A GUIDE ON HOW TO WRITE AN ACCOUNTING RESEARCH PAPER

Accounting was one called “the language of business” and this definition completely serves the core function of accountancy nowadays. Accountancy is the science of measurement and interpretation of economics figures that is transmitted to the variety of economics users like investors, managers, regulators etc. Accountancy is an interdisciplinary field that has close connections with such fields of science as economics, mathematics etc. Within accounting itself can be named several sub-fields: auditing, management accounting, financial accounting, tax accounting. The topic of your research paper will depend on the sub-field your studies are concentrated.

Before setting out to write your paper, choose the topic that is narrow enough to investigate it inside and out and that is not too narrow for you to find enough information to cover and explain its essence. Next, make an outline for the paper that will encompass its preliminary structure, ideas you want to express in it, basic concepts concerning your topic, possible methods you are going to use.

Choose only reliable sources. Official websites, websites of governmental institutions, verified statistics, primary literature sources, accounting working papers, articles. Go to libraries, order articles, and previous research via the Internet if needed.

Like all the other research papers, your research paper in accounting needs to have three main components: introduction, body, and conclusion. Unless, you are required to include some other parts by the professor. The introduction part may sometimes be preceded by the abstract section. Moreover, the conclusion may be either combined or separated with the discussion paragraph. The beginning and the end of your paper is like an essential frame for your research paper. Most of the readers will read abstract and conclusion first to decide whether they are interested in your work or not. These sections are brief and provide very concise information about your paper. You may skim through other papers like chemistry papers, economics papers to have a basic idea of the structure of the research paper.

The core of the introduction is the thesis statement. This is a sentence or two that focus on the primary aspect and idea of your paper. It states a hypothesis/ proves or disproves some thought or statement. Do not forget to include aims of the research and your motivation.

The body encompasses literature part where you go into detail explaining what types of sources you used and how they are relevant to your research. Draw lines between different authors, their basic concepts, and outcomes. The methodology will help your readers to trust your research because all the methods you discuss in this section will back up your research and its results. In the body, you need to outline the results paragraph that will present just pure results without their analysis and interpretation.

The discussion and conclusion will explain all the subtleties of the research: its weaknesses, strong sides, the connection with previous surveys. This part will completely interpret results you got and will explain whether they are relevant or not. State future possibilities for the further investigation of the topic.

Common mistakes to avoid!

• The usage of the colloquial style.
• A simple description of the topic without necessary interpretation and an analysis.
• Inserting irrelevant sources (anecdotes, information from blog websites etc.).
• Subjectivity (overestimating and underestimating your outcomes, using too many adjectives especially in superlative degree).
• Grammar, spelling, stylistic mistakes.
• Digression from the topic.

Possible topic for your research paper

“Internal audit activities of commercial health care organizations”
“Methodology in statistical research of the quality of life in rural areas”
“Analytical procedures in audit of value added tax”
“Formation of commercial organizations in accounting policies”