Writing skills of new accounting hires: the message is mixed.

• Author: Porter, Jeffrey A.

Taxpayers and practitioners agree that the Internal Revenue Code and its related regulations are neither clear nor concise. And yet, as the foundation of the study and practice of taxation, their language has had an impact on the writing skills (or lack thereof) of accounting and tax students for decades. What message does this convey to students about writing skills in the practice of accounting and tax? At best, a "mixed" one.

Only recently have professors and practitioners seemed to be unified in their advice to students to view accounting as an information business, in which the "product" is sold (in part) through effective writing skills, with success measured (in part) by such skills. Among those that have recognized the importance of well-written communications: the Accounting Education Change Commission has identified a variety of skills and competencies necessary for accounting students, including written communication skills; the AICPA Board of Examiners has begun to test writing skills on the Uniform CPA Exam (in addition to technical knowledge); the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business has asked schools to add writing courses to meet accreditation guidelines; and many university accounting departments have changed their graduation requirements to include move writing courses and to integrate writing into more courses overall. Most of these events were prompted by practitioners' frequent comments to educators about the disappointing quality of new accounting hires' writing skills and the need to improve them.

And yet, this burden seems to rest predominantly with academia. Although the message is clear that well-developed writing skills are essential for acquiring and maintaining a career in accounting and tax, only one Big 6 firm, Coopers & Lybrand (C&L), has integrated writing exercises into its interview and hiring process.

Suggestions for Practitioners

All firms should integrate some form of writing assessment into the interview and hiring process. Writing samples could borrow from the models used in law firms, in behavior-based interviewing (BBI) or in teaching client responsiveness.

* Law firm model: Law firms have always required a writing sample in the hiring process; generally, this consists of a memorandum of law or an appellate brief prepared for a legal research and writing class, for a moot court competition or for an employer during an internship. Such written work products are tangible evidence of a recruit's writing skills. Because law students know that writing samples are required in the hiring process, they come prepared. If accounting firms required writing samples, universities and accounting students would quickly adjust to accommodate such reasonable requests.

* BBI model: More and more accounting firms have adapted their hiring procedures to use the BBI model. BBI is generally designed to focus on a recruit's "core competencies," those underlying characteristics (such as motivation, self-concept, values, attitude, skills and knowledge) that have a direct bearing on employee behavior, job performance and personnel fit within an organization and its culture. (See "Making the Right Hire: Behavioral Interviewing," The Tax Adviser, Sept. 1996,p. 570.)

In the process of using BBI and core competencies, some firms rely on writing exercises as an assessment tool during the hiring process. For example, in Fall 1996, C&L launched a national initiative that required two writing samples from each recruit who made it to the office interview...