Critical Perspectives in Accounting - Assessment PDF

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Critical Perspectives in Accounting Assessment

Key words: ‘Critically evaluate’ – present different points of view on that topic, that you have read and that you can write about. You need to mention both sides of the argument, both agreeing and disagreeing. You need to come to a conclusion as to which point of view you support. ‘Engage meaningfully’ – meaningfully means that a company is not just talking to the local communities, but are actually taking these concerns in their decision making, and actually care about what other people think. ‘Non-financial stakeholders’ – decide who these are. You don’t need to include all of them (you can pick some of them). Refer to the stakeholder slide in previous lecture.. Look at least at two non-financial stakeholders. ‘Extent to which companies engage’ – how much do they engage? A little bit, a lot or somewhere in-between? ‘Research findings’ – you need to look at academic research (the vast majority of references must be academic papers). What does the literature tell us about engagement in stakeholders. ‘Relevant theories’ – stakeholder theory, agency theory, etc. Introduction

Introduction should be short – the main point of the introduction is to tell the reader what your answer is, and very briefly how you got there, and to present a structure of the rest of the essay. Keep it very short (not much longer than a page). The answer that you give in the introduction must be the same as in the conclusion, and everything you say in the body must be leading toward the answer. Main body

Elaborates on how you got to the answer. There are different paragraphs and each paragraph should have a specific structure – it should have a argument or a topic statement that will say what the point of the paragraph is. Paragraphs are there to support your point of view. Each paragraph must contribute toward one aspect of your argument, to support your thinking of how you got to your conclusion.

Example: how stakeholders are relevant, research findings about companies’ engagements, theories, etc… What you include in each paragraph will depend on how you want to answer the question. Each paragraph must have a single main point that you are presenting. Conclusion

Say how you have answered the question. Restate what the answer to the essay is. ‘This essay argued that companies do not need to engage with nonfinancial stakeholders…’ Then summarise what you have said in each paragraph ‘This essay firstly discussed previous researching findings on companies’ engagements showing that companies have been making efforts to engage, although they do not seem to be successful.’ You need to do this for each paragraph (re-state what you have said before… one or two sentences on each paragraph. Summarise key arguments.). Can you provide convincing evidence to support your answer? The marks lie with how you have said ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘maybe’. We look at the strength of the argument, and not what the argument is. There is no right or wrong answer. Where do people go wrong?

Not answering the question properly? – Go back and see if you answered all key aspects of the question? Tips

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Use headings for different topic sections. Paraphrase – use your own words to say what other people are saying. Do not use direct quotes. Do not use passive tone...