Theory of Accounting (ACCT29083) Assignment Guide

This guide has been designed to assist you to locate information for Assessment item 1 - Essay in the course ACCT29083 - Theory of Accounting.

Contents:

• Analysing the Assessment Topic
• Finding key sources
• Locating Accounting Standards
• Course Resources Online
• Finding journal articles
• Using Google Scholar
• Wrapping up

 

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Analysing the Assessment topic

For this assignment, you are required to select and answer one of the following topics:

More help?

Thinking about your topic Finding keywords

1. “Normative theories of accounting are value-loaded and Positive theories of accounting are anything but positive.” 

• Critically analyse the above statement. How would you reconcile the debate between the two types of accounting theories?       

• Do you think there is room for both types of theories in accounting?

• Explain your answer with suitable examples.

OR

2. “Historical cost method of valuation still survives because the current cost and exit price alternatives are impractical.”

• Do you agree with the above statement? Why, or why not?

• Do you believe the share market relies on historical cost? Give examples.

• Conduct a critical analysis of the three alternative valuation models to articulate your answer.

The first step in searching for information is to work out the key words in the topic that will help you locate information to answer the assignment.

When searching using keywords you need to keep in mind how specific the chosen keywords are.  Accounting as a keyword for example is a very broad term.  Searching only for accounting will return a large number of results which may not be relevant to your needs.

Your searches can be made more precise by choosing more specific keywords  or by combining a broad term with others. 

For example,

Topic 1:  normative theories AND positive theories And comparison
OR

Topic 2: historical cost accounting AND (current price accounting OR exit price accounting).

Many electronic sources, such as the Library Catalogue and databases, allow you to expand or narrow your search by combining multiple keywords.

 

It can also be helpful to identify synonyms and related terms to provide further search terms to use. You may also find it useful to identify particular theories to search, rather than using a general term such as positive accounting. Examples of a positive theory may be 'efficient markets hypothesis' or 'captial market research'

Topic 1:

Keyword or keyword phrase:	normative	positive	comparison
Synonym or related words:	prescriptive	descriptive	relationship
Synonym or related words:	true income(profit)	explanatory	contrast
Synonym or related words:	decision usefulness	predictive	complement
Synonym or related words:	measurement system	empirical methodology	difference
Synonym or related words:	moral / just outcomes	behaviour based outcomes
Synonym or related words:	deductive framework	real world outcomes

 

Topic 2:

Keyword or keyword phrase:	historical cost accounting	current cost accounting	exit price accounting	share market	valuation
Synonym or related words:	measurement	CCA	current cash equivalents (CCE)	stock exchange	inventory valuation
		financial  capital maintenance	continuously contemporary accounting	disclosure	asset valuation
		physical capital maintenance	current market selling prices	reporting
Synonym or related words:		gains/losses	inflation adjusted

 

If you are unsure of the meaning of a term, start by dong some background reading in a textbook to gain some understanding of the topic and to help identify relevant terms. The textbook for this course includes a good overview of the types of accounting theories for both topics.

You may also find thesauri and dictionaries useful to find definitions of terms, and encyclopedias will also provide a good introduction to a topic.

You may also find it useful to identify key authors for your topic:

For example,

Topic 1:   Positive Accounting theory - Watts and Zimmerman
OR

Topic 2: current cost accounting  - Bell and Edwards

             exit price accounting - Raymond Chambers, Robert Sterling, Kenneth MacNeal

    

To locate textbooks and other useful books, search the library catalogue by keyword, for example "accounting theory".

A useful online dictionary is listed below.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Oxford Reference Online (electronic resource)	Go to Search within a Subject and select Economics and Business

 

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Finding key sources

It is also important to locate any key documents or sources that are mentioned in the assignment topic. Each of the assessment topics require the analysis of key sources.

 Course Resources Online, or CROs provide access to a collection of digitized copyright journal articles and/or book chapters to enhance access to limited print resources.

Select your course code to access the CRO documents available for that course.

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Finding journal articles

More help?

Starting your search Finding journal articles

For both parts of your assignment, you must use library databases to locate academic journal articles. Information about search strategies and scholarly academic journals can be found in the More help? to the right.

The databases mentioned below may contain academic and non-academic journals.  Each database contains comprehensive help pages for constructing searches and restricting to scholarly academic journals only.

A complete list of journal databases relevant to the accounting discipline at:
Databases & Resources by Subject: Accounting

For the purposes of this assignment, it is recommended that you start with the following databases.  You may wish to try others. 

Some suggested databases

Proquest 5000

Expanded Academic

Emerald

ScienceDirect

 

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Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a version of the Google search engine that allows you to search scholarly literature to find information relating to your topic. It contains peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Google scholar is freely available on the internet to search.

Google Scholar can be accessed through the SearchSmart page by selecting the letter 'G' under 'Browse Databases by Title'. You can set Google Scholar to identify whether articles are held at CQU Library and possibly other libraries you have access to. To do this, go to Google Scholar and click the link 'Scholar Preferences' Type Central Queensland University in the box labelled 'Library Links'. Tick the checkbox next to Central Queensland University and then click Save Preferences in the top right corner.

To structure your search effectively, use the Advanced search screen. There is a link to the advanced search on the right of the search button.

Google Scholar search results will include book references as well as journal articles and research papers. Some are freely available on the web, whereas others are not. For book results, a preview of the relevant sections may be available.

 

If the result does not have the 'Full Text @ CQU Library' link next to it, click the title to see if you are able to access the item. If the full text is not available, search the CQU Library Catalogue to see if the item is available in the library.

A useful feature of Google Scholar is the ability to check which other articles are related to this article. Click on the link 'Related Articles' to see which articles are on similar topics.

You can also see which other articles have cited this article in their reference list. This is a useful way to find more recent articles relating to your topic. To see which other authors have used an article to help form their ideas, click the link 'Cited by'.

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Wrapping up

More help?

Evaluating your resources CQU's referencing website What is plagiarism?

When writing your assignment, remember to check the criteria and objectives listed in your course profile.

When citing other peoples work in your assignments, it is vital that it be correctly referenced.  As noted in the assessment criteria, marks can be deducted for incorrect referencing.

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