Assignment

This assignment will focus on effectively communicating the financial position of the company. Please complete exercise 18.6 at the end of chapter 18.

Locate two annual reports on the Internet. A good source is Report Watch. Compare the style of the two reports. Here are some questions to get you started:

1. How do they use visuals to keep attention?

2. What differences do you see in the letters from the CEOs?

3. How do they present number-heavy information? Do they rely mainly on tables and graphs? Do they give prose summaries?

4. Is the writing easy to understand?

5. Do you see places where negative information is given a positive spin?

6. Is one report easier to understand than the other? Why?

7. Is one report more interesting than the other? Why?

While this is not a formal paper, I do expect your answers to be grammatically correct. Your opinions should be part of this response, but you also need to incorporate information from the reading as well as outside sources. You should have a minimum of 2 sources.