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Chapter 2

Chapter 2. Critical Thinking and Effective Writing Skills for the Professional Accountant. Learning Objectives. Critical thinking skills Levels of critical thinking How critical thinking skills can add value How writing forms a key element to critical thinking

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Chapter 2

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  1. Chapter 2 Critical Thinking and Effective Writing Skills for the Professional Accountant

  2. Learning Objectives • Critical thinking skills • Levels of critical thinking • How critical thinking skills can add value • How writing forms a key element to critical thinking • How to strengthen critical thinking skills

  3. Learning Objectives (cont.) • A primer on proper punctuation • SEC initiative • How to write effective client letters and e-mails • How to write memos to the file.

  4. Critical Thinking Skills • “characterized by careful and exact evaluation and judgment” • Purposeful, goal-oriented, and creative • A process of understanding how thinking and learning work.

  5. Critical Thinking skills (contd.) • Higher order skills • Analysis- breaking ideas into component parts • Synthesis – connection among different components to derive relationships that tie the parts of the answer together • Critical assessment – examination of the conclusions reached for sound logical reasoning.

  6. Critical Thinking Skills (contd.) • Includes • Recognizing any explanatory relations among statements • Recognizing the structure of arguments (premises, implicit assumptions, and conclusions) • Assessing consistency or inconsistency, equivalence among statements, and logical implications • Formulation and identifying deductively and inductively, justified conclusions based on available evidence

  7. Levels of Thinking • Bloom’s taxonomy-six levels, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation. • Higher order knowledge occurs when using higher order skills • One must be able to perform lower level skills before moving up

  8. Levels of Thinking (contd.) • Bloom’s Taxonomy • 1. Knowledge – recall • 2. Comprehension – grasping material • 3. Application – use in new situation • 4. Analysis – breaks down into components • 5. Synthesis – puts parts into new form. • 6. Evaluation – judges the value of the statement

  9. Purpose Issue Information Concepts Assumptions Interpretation Implications Conclusions 8 Elements of Reasoning

  10. Effective Writing Skills • Know your Audience – supervisor, shareholder, management, government agency, other. • “in accounting and other professions, we must have strong technical skills. But if we cannot communicate what we know, the value of the technical skills is lessened.”

  11. AICPA’s 6 Characteristics of Effective Writing for the CPA Exam • Coherent organization • Conciseness • Clarity • Use of standard English • Responsiveness to the requirements of the questions • Appropriateness for the reader.

  12. SEC’s Plain English Concept’s • Use the active voice • Use short sentences • Definite, concrete, everyday language • Tabular presentation • Limit jargon • No double negatives

  13. Effective Client Letters and e-mails • Oral communication is used if a quick response is needed or if there is a privacy issue • Written communication is normally used if documentation is needed.

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