Using the securities and exchange commission's ''plain English'' guidelines to improve accounting students' writing skills [An article from: Journal of Accounting Education]

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Accounting Education, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
In response to the strong emphasis that the accounting profession places on writing skills, we tested whether sustained application of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) ''Plain English'' guidelines to student papers increases their readability and, by implication, improves the editing skills of student writers. We emphasized the SEC guidelines on three writing assignments in each of three courses offered at Wayne State University. To measure readability, we used Micro Power & Light Co.'s Readability Calculations program to determine the Flesch and Fog indices for all graded assignments. For the most part, we found that teaching and requiring use of the SEC guidelines significantly improved the readability of students' papers. Faculty members at other programs may wish to consider using similar processes to improve students' writing skills.