 |
An International Meeting of American Accounting
Association
|
Improving and Evaluating Student Workplace Writing Skills |
Susan A. Lynn
Universiity of Baltimore
Thomas E. Vermeer
University of Baltimore
Abstract: This paper extends research on the effect of structured writing programs on improving students’ writing skills. We use writing assignments that are representative of the writing students will experience in their first professional positions after graduation, use business advisory board members to evaluate improvement in student writing, and develop an evaluation instrument (rubric) to assess students’ writing quality. The evaluation instrument can also be used as a direct assessment measure of written communication competency for AACSB accreditation. Our results suggest that the overall quality of our students’ writing improved over two semesters of completing a series of workplace writing assignments. Specifically, our students’ business writing skills improved in the areas of organization and style and tone, their ability to explain technical aspects of accounting work, and certain aspects of punctuation and grammar.