Writing Skills for ACCA Professional level Papers Steve Willis PwC’s Academy

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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 we’ll 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 Kohlberg’s 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 WM’s 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

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Structure 2

Calculate

Comment

Discuss Slide 23

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Structure 3

What?

So 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 let’s 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 It’s 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 It’s 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 doesn’t have her pricing right, or maybe they aren’t investing in new rides. Instead of investing in new parks maybe they should invest in new rides. BCG grid analysis might help here—which 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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Don’t forget to summarize

Overall

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Don’t forget to summarize

Overall Cundy’s strategy clearly isn’t 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 it’s 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 it’s 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, I’m the Chairman of the Board of XYZ Corporation. I know you’ve read about our problems X, Y, and Z in the paper, and I want to assure you we’re doing everything to fix this. Good corporate governance is a main foundation of our company, and I’d like to tell you about the improvement we’re making in this area.” A) Independent Audit Committee Keep writing here …. Keep writing here…… Idea 2 Slide 61

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Pitfalls to avoid

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Don’t do this

•  Shopping list •  Wall of words •  Regurgitation •  Not answering the question •  Miss the professional marks •  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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