Financial Accounting Research

Financial Accounting Research

Paper/project guidelines:

• Length:
  • The body of the paper should be between 5 and 10 pages. You will find it very difficult to adequately address most issues in less than 5 pages.  You will find that you need “filler” material if you attempt to go beyond 10 pages.  The objective is to cover background, issue, etc. as clearly and concisely as possible.  You do not earn points by the word.  On the other hand, you will not earn points if you do not address important issues.
  • The length above is for the “body” of the paper. Appendices, bibliographies, cover-sheets, and other supplemental material are not part of the “body.”
• Format:
  • You may use any type-style you like (e.g., Times New Roman, Sans Serif), but the style must be 10pt. You will find that 10pt Times New Roman this looks like this while 10pt Arial looks like this.  You may choose what you like best.  Just be sure it is 10 point.
  • Double-spacing
  • Standard margins (1”, 1”, 1”, 1”)
  • Numbered pages (in the footer, on the right-hand side). Don’t number your coversheet, if you have one.
• Style Manual
  • You may use any style manual (APA, MLA, etc.) you prefer. Just be consistent throughout your paper.  I prefer APA.
  • You must have a bibliography.
  • NOTE: I know that if you look in some style manuals, you are told you can copy the URL for a paper/article you find online in the body of your paper as the cite reference.  Please ignore that advice.  Do not use the URL in the body of your paper (although you may include it in the bibliography).  Use the reference from the article you are copying.  You will have an author, publication name, etc. right in front of you.  The URL is simply where you found your source.  [I consider it rather illogical to say that you should copy the place where you “found” your source material into your paper.  I am assuming that most of you would not type “troyuniversitylibrary.secondfloor.aisle3.deweydecimal.0135as46” as a reference source, although this is exactly the same as copying a URL for an online article.]
    • Note: If the online article does not have an author or a publication name, consider that the source may not be acceptable!
  • Mechanics
    • A paper is neither complete nor acceptable if it contains grammatical errors.
    • A paper is neither complete nor acceptable if it contains spelling errors.
    • A paper is neither complete nor acceptable if it contains errors of sentence structure.
    • A paper should flow properly—transition sentences, headers and section names, etc.

Presentation Guidelines

You must use powerpoint or another presentation software to prepare a presen