Larry Taylor Research & Writing January 10, 2015 The “plain English” movement is something that the SEC and FASB involved themselves in to helping bridge the gap. Shifting to plain English will require a style of thinking and writing in which if you are working for a company or the SEC that the question of if the document that was used to writing highlight the important information for the investor to make decisions so it is important that the communication isn’t too complex for them to understand. We will look at how they will benefit a corporation and explaining why this movement is important and what some of the major impacts to large corporate clients might be. Starting how the “plain English” method can impact major clients are in
"Our Core Principles - Edward Jones: Making Sense of Investing." Edward Jones. Web. 12 Apr.
When looking at a particular discourse community, one can come across a number of genres that are appropriately applied to articles geared toward the discourse community. Looking at the discourse community of the stock market, the two genres that appear the most often are news articles and analysis articles. Both of these genres can be written with an intended audience of either people within the discourse community, or people on the outside of the discourse community. The key point of differentiation, is the language that is used throughout the writing. It can be written using terminology that only people within the discourse community understand, or in a way such that everyone will understand exactly what is meant by the author. In comparing these two genres and two types of audiences, we can better understand exactly how the stock market discourse community is portrayed not only among its insiders, but to everyone else as well.
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
One of the most debatable topics in the accounting industry today is the extent in which we should make the financial statements understandable to the general population. The FASB currently gears its reporting standards toward...
In recent years, large numbers of immigrants have migrated into the USA from Mexico, Philippine, Vietnam, China, and other counties. As of 2009, immigrants comprised 12.5% (38.5 million) of the total U.S. population (Batalova and Aaron par. 7). In 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau found that 50.4% of children younger than the age of one were Hispanic, black, Asian American, or belonging to other minority groups (Morello and Ted par. 2), and more than 60 million people who are 5 years old and older spoke a language other than English at home (Camille 3). Faced with the cultural diversity brought by immigrants, many nativists worry that the United States will lose the English language as an important core of a common cultural unity. With the help of organizations such as U.S. English and ProEnglish, the English-only movement is experiencing its second resurgence since the 1980’s.
The exchange being exorbitant compensation leads companies to near-overnight success, which more often than not results in bad business decisions and deceit, ensuing in shareholder loss. Buffett’s occupation as CEO has not been a series of home runs; however, he remains transparent by communicating in a plain language that in turn, protects the exploitation of Berkshires shareholders to investments outside of the company’s “circle of competence”. This is cleverly achieved through concise language explaining terminology coupled with usage the of metaphors in Buffett’s Chairman’s Letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. For instance, Buffett states in his 2008, Letter to Shareholders on the economic collapse, “By year-end, investors of all stripes were bloodied and confused, much as if they were small birds that had strayed into a badminton game … In poker terms, the Treasury and the Fed have gone ‘all in.’ Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel.” Illustrating a candor that speaks louder than any shiny technical verbiage assuring his readers that investing with Berkshire is a relationship, and human
In conclusion, Family Dollar shareholder letter provided its shareholders with an overview summary and the forward direction the company. Investors can determine whether or not a particular company could be a good investment, after reading the shareholder letter, the annual report, and news releases. Although financial statements can be like a maze to most users, it is essential to be able to comprehend and analyze the financial statements. These statements can explain the financial health of any organization.
Brand Positioning “Finding Cures. Saving Children.” That’s the mantra St. Jude and its staff have lived by since its founding in 1962. Since then, the hospital has positioned itself as the leading pediatric cancer and medical research center in the country. According to Richard Shadyac, Jr., CEO of ALSAC, St. Jude
Some business writers mistakenly believe that by adopting a lofty tone and utilizing complex sentences containing numerous subordinate clauses along with multiple polysyllabic words, they will be taken more seriously. The previous sentence contrasts directly with George Orwell's advice to cut out words if possible. I think Orwell means the writer is to get rid of the excess, the fluff that fails to really communicate an idea or concept. Orwell seems to advocate simplicity. Simplicity does not dilute the author's intended message. Simplicity actually clarifies the author's meaning since it is direct and uses common English words. This type of writing is also efficient. Readers can easily understand the content and can move along to the next task. Since many employees in business today suffer from information overload, given the choice, most people will read a shorter document first. If a writer can communicate the information in either three or twelve pages equally well, it is to better use the more tightly written three-page version. While both documents may have equal merit, it is simply co...
In conclusion, a company’s financial statements regarding its financial position are critical to all concerned. First and foremost, these financial statements provide critical tools for companies to make decisions to improve its share value in the global market of fierce competition. Secondly, they provide accountability to shareholders and stakeholders in the company providing better stability in its business practices and requirements regarding the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Lastly, financial statements paint a picture that gives a measurable to the success of a dream once birthed long ago by an entrepreneur to get an idea to the marketplace with great expectations of striking it rich.
Schofield (2014) researches the difference between public and private company financial reporting. For instance, a private company has fewer consumers reviewing their financial statements, whereas public companies could have multiple consumers reviewing financial statements. In addition, private companies typically have less specialized accounting personnel, whereas public companies will have several. Lastly, Schofield (2014), reviewed the number of amendments proposed and finalized to help benefit private companies financial reporting.
Financial statements are intended to be understandable by readers who have "a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and who are willing to study the information diligently."
One can accurately state that the role of the competent and capable financial manager is figuratively worth its weight in gold. As global markets today's financial markets increase in complexity, the tradition of learning by doing will not suffice. The financial manager today must hit the ground running with ready expertise to be used effectively as the CFO or as part of a team of financial experts within the ranks of the CFO's office. In navigating the international marketplace effectively, financial managers find themselves in a technology driven, real time information deluge which helps them to satiate the knowledge demands of investors, commercial and investment bankers, shareholders, employees, brokers, traders et al who must know particular companies, their products and the markets wherein they operate. The financial manager is charged with providing the information necessary to fulfill this relentless demand for a range of financial information that literally runs the gamut.
Financial communications involves financial reporting, McCarty’s engages in financial reporting which involves communication, several individuals and firms alike hold an interest in how McCarty’s performs as a company, these individuals or firms can be called stakeholders. Stakeholders can learn about a company’s performance, in this case, McCarty’s, by reviewing the yearly published financial statements. Stakeholders can use the income statement to find out the company’s profitability, the balance sheet communicates the company’s ability to obtain and invest its resources. The statement of cash flows communicates McCarty’s ability to manage its cash, whereas; financial results are communicated through published financi...
Text linguistics is a “discipline which analyses the linguistic regularities and constitutive features of texts” (Bussmann, 1996: 1190). According to this definition, text linguistics is mainly concerned with studying the features that every piece of writing should have in order to be considered as a text. It is also defined by Noth (1977 in Al-Massri, 2013:33) as “the branch of linguistics in which the methods of linguistic analysis are extended to the level of text.” This means that text linguistics aims at producing rules and methods that can be used to analyze the whole text. This approach has been put forward by the two scholars Robert-Alain de Beaugrande and Wolfgang U. Dressler in their seminal book “Introduction to Text Linguistics”, in 1981. The study of texts in linguistic studies starts in