Customer Reviews

Effective Writing: A Handbook for Accountants, 7th Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is designed as a text for college coursework and is in use at many major universities; as such, the price is not unreasonable. Neither is it over priced as a business reference book. Compare, for example, the CCH Master Tax Guide, which is about double the price. I have used this book for years in courses I have taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. I've also used the book in my CPA practice for 20+ years. In the 1980s, I studied under Drs. Claire and Gordon May, so I know that the book is based on a combined minimum 60 years of experience in working with accounting students and CPAs. It is now in its 8th edition. The authors put a great deal of effort into ensuring that it is always fresh and up-to-date. It is an invaluable resource, especially for developing professionals.

I had to buy this book for my college class. It is a good book that takes the knowledge one should already have and puts it in the context of writing for accountants. Nonetheless, it is very important to know what the book teaches because much of what accounts write ends up in court. It is definetely worth the expense (investment?).

I'm an accountancy major at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This has greatly helped me on my group cases where I write memorandums and other professional communication. Writing hasn't come easily for me (like numbers have) but this book helps me find my weaknesses and gives me suggestions for them. At first I wondered why such a small book was so expensive, but the price is definitely worth it!

I work in a CPA firm and found this book to recommend simplification in writing to the point of absurdity. It is a fact that there is a 'language' for business, and this book spends far too much time advising the reader to take complex or wordy phrases and simplify them to an almost moronic degree. While I agree that business writing is often overly and unnecessarily convoluted, this book seems to ignore a business-like paring down and instead invite the reader to return to elementary-school quality writing. I definitely did not feel that the book was a worthwhile investment, especially at the inflated price for which it retails. It is possible that it would benefit those in the accounting field whose clientele are completely non-business oriented or have little business knowledge.