and your own words. No key parts of the article are missing from the summary, although they may have been summarized incorrectly.

The summary consists mostly of your own words, and contains few citations from the article, whether quoted or paraphrased. No key parts of the article are missing from the summary. Summary is both complete and correct.

12 14 16 18 20 2. Significance of article for cost accounting (20%)

The article’s significance to cost accounting is inadequately addressed with respect to both why it was chosen and how it is connected to the course. The explanation does not include a specific topic from the course that is connected to the article. How the article helps to illustrate something from cost accounting in a real company setting is not provided. The explanation provides little to no evidence of critical thinking and learning from having read the article. This could be due to the article not being relevant for cost accounting, and/or because the explanation of that connection has not been well-developed.

The article’s significance to cost accounting is adequately addressed with respect to either why it was chosen or how it is connected to the course, but not both. The explanation includes a specific topic from the course that is connected to the article, and this connection is made evident with some use of supporting details. How the article helps to illustrate something from cost accounting in a real company setting is addressed with some use of supporting details. The explanation provides some evidence of critical thinking and learning from having read the article.

The article’s significance to cost accounting is adequately addressed with respect to both why it was chosen and how it is connected to the course. The explanation includes a specific topic from the course that is connected to the article, and this connection is made evident with clear and complete use of supporting details. How the article helps to illustrate something from cost accounting in a real company setting is fully addressed. The explanation provides clear evidence of critical thinking and learning from having read the article.

12 14 16 18 20 3. Appropriateness of language (20%)

Uses many words that are unclear, inappropriate, and/or incorrect for communicating the summary and significance of the article to the audience. This could be due to vocabulary choices that are either too technical for the audience, and/or too casual, informal, or consisting of slang, jargon, or words more suited to verbal speech, or they are being used incorrectly. Sentence structures are inadequate for clarity. Errors are distracting.

Occasionally uses words that are unclear, inappropriate, and/or incorrect for communicating the summary and significance of the article to the audience. This could be due to vocabulary choices that are either too technical for the audience, and/or too casual, informal, or consisting of slang, jargon, or words more suited to verbal speech. Most word forms are correct. Sentence structure is mostly effective. Presence of a few errors is not too distracting.

All words used are clear, appropriate, and correct for communicating the summary and significance of the article to the audience. No vocabulary choices are too technical for the audience, and none are too casual, informal, or consisting of slang, jargon, or words more suited to verbal speech. Develops concise standard English sentences and balances a variety of sentence structures effectively.

12 14 16 18 20

4

4. Logic and organization (10%)

Does not develop ideas cogently. Uneven and ineffective overall organization. Introduction and/or conclusion are unfocused or missing.

Develops unified and coherent ideas within paragraphs with generally adequate transitions. Clear overall organization relating most ideas together. Good introduction and/or conclusion.

Develops ideas cogently, organizes them logically with paragraphs and connects them with effective transitions. Clear and specific introduction and conclusion.

6 7 8 9 10 5. Memo format (10%)

The document either generally does not follow the standard format of a memo, and/or contains many formatting errors.

The document generally follows the standard format of a memo, with three or fewer formatting errors.

The document is essentially error-free in terms of the standard format of a memo.

6 7 8 9 10 6. Documentation of sources (10%)

Documentation of sources is inappropriate, incorrect, or absent. This could be due to sources not being documented or to the wrong format used for the documentation.

Sources used are mostly documented, although there might be occasional misses. This could be due to missing references for work that is quoted and/or paraphrased from a source.

All sources are thoroughly documented using the proper format.

6 7 8 9 10 7. Spelling and grammar (10%)

Writing contains frequent spelling and grammar errors which interfere with comprehension. Has not been proofread.

Writing contains minor spelling and grammar errors. Some proofreading still needed.

The writing is essentially error-free in terms of spelling and grammar. It has been carefully proofread.

6 7 8 9 10