Chapter 2

Critical Thinking and Effective

Writing Skills for the Professional

Accountant

Critical Thinking Skills

“characterized by careful and exact evaluation and judgment”

Purposeful, goal-oriented, and creative

A process of understanding how thinking and learning work.

Critical Thinking skills (contd.)

Higher order skills Analysis- breaking ideas into

component parts Synthesis – connection among

different components to derive relationships that tie the parts of the answer together

Critical assessment – examination of the conclusions reached for sound logical reasoning.

Critical Thinking Skills (contd.)

Includes Recognizing any explanatory

relations among statements Recognizing the structure of

arguments (premises, implicit assumptions, and conclusions)

Assessing consistency or inconsistency, equivalence among statements, and logical implications

Formulation and identifying deductively and inductively, justified conclusions based on available evidence

Levels of Thinking

Bloom’s taxonomy-six levels, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation.

Higher order knowledge occurs when using higher order skills

One must be able to perform lower level skills before moving up

Levels of Thinking (contd.)

Bloom’s Taxonomy 1. Knowledge – recall 2. Comprehension – grasping

material 3. Application – use in new situation 4. Analysis – breaks down into

components 5. Synthesis – puts parts into new

form. 6. Evaluation – judges the value of

the statement

8 Elements of Reasoning

Purpose Issue Informatio

n Concepts

Assumptions

Interpretation

Implications

Conclusions

Effective Writing Skills

Know your Audience – supervisor, shareholder, management, government agency, other.

“in accounting and other professions, we must have strong technical skills. But if we cannot communicate what we know, the value of the technical skills is lessened.”

AICPA’s 6 Characteristics of Effective Writing for the

CPA Exam

Coherent organization Conciseness Clarity Use of standard English Responsiveness to the

requirements of the questions Appropriateness for the reader.

SEC’s Plain English Concept’s

Use the active voice Use short sentences Definite, concrete, everyday

language Tabular presentation Limit jargon No double negatives

Effective Client Letters and

e-mails

Oral communication is used if a quick response is needed or if there is a privacy issue

Written communication is normally used if documentation is needed.