To: MinZhang Si, UBC Student
From: Kenny Colosie, Fellow Student, UBC.
Date: January 30th, 2022
Subject: Review of Your Expanded Definition of Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Hello MinZhang, I have reviewed the first draft of your expanded definition and you have done a great introduction into double-entry bookkeeping. Below, I have made a few comments and suggestions for your review that you may want to include in your final version.
Background
I have taken two accounting courses and have worked as an accounts receivable clerk for one year, therefore, I have a very basic understanding of accounting principles. However, I have not encountered double-entry bookkeeping in my professional or academic experiences prior to reading your definition.
Initial Impressions
I understand that in the situation in this definition, the person receiving the information has little to no accounting background so I put myself in their shoes when reading and reviewing the definition.
Upon my first read through the definition, I found that it would be ideal to delve deeper into the comparison of what a single entry book-keeping system is so that you can make an accurate comparison to double-entry bookkeeping. You do a great job of explaining in what situations we may want to use a single-entry or double-entry system but it would be great to compare specific features and benefits because I am left asking the question why? Why would I want to use this for a larger entity? What are the key benefits to knowing what assets I have? Why might I not care about my assets in a smaller entity situation?
Further, figure 1 was not attached to the blog post so it was difficult to envision this system from the eyes of someone who knows little about accounting.
Purpose
The purpose of the message seems clear and is well described. As noted above, I am briefly familiar with accounting practices and as such, the message is clear but could use more detail for the uneducated reader. You could have gone into a lot more detail with figure one and broken it down quite a bit more for the reader (assuming the figure is provided upon editing).
Overall Structure
The overall flow of the expanded definition could probably been better suited without the titles for each expansion strategy, instead, blending them into the multi paragraph definition. I believe the intent of the assignment was not to break apart the definition in such fashion but to use the methods of expansion to showcase the definition while seamlessly blending them into the text.
For example, the following is what is written:
“Double-entry bookkeeping is a bookkeeping system that records every business transaction two times, once as debits and once as credits, in two separate places or accounts.
How is it Different from Single-Entry Bookkeeping?
Unlike a single-entry bookkeeping system, which only records each transaction once in one account, a double-entry bookkeeping system keeps a record of all transactions two times in two accounts (Carlson, 2019).”
Which could be instead written as:
“Double-entry bookkeeping is a (eliminate double use of the word bookkeeping here) system that records every business transaction twice, once as a debit and once as a credit in two separate accounts. It is unlike single-entry bookkeeping where each transaction is recorded only once in one account.”
The above provides the same level of diagnosis in the definition while providing more brevity and concise language.
Further points of brevity
Paragraph two: Instead of “…but if your business is large and complex or if you expect it to grow, it is a better idea to go for double-entry…” you can say “…but if your business is large, complex or expected to grow, it is better to use double-entry…”. Avoid the use of slang terms like “go for” and instead use a professional term such as “use”.
Final Notes
The links provided in the reference page don’t work. As such, I cannot determine if you are using exact quotes or paraphrasing from the articles that you have used. If you are using exact quotes, you need to put quotation marks around the text that has been extracted from the articles.
You are missing an “s” at the end of the word “calculation” in paragraph four.
You clearly have great knowledge of the accounting field, dive deeper on the subject and provide more detail for the reader so they can share in your knowledge.
Link to Definition
https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/01/28/peer-reviews-on-definitions/
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