Question:
The ‘Integrated Financial Reporting' framework is having a significant global impact on financial report preparation in recent years. Using the authoritive literature, discuss how the ‘Integrated Financial Reporting' framework will improve corporate accountability to stakeholders. Provide examples to substantiate your discussion.
Key factors to keep in mind when writing your essay are:
The essay should be approximately 1,500 words in length (excluding appendices, tables, diagrams and references) and conform to the marking guide provided.
• Ensure that all in-text references are accurate and comply with the Harvard referencing style. you use only credible sources appropriate to your level of studies. Wikipedia, for example, is not a credible source. A Reference list of works of all works cited in your essay must be provided.
• Ensure you use accurate your spelling and grammar. It is often best to state things simply and clearly rather than using complicated language in the wrong context.
• An essay should begin with an introduction, which outlines key arguments and defines key terms.
Make it clear in the first paragraph how you are planning to address the question.
• Each paragraph should contain a topic sentence (what summarises the main idea in this paragraph) and be followed by supporting sentences (and citations), which expand and provide more detail on the idea raised. A common student mistake is to write topic sentence after topic sentence. This makes essays seem like they are jumping from one idea to the next and will often attract feedback stating "no depth".
The supporting sentences are crucial to examine the initial idea in more detail and demonstrate an argument along with understanding. Ensure you examine each idea in enough detail - examine the idea fully before moving on.
• Remember that the marker can only mark what you actually said on the paper, not what is
in your head or what you "meant to say". For this reason, it is essential to review your own work in order to reveal flaws in structure or writing.
• Conclusions should never introduce new ideas, but instead should summarise the arguments and leave the reader with a resounding "take home message", hopefully convincing them you have answered the question.
• The most common criticism faced by students in this unit is not answering the question.
Discussion around a topic is not answering the question. It is often a helpful technique to use the essay question as part of your essay structure. You are the bouncer at the door of your own essay: choose which ideas get in. Choose the ideas that directly address the question.