Rhetorica in the Domain of Managerial Accounting - Assignment Example

? RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF A PROFESSIONAL DOCUMENT INTRODUCTION Conventionally, rhetoric is considered as one of the most important and necessary art in order to persuade, motivate or inform specific audience through writing or speech. This art of discourse is essentially infused in every writing by any writer with either his appropriate intention or without his knowledge regarding rhetoric strategies. From personal writings to professional and from casual writings to academic, every paper is necessarily contained with some of the rhetoric strategies. This paper is focused on the identification of rhetoric strategies in an academic and professional paper written by Saurav K. Dutta and Raef A. Lawson in the domain of managerial accounting. The title of paper is “Boosting Management Accounting’s Stature on Campus” and it has been published in year 2007. ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL STRATEGIES Style and Tone The style adopted by authors of this paper is comprised of long and fluent sentences along with descriptive and appropriate usage of words. The appropriation of words used by the authors is strictly in concordance with the field which this paper has associations that is business. Structure of sentences is simple and effective which demonstrate the informative intention of authors. However, the paper is aimed to persuade the academic institutions, authors have adopted the straight writing technique in which simple structured sentences are presented to inform the audience about the criticality of the issue. As this article is professional as well as academic, the tone utilized by authors is highly descriptive. However, authors also have acquired a sarcastic tone to signify the criticality and to represent historic happenings in the domain of management accounting. The article is written in a third person point of view along with substantial emphasis of details and information regarding the intended objective (Dutta and Lawson 43-47). Ethos In this article, authors have portrayed the whole argument in a significantly systematic manner in which all of occurrences in the past in the field of accounting have been exhibited as the initial point. It illuminates the research work and high command of authors in the field of accounting. Followed by the construction of the argument in which authors have demonstrated the flaw of contemporary academics on the basis of which the problems are developed as associative with the field of management accounting. By developing the whole explanation for the problem, authors have proposed a way out which is the basic purpose of the author to be developed. In this domain, the whole paper represents a systematic deliverance of the argument with a demonstration of excellence by the authors in the related field of study. Due to this, authors have successfully developed the stature of authors as credible and authentic which assists to imply the intended argument in a more sufficient manner (Dutta and Lawson 43-45). Pathos The presence of pathos in the article is distinctively highlighted with the explication of issue and its association with individuals who are professionally accountants in a negative manner. Authors have identified a significantly critical issue regarding the field of accountancy on the basis of which authors developed that this critical issue is decreasing the need of accountants. There are two prominent features in the paper which depicts the persistence of pathos acquired by authors in order to persuade the targeted audience on emotional plain. Firstly, authors have portrayed a factor of concern for the field of management, business and accounting that is the declining need and efficiency of accountancy in contemporary times. It creates an immensely persuading impact on the academies of business and field of accounting because of the importance which is intrinsically related to this discipline of studies. On the other hand, it illuminates problems for individuals who are acquiring the academic qualification of accountancy. This impact the targeted audience on the emotional plain along with the intention of authors is more effectively delivered (Dutta and Lawson 43-47). Logos The rhetoric element of logos is most efficiently and largely incorporated by the authors in this article. Authors have utilized facts from the history and also from the contemporary times to describe the criticality and significance of the issue. In addition, authors have provided rational grounds in the light of facts and examples by which the argument proposed by authors are more sound and appealing. The causal associations along with facts are the basic rationale which are presented by the authors in a simple yet system format. Authors of this article have also provided significance of argument in the context of the contemporary world. The automation in the contemporary world has taken over many opportunities which are substantially associated with management accounting. This problem does not only persuade the targeted audience on the emotional level but also appeals the rational grounds of the audience. The association of this article is mainly comprised of logos among all of the elements of rhetoric (Dutta and Lawson 43-46). Comparison and Contrast In this article, authors have also acquired the rhetoric strategy of comparison and contrast to illuminate the truthiness of the argument. In many parts of the paper, authors have compared the persisting trend of universities which produce accountants with the actual practical field of accountancy in modern times. There is also another important domain in the paper where this rhetoric strategy is sufficiently applied. Authors have also compared the preceding times in the context of accounting with the contemporary times which is highly advanced in technologies and automated. This signifies that authors of this article have utilized the rhetoric strategy of comparison to illuminate the significance and assist the description of the argument. On the other hand, authors have also proposed contrasts for accounting trends in universities and professional accounting. Authors, in this article, proposed that trends which are persisting in universities regarding to the field of accounting are contrary to other significant areas of accounting like management accounting, governmental accounting or taxes by which the professional career of accounting students does not thrive. This illuminates the utilization of contrast in this article by which authors have developed bases for their intended solution to this significant issue (Dutta and Lawson 43-47). Cause and Effect In addition to comparison and contrast, authors have also used another rhetoric strategy that is cause and effect. The rhetoric strategy of cause and effect is comprised of explaining argument in the manner of causal connections which is remarkably determined by authors to develop the argument for the paper. As mentioned above, the rhetoric element, that is logos, is most prominently delivered in this professional writing, authors have developed the associations of management accounting with practical domain in a system of causality. From the beginning of the article, authors have systematically developed the foundation of the argument in the manner of cause and effect. Firstly explaining the causes of decline in the field of accounting in the contemporary times, authors have described the negative future implications of those trends of accounting which are persistent in universities in the manner of cause and effect on rational grounds. It is well delivered in this article to signify the validity of the argument proposed by authors (Dutta and Lawson 44-46). Description The paper has made use of one rhetoric strategy of description as it is discussing various ideas and themes in accounting such as managerial accounting, governmental accounting and accounting in business operations in a descriptive manner. However, the intention of authors is to remain focused on managerial accounting as a subject. The paper is subjectively descriptive in identifying the problems of managerial accounting, especially when it comes to teaching methods of accounting to students. Authors are touching the domain of institutions for exploring the problem in a more comprehensive way. This comprehensive exploration of the paper is what is describing its descriptive style of rhetoric. The authors have also tried to uncover the common perception of the public in accounting and the teaching methods which are being applied in institutions for accounting (Dutta and Lawson 43-47). Exemplification To emphasize on the argument “institutions are not providing students with practical knowledge of accounting”, the authors have made the use of exemplification strategy, which refers to the use of examples to settle a constructive point of opinion. The authors have provided several examples in accounting to identify the flaws of teaching and institution methods. Just like the article quoted one example of Accounting Education Change Commission report which described innovative accounting curricula to make students practical and professional accountants. Similarly, the authors exemplified with example of CPA firms which used accounting information systems to make accounting students highly communicable (Dutta and Lawson 43-47). CONCLUSION There is multiple rhetoric strategies which have been acquired by authors of this professional article to, mainly inform and persuade the target audience. The target audience of this article is comprised of universities which are associated with the field of accounting along with higher officials who designs the curriculums for those universities. These targeted audiences are required to be persuaded along with informed as the intention of authors depicts. However, there is another significant part of the target audience that is the students of accounting who are aimed to be informed regarding the critical issue of management accounting. Authors have utilized all three elements of rhetoric in an efficient way; however, the persistence of logos is significantly higher than pathos and ethos. Work Cited Dutta, Saurav K. and Raef A. Lawson. "Boosting Management Accounting's Stature on Campus." Strategic Finance 89.6 (2007): 42-47. Print Read More