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Writing Skills for ACCA

Professional level Papers
Steve Willis
PwCs Academy

Messages from Examiners

Answers lacked evaluation and assessment of issues, which is required
at this level
Scenarios need to be evaluated and assessed, rather than described
this difference is fundamental and crucial
Responses offered little by way of analysis and tended to repeat
observations that were present in the question

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Messages from Examiners

Problems were answers written in a brief, bullet point format
Candidates quoted lengthy detail from the scenario, scoring few marks
A common problem is writing too little and failing to develop points
beyond simple identification of facts

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Good writing is critical

for all P-level exams!

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What well cover

How to write under stress and time pressure

Getting the professional marks
Pitfalls to avoid

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How to write

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3 Steps to follow

Read
Plan
Write

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Read and analyze the requirement

What are verbs and objects?
Models?
Time?

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Models?
BCG?
Mendelow?
Performance Prism?
Audit risk model?
Value chain?
How do they help?
Structure!

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Plan: set your paragraph structure

Mind map or bullet points
Sections
Subsections
Ideas

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Tench, December 2011

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Answer plan

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Planning drives structure

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Read and Plan: 1

(a) Define transparency and evaluate its importance as an underlying
principle in corporate governance and in relevant and reliable financial
reporting. Your answer should refer to the case as appropriate. (10 marks)

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Read and Plan 2

(b) Explain Kohlbergs three levels of moral development and identify the
levels of moral development demonstrated by the contributions of Gary
Howells, Vanda Monroe and Martin Chan. (12 marks)

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Read and Plan 3

(c) Critically discuss FOUR principal roles of non-executive directors and
explain the potential tensions between these roles that WMs non-executive
directors may experience in advising on the disclosure of the overestimation
of the mallerite reserve. (12 marks)

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Writing: quantity
1 Mark = 1 idea = 1.8 minutes of work
1 Idea = 1 short paragraph = 3ish sentences
You get diminishing returns on your time

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Writing: content
Short sentences
Simple structure
Active voice
Link to the scenario
Friendly, professional style

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Structure 1

Point
Explain
Example
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Structure 2

Calculate
Comment
Discuss
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Structure 3

What?
So what?
Now what?
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Example 1
Define stakeholder and explain the importance of identifying all the
stakeholders in the stadium project. (10 marks).

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Point explain example 1

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Point explain example 1

IMPORTANCE

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Point explain example 1

IMPORTANCE
Understand the conflicts

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Point explain example 1

IMPORTANCE
Understand the conflicts
Conflicts will lead to delays, bad publicity, etc This
can result in the football club missing their objective of
a new stadium. Understanding who the stakeholders
are and what they want will help avoid this.

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Point explain example 1

IMPORTANCE
Understand the conflicts
Conflicts will lead to delays, bad publicity, etc This
can result in the football club missing their objective of
a new stadium. Understanding who the stakeholders
are and what they want will help avoid this.
E.g. The residents are against the construction so lets
meet with them early, maybe negotiate on some points
might keep them from protesting.

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Point explain example 2

Understand who has influence

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Point explain example 2

Understand who has influence
Its critical to understand who has the most power and
influence. The football club will need to keep them
satisfied as they can block the project.

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Point explain example 2

Understand who has influence
Its critical to understand who has the most power and
influence. The football club will need to keep them
satisfied as they can block the project.
E.g. the local government can make a lot of trouble for
the football club (like revoking licenses). Keep them
satisfied by following all the rules of construction and
managing conflicts with the residents.

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Calculate comment - discuss

Evaluate the financial performance of CAP (6 marks).

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Calculate comment discuss 1

Revenue per park dropped 15% over 5 years (w1)

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Calculate comment discuss 1

Revenue per park dropped 15% over 5 years (w1)
This is a bad sign.

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Calculate comment discuss 1

Revenue per park dropped 15% over 5 years (w1)
This is a bad sign. Cundy doesnt have her pricing
right, or maybe they arent investing in new rides.
Instead of investing in new parks maybe they should
invest in new rides.
BCG grid analysis might help herewhich parks are
the dogs to close?

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Calculate comment discuss 2

Profit per park dropped 40% over 3 years

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Calculate comment discuss 2

Profit per park dropped 40% over 3 years
This is another worrying sign.

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Calculate comment discuss 2

Profit per park dropped 40% over 3 years
This is another worrying sign. Costs are not dropping
as fast as revenues. They should have transformed
more fixed costs to variable when they saw this trend.
Maybe they need to improve cost control as well.

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Dont forget to summarize

Overall

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Dont forget to summarize

Overall
Cundys strategy clearly isnt working: Profits &
revenues are down, their P/E ratio is below average,
and they have a big liquidity problem. I recommend
they cancel the expansion and focus on fixing the
existing parks, e.g. new rides.

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Example 3
Explain how DRB might re-structure its upstream supply chain to
achieve the growth required by DRB and to tackle the problems that
Dilip Masood has identified. (10 marks).

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What? so what? now what? 1

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What? so what? now what? 1

Switch from 2 shippers to 1 shipper

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What? so what? now what? 1

Switch from 2 shippers to 1 shipper
We see problems with inbound logistics, DRB has
missing shipments and a poor tracking system, and
the provider is not willing to help.

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What? so what? now what? 1

Switch from 2 shippers to 1 shipper
We see problems with inbound logistics, DRB has
missing shipments and a poor tracking system, and
the provider is not willing to help. They should switch
to a more modern supplier (e.g, UPS) that will give
them real time tracking info on a website and better
quality here.
Expanding be easier with reduced admin of two
suppliers and higher quality.

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What? so what? now what? 2

Switch to long term contacts with suppliers

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What? so what? now what? 2

Switch to long term contacts with suppliers
DRB has avoided this, but their objective is to import
the fully configured products.

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What? so what? now what? 2

Switch to long term contacts with suppliers
DRB has avoided this, but their objective is to import
the fully configured products. This means they need
the highest quality on delivery. With a long term
contract DRB can form partnerships and manage the
complex manufacturing better.

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Professional marks

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Your Goal

Impress the marker!

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Format
Make your document look like the requested document
For example, if its a report:
Give it a nice cover page
Include an executive summary (conclusion) and/or introduction
Make your answer stand out
You have 4 marks, use the time
But remember: format is not the only thing the marker is looking at

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Style
Tone set from the opening
Who are you writing to?
Use professional language
Use short paragraphs, avoid bullet point shopping lists
Link to the scenario as much as possible by mentioning the people,
company, and industry

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Structure
Group ideas together
Make sure there is a logical order to your paragraph structure
Use the reading and planning time here
Headings and sub headings

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Clarity
Use headings as signposts
Short, succinct sentences
Use linking words

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Speech
Welcome to our AGM
Thank you all for coming today. My name is Mike Smith, Im the
Chairman of the Board of XYZ Corporation. I know youve read about
our problems X, Y, and Z in the paper, and I want to assure you were
doing everything to fix this.
Good corporate governance is a main foundation of our company, and
Id like to tell you about the improvement were making in this area.
A)
Independent Audit Committee
Keep writing here . Keep writing here
Idea 2

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Pitfalls to avoid

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Dont do this
Shopping list
Wall of words
Regurgitation
Not answering the question
Miss the professionalmarks
Not watching the clock

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Summary

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Effective P-Level Writing: Checklist

Circle verb, underline object before you start
Plan your paragraph structure: verbs and models will drive this
Use short, concise, simple sentences
Use headings and subheadings
Aim for 2-4 sentences per paragraph
Use one of the patterns to build your paragraphs
Link as much as possible to the scenario

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Key ideas
Writing is the key skill at the professional-level exams
Use a system to craft paragraphs the get marks
Impress the marker with a good attempt at the professional marks

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Any Questions?

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