MAA725 – ADVANCED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE COMPULSORY WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
TRIMESTER 2 – 2015
Assignment Task:
‘Given the stakeholder requirement for balanced corporate reporting and the need to ensure the completeness and integrity of social and environmental disclosures, it is suggested that corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) disclosures be verified. It is argued that CSR assurance may improve report credibility and raise stakeholder confidence in the information provided’ (Extracted from Corporate social responsibility assurance: how do South African publicly listed companies compare Meditari Accountancy Research Vol. 17 No. 2 2009).
You are required to:
• Describe and analyze the current practice of CSR assurance worldwide. Some examples of aspects to be discussed could include, but SHOLD NOT limited to: CSR assurance regulations, CSR assurance providers, CSR assurance objective, CSR assurance framework.
• Analyze and discuss why some firms voluntarily have their CSR reports assured in the context of stakeholder theory, positive accounting theory, legitimize theory, and institutional theory and/or other relevant theories (whichever theory/theories you consider relevant for the analysis).
Your arguments and analysis for the requirement above have to be supported by relevant academic refereed articles (at least 6). You should provide evidence that you have carefully examined the literature, understand it, and have been able to summarize its essential content by integrating these articles into your own arguments and perspective.
General requirement:
The maximum number of words is 3,000 excluding the reference list, appendices and the cover page. The actual word count must be stated on the cover page of the assignment. A deduction of 2 marks from marks allocated to this assignment will apply if the number of words is under by more than 10% of 3,000 words or over by more than 20% of 3000 words. Word limits allow the student to structure the assignment to allow for the preparation of an informative yet succinct report.

You are expected to show the integration and coherence of your analysis in Introduction as well as Conclusion Sections. Failure to do so will attract lower marks on these two sections.
You will need to do some personal research in order to complete this assignment. Therefore, it is strongly recommended students start to form the assignment group and prepare for the assignment as early as possible.
You are required to, and must, read and incorporate academic journal articles and other relevant materials into your assignment. At least six academic refereed articles are ‘must have’. Failure to do so will lead to low marks received.
The assignment documents MUST be typed using arial 12 font, properly referenced and ideally 1.5 line spacing (refer to ‘Guide to assignment writing and referencing booklet) and include a REFERENCE LIST (in alphabetical order) outlining the book(s) and any journal articles, electronic sources etc. used. Marks will be deducted if your work is not properly referenced or a reference list not included. It is recommended to use the Harvard citation format, but it is not compulsory. You can choose any citation format you feel appropriate to your assignment, but make sure to keep the format consistent throughout the assignment. Each page must be numbered.
ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION
You need to check that your assignment does not contain plagiarism. This is done automatically when submitting your assignment to the dropbox which uses Turnitin, which checks your assignment for plagiarism and generates an originality report that you can use to be confident that your assignment does not contain plagiarism. For example, Turnitin will tell us (but tell you first) the extent to which your work has copied material from others without appropriate recognition through referencing. If this is excessive you will lose marks or you may not receive any marks, or you may have some form of disciplinary action taken if the issue is severe. So you have an opportunity to submit an unmarked draft copy of your assignment to Turnitin and then take appropriate action to amend your report before final submission.

Therefore it is advisable that you check your assignment for plagiarism by uploading it to Turnitin at least more than 4 days prior to the due date. This is because it might take a few days or longer before you receive your originality report. Then, you might need some time to make adjustments to your assignment and upload it again to Turnitin if need be.
Students are advised that a significant selection of submitted assignments may be checked during the marking process to verify that plagiarism has not occurred. If an undue number of assignments checked are identified as subject of concern, then all assignments might be similarly checked. If plagiarism is suspected, the corresponding assignment(s) will automatically be referred to the Faculty Academic Progress and Discipline Committee (FAPDC). Plagiarism can result in expulsion from University.
HELPFUL HINTS
Before commencing your assignment you should read:
o Writing a Research Essay by Professor B Cooper
These can all be found in Contents under Assessment
In-text referencing: Students are encouraged to make use of in-text referencing throughout this assignment. Any issues that you refer to and arguments that you put forward should be supported by reference to relevant sources of information.
Use of footnotes: Footnotes should not be used.
Use of figures and tables in analytic reports: While the use of figures and tables could sometimes help embellish a report, it is important to bear in mind that they should not overshadow the substance of the report. A report that predominantly consists of figures and tables with very little explanatory text would not be viewed favorably from an assessment perspective. No more than two tables and figures are acceptable in this assignment and they are expected to be fully discussed and analyzed in the body of the report. Tables and/or figures should be numbered sequentially, given appropriate captions and placed in the main body of the assignment at suitable points.
Use of appendices: The use of appendices is not recommended for this assignment.

Recommended Assignment Structure
# SECTION
1 Title page
2 Introduction
3 Literature review (At least 6 academic articles)
4 Analysis
5 Conclusion
6 References
TITLE P AGE
This should be the first page (cover page) of your assignment, and it must include the following information:
• Unit code and unit name
• Name of the Unit Chair
• Group number
• Each group member’s full name, student ID number
• Number of words
• Due date: Monday 7 September, 2015, by 11:59pm (AEST). If granted a time extension, then insert the following:
Mark Allocation Evaluation Criteria:
You MUST prepare your assignment in STRICT accordance with the Mark Allocation Evaluation Criteria as set out below.

Mark Allocation Evaluation Criteria
Steps Evaluation Criteria Allocated Marks

PART A: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
1 Structure of the assignment: A clear structure must be readily evident. That is, the assignment must have a clearly stated introduction, literature review, analysis, conclusion and bibliography sections. Headings and other ‘extra’ evidence of structure will be rewarded. 5
2 Introduction: This should be a clear, concise statement setting out the assignment’s objective. It should identify the order in which the assignment’s sections will be presented. It should state, in the briefest terms, how the objective is to be reached and briefly state the conclusion reached. It should clearly indicate the integration of sections in the assignment. This should be no more than one or two brief paragraphs. 7
3 Literature review (based on at least 6 academic refereed articles published in accounting, corporate governance, business ethics journals and/or similar journals). The articles must be clearly identified as to author, date and source. This section must set out in relatively brief terms the nature, content and conclusions of each article. There should be evidence that you have carefully examined the literature, understand it, and have been able to summarise its essential content. There should be evidence of an intention to integrate these articles into your own argument and perspective. You should not quote whole sections from these articles – for example, from the summary, introduction or conclusion sections. Reference to these articles and other sources should be evident in a properly constructed bibliography. 25
4 Analysis (critical analysis is expected). You must be investigative. You need to collect relevant information, cases, and other material via an internet search and via national and international news media. These sources should be linked with the literature review. In light of the materials reviewed, you must present and support your viewpoint in a logical, consistent and coherent manner. Arguments must not simply be regurgitations of pro and con material taken from your text book. You should be able to show that you can integrate various viewpoints and arguments in a way that demonstrates understanding and the desire and ability to reach a conclusion of your own.
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Lists of arguments or perspectives will get low marks. Students will differ in their selection, focus, opinion and emphasis of different perspectives. That is, there is no right answer as such.
We are looking for evidence that you have understood the issues and have thought carefully about them. ‘Broad brush’ arguments or statements that lead in no particular direction will be given low marks.
In the absence of clear evidence that you have put something of yourself into your arguments, the mark for this section will be no more than moderate.
5 There must be a concise and well formulated conclusion. This should be specific and be consistent with and based on your analysis. If it suddenly appears magically as if from nowhere, as would be the case if your analysis leads in no particular direction throughout, relatively low marks will be awarded. Integration and coherence of the analysis should be reflected in the conclusion section. 8
6 Format, spelling, grammar, presentation and referencing.
Full marks for this section require excellence in all areas of assignment presentation - including formatting, spelling, grammar, presentation and referencing.
Marks will be deducted for any aspect of assignment presentation that falls short of excellence. 5
7 PART B: CONTRIBUTION OF EACH GROUP MEMBERS
You will get a link at under “Assessment 1’ resource folder to take a peer assessment task. All team members must complete this task before the deadline of assignment submission. As a team member you will evaluate your contribution and other team member’s contribution to complete this assignment. 10
Total Marks 100
The 100 marks above will be converted to % finally.
END