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Andrew Llovet
Professor Steffen Guenzel
ENC 1102
25 March 2019
Rhetorical Analysis: Written and Computer-Mediated Accounting Communication Skills: an

Employer Perspective

My research project has to do with the different amount of ways accountants

communicate. I have heard that communication is one of the most important tools for an

accountant in their daily lives. It is an important tool because it helps them be successful in what

they do. My research question is “What are the best ways for accountants to communicate?” I

will also be looking into whether there is an easier way for them to communicate. I will also be

looking into with the development of technology has communication gotten easier for them. The

text I have chosen is to see which communication skills are better. Whether it be written

communication skills or computer based communication skills because in today’s age

technology is supposed to make people lives easier. I m going to be digging more in depth of this

in this paper.

The text I will be using is “Written and Computer-Mediated Accounting Communication

Skills: an Employer Perspective.” It was first Published August 30, 2011. This text was written

by Christopher G. Jones. Jones has a PHD in Accounting and earned his Certified Public

Accountant degree. He recently retired as a Professor of Accounting and Information Systems in

the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics at California State University. He also

has participated in other studies where his expertise was needed or was useful to the piece. As

you can see he is very well versed in the accounting world and has a lot of knowledge on it. The

discourse he is aiming with his text is perhaps his students. A secondary audience he could be
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aiming at is those who already have an accounting job somewhere and perhaps their skills aren’t

as great. This could motivate those whose skills aren’t great to practice and earn better skills.

Another community is those without a job and perhaps are searching for a job in accounting.

They perhaps don’t have a job because their communication skills are not up to par with the

employer they are seeking a job from. The reason is because he is trying to help them see how

important communication is. It is not all about crunching numbers and adding and subtracting

numbers. Communication plays a pivotal role in this field. The rhetor in this piece is Christopher

G. Jones himself. The kairos in this piece like I said earlier is that he was motivated to write this

piece for his students looking to get an accounting job. The public debate as of right now is

which skills are valued more to an employer. Is it basic writing skills or is it computer based

writing skills? In his piece Christopher G. Jones dives deeper into this questions and tries to

answer to the best of his ability.

Communication skills are an important foundation skill to have if you are seeking a job in

accounting. The only problem is what communication skills are important? In Christopher G

Jones’ text he searches to see which skills employers are looking for. His reasoning behind the

research is that former students with an accounting degree were labeled with communication

skills as deficient. As a professor, that looks bad on him so he sought to find out what they were

missing in order to teach his current students what they should focus on. For his research he

conducted a survey and sent it to many different employers of an accounting firm. None of these

firms are ever mentioned in the piece. This piece was written from an employer’s perspective in

order to see what employer are expecting from potential job hires. This gives an advantage to

students because it can help prepare them for the workforce. Jones discovers that basic writing

skills are what employers are looking from potential hires. Writing skills are followed by
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effective documentation. Employers do not consider computer based skills all that important.

The only computer based skill they deem as important is being able to operate an email. Why?

Well using technology to communicate with their fellow peers as well as their customers is what

the world began to move to. Employers do not think these skills are important as the traditional

business skills needed. They actually ranked traditional business skills ahead of computer based

skills. As the article continues Jones goes more into the implications of communication in the

accounting field. I am still researching how the three companies that I have chosen for my paper

how they communicate. They do communicate a lot of information through their websites so that

is one area to delve myself into. Those three companies are Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG. These

three companies are some of top accounting firms in the world.

The main argument in this text is that basic written skills are more important to

employers than computer based skills. Jones first states the question he is seeking to answer and

the literature review behind it. He found out that recent graduates of a university that were

seeking a job in the field of accounting were missing out on a few communication skills. Perhaps

they were not missing it but they were certainly lacking it. This is why Jones decided to do this

study in order to find out what the problem was. They began to rank the communication skills by

order in what they thought was important. Jones helps his argument by designing tables on the

results he gains from his 56 responses. He sent this survey to 444 different companies and only

56 of them actually responded to it. To me, this doesn’t look very good and I do not believe that

only 56 of 444 are a good representation of what employers want out of students. The way he

conducted his study was by surveys. Employers were to self report their ideal communication

skills based needs and how important they thought of them. Written communication skills came

out on top with computer based skills coming out on the bottom. I do not have first hand account
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of how accountants, but I do not agree with this because I think they are equally important. If

not, I believe that computer based skills are more important than written communication skills.

Especially in today’s age I believe that computer skills are more important. I have not been

taught many written communication skills, I feel that I have been taught more through the

computer based needs. For example, I have been taught how to use excel in accounting.

My claim is that at this point in time computer based skills are more important than

written communication skills. The reason is because people are becoming more aware of

technology. Since people are becoming more aware of it, it is becoming more accessible for

people to use. A lot of the world focuses or relies on technology for their everyday lives.

Everything can be done on a computer now a days. So I strongly believe that computer based

skills are most important. This text was written in 2011 so it can almost be seen as outdated. This

means that it was written eight years ago, with some research papers we use only papers that

were written within the last ten years. We are in 2019 now people are looking for technology in

order to make their lives easier. The rhetor also had only 56 participants. I don’t think this is an

adequate number in order to represent the entire world. Most of the world communicates through

the computer and/or their smartphones. Jones argument was well written due to the fact that he

has the numbers to prove what employers find important, but he does note that the numbers of

responses is not a very adequate number in order to represent the entire population.

Some take home points for the reader is still the emphasis on how important

communication skills are for those searching for a job the in the field of accounting. As well as

students currently studying for an accounting degree who need to better their communication

skills in order to get a job. I feel like personally that this is a take home point for me as well due

to my interest in looking to earn an accounting degree at the University of Central Florida. I also
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want to earn my Certified Public Accountant degree. I will definitely be able to use this in my

research because it still places tons of emphasis on how important communication skills are to

employers and as well as the employees. My research is all about the communication in the

accounting world and this piece help serve a great deal when it comes to that.
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Works Cited

Jones, Christopher G. “Written and Computer-Mediated Accounting Communication Skills: An

Employer Perspective.” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 3, Sept. 2011, pp. 247–

271, doi:10.1177/1080569911413808

Andrews, J. D., and N. B. Sigband. “How Effectively Does the ‘New’ Accountant

Communicate? Perceptions by Practitioners and Academies.” The Journal of Business

Communication, 1984, p. 15. EBSCOhost,

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