Carol Hartley

Providence College

Koffler 204

chartley@

providence.edu

x2154

You will prepare a secondary research paper on a topic of your choice that must conform to the following theme:

"A failure or deficiency in auditing or assurance services"

Only one person may do the same topic. Therefore, the first person to post to the message board with a properly documented topic submission will receive first choice. Topics may be current or historical in perspective.

Topic Submission and Advance Approval

A properly documented topic submission must include the following:

1. a well-defined topic that conforms to the theme, but is not too broad or too narrow, nor beyond the scope of your ability to manage it successfully,
2. five preliminary research sources from periodicals or nonfiction works (not textbooks or guides, not WWW, not press releases like PR or Business Wire), including at least two from professional accounting or auditing or law journals; use MLA form to document sources.

Properly documented topic submissions must be received for approval before class meets on October 16th.

You must do substantive library research before you submit a topic to be certain that you will be able to obtain adequate resource material to complete the paper. Your preliminary research sources should be of adequate quality and substance to be incorporated into the paper.Your final paper must demonstrate substantive technical research and integration of authoritative auditing and accounting principles, i.e. topical issues from legal cases must be related to the appropriate authoritative sources in auditing and or accounting. Simplistic case summaries will not meet the grading criteria.

Topic submissions should be posted to the appropriate Angel message board. Approvals for topics will be given in a reply on the message board. Oral discussions on open topics will not be binding. Papers submitted without prior topic approval will not be accepted. I recommend considering multiple topics in the event that another class member posts the topic prior to your post - read the message board before you do research and before you post your topic!

Format

Papers must be written according to the MLA style guide, a link to which is provided on the department's home page. Ideas and concepts that are not your original thought must be properly cited to source material.

Whenever appropriate you should directly use and cite the authoritative literature, e.g., SASs, Code of Conduct, FASs, versus simply citing another author's interpretation of the authoritative literature.

Papers must be prepared using word processing software and must be checked for spelling and manually proofed for grammar. Do not submit a first draft as your final paper. Plan on completely your first draft a week in advance to provide adequate time for re-reading and re-drafting.

Papers must include a bibliography, well constructed and defined introduction and conclusion sections, and should include your personal reflections.

Paper length depends upon the topic, but the body of the paper should at a minimum be five pages, normally spaced, with a normal font size, e.g., 10 or 12 point font. This excludes the title page, the bibliography, and appendices. The body of the paper does not need to exceed ten pages. You should staple the pages together - please do not use special report covers.

Due Date

Papers are due in class on November 25. You will give a brief oral report on your research to the class that day. The paper must be submitted to me in two forms, electronically to the appropriate Angel drop-box and in paper form in person in class. Papers not submitted in both forms by the due date will be considered late (see below) until both forms are received by me. You should not under any circumstances leave papers under my office door. The research paper file name must be in the following format: Yourlastname Yourfirstname researchname, e.g., Smith John Enron.

Late submissions will be reduced one full grade if the paper is up to one week late, two full grades if the paper is up to two weeks late, and three full grades thereafter.

Papers may be submitted before the due date.

Grading

The paper will be graded according to how well the aforementioned requirements are met, and the following criteria:

The research paper grading rubric may be found in the documents folder in Angel.

This web page was created by Carol Hartley using Microsoft FrontPage 98 version 3.0.2.926.
For problems or questions regarding this web site contact  chartley@providence.edu.
Last updated: July 18, 2003.