Patrick Laughlin ENG 3840J Project 2: Genre Analysis 17 Mar 2013 Mr.

Vetter

What do you think about when you hear the word accounting? For many, the idea of money and numbers comes to mind, and for the most part, this is correct. This community has a wide range of professional avenues, such as government, public, financial, managerial, forensic and tax accounting. In this essay I will be analyzing the professional word of tax accounting and how its written text such as the tax research memoranda becomes its own individual genre within the community of accountancy, one that provides not only communication with outside members such as the customers, but can also as a bridge for their customer to communicate with other communities that, if done all alone, but would a difficult task. Also, during my analysis I will attempt to show that tax accounting itself isnt just about simple numbers, but it is also a language, one with its own individual social and textual standards, and that understanding these interactions, one can better associate themselves with the community. Lets start out with a general understanding of what accounting is. Websters defines this term as the system of recording and summarizing business and financial transactions and analyzing, verifying, and reporting the results (Merriam Webster Online, 2013). Although this definition seems quite easy to understand, the act of being involved can be quite difficult. For 9 years, I was involved in this community in the field of aviation. My primary job as an aircraft accountant and analyst required me to be well rounded in every area of aviation records keeping,

along with the analyzing of all flight systems and maintenance. I experienced early that this profession, whether dealing with money, time or just simple numbers, has its own individual form of social communication and interaction, and if you fail to meet the requirements of the community, you could eventually be rejected. When attempting to understand and explain the idea of individual genres within a discourse community, Carol Berkengotter and Thomas Huckin establish five values that make up the genre framework; dynamism, situatedness, form and content, duality of structure, and community ownership (1993, p 478). In creating these principles, Berkenkotter and Huckin are exploring the idea that writing styles throughout professional communities have the ability to create the individual norms and standards, which in turn establishes each communitys individual genres and social constructions. Genres can appear in many forms throughout the vast makeup of professional careers. With the many social interactions and textualities within communities, the genres, for some, might become difficult to grasp, especially for those who have had to no previous knowledge of interactions with them. For most of the average citizens around the United States, tax season comes but once a year, from the start of the New Year till around mid-April, and for many of us, the process of completing our taxes and interacting with either tax preparers or tax accountants is quite simple. For the most part it consists of going to an establishment such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, or for the lucky ones, you have personal family friends that can help file your taxes free of charge. Beyond the tasks of having ones taxes filed is the professional field of a tax accountant, a field, which I argue, isnt just all about numbers; social and written communication also plays a very crucial and highly important function. Besides the computing of financial

information, clients and tax accountants also have to verbally and textually interact at many levels. In her approach to tax accounting and its text as a genre, Amy Devitt argues: The tax accounting community is interwoven with texts; texts are the tax accountants product, constituting and defining the accountants work. These texts also interact within the community. They form a complex network of interaction, a structured set of relationships among texts, so that any text is best understood within the context of the other texts (Devitt 1991, p.336). To express the intertextuality of tax accounting and its rhetorical situations, Devitt conducted a research study of 6 out of the 8 top accounting firms in the country, and requested for them to send her samples of several types of written documents used on a daily basis. Documents sent listed below in table 14.1 (1991, p. 339): Table 14.1. The Genres Written by Tax Accountants

Genres Nontechnical correspondence Administrative memoranda Transmittal letters Engagement letters Memoranda for the files Research memoranda Letters to clients: Promotional Letters to clients: Opinion Letters to clients: Response Letters to taxing authorities Tax Protests Tax provision reviews Proposals

No. of firms No. of samples sending received 3 4 5 2 4 5 2 6 4 5 3 2 1 5 5 20 4 9 18 6 11 10 14 5 6 3

Often times, top firms in the country usually see to high profile clients and companies that have complex financial records, revenues, property, employees and have multiple interactions internationally. With these complexities, the documents above are essential for not along dealing with the clients, but also with other firms, financial agencies and even government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.). Combined, these documents result create their own genres within professional tax accounting, and without them, communications, client trust, and financial accountability would be compromised. One very significant document within this community, which was also represented on the graph above, is the Tax Research Memoranda. The structure and information provided on this form is very important, not only to the accountant and its firm, but to the client or company that the document pertains too. The purpose for this form is to research past and present financial tax concerns expressed by the I.R.S. to a particular client. If a client does receive a notice from the Internal Revenue Service or any other taxing authority, it is up to the firm and the accountant to generate a research memo to analyze the information and assess the problem to find out if there is a solution and if an agreement can be met. The outline for the tax research memo is fairly simple, an introduction of the facts or financial issues, a brief analysis of the issues, and a solution, whether in favor of the client or not. This single genre within the community shows how complex textual communication can be in the tax accounting profession. The accountants creation of the research memo opens up avenues of communication between the client, senior decision making members of the firm and the I.R.S. With a document having such great impact on the communities role as an organizer and positive communicator, it is important that the accountant preparing these forms is highly knowledgeable when it comes to format structure and all of the regulations within the Internal Revenue Manual.

Another more easily understood document that not only gets used by the major accounting firms, but also the small tax preparation places around most U.S. cities are the tax transmittal letters. Whether you are with the accounting department of a major corporation or just an average citizen stopping in at your local preparer, the transmittal letter is simply used as a cover letter explaining the details of your preparation and what was filed to the I.R.S. Tax accountants provide this document so that customers can have an easy to understand overview of what took place, along with a quick thank you for allowing the company or firm to view, prepare and file you taxes. Just like all of the forms that Devitt analysis and researched about, this too places an important role in the communication with outside members of the community, and at the same time, this document is utilized as historical records for firms to look back on just in case mistakes were made or if the taxing agencies find a problem long down the road. Continuing with Amy Devitts analysis of tax accounting, she writes that when a moment comes for research memoranda to be generated, most senior accountants typically asks a junior accountant to write the memoranda summarizing the IRS statements on an issue (1991, p.340). Due to how accurate and textually innovative the memorandas have to be, Anne Beaufort might agree with the act of leaving it up to the junior accountants to accomplish. In her article Learning New Genres: The Convergence of Knowledge and Action, Beaufort conducts a study from members of the JRC, and how the new members to the community struggled with the adapted to newly introduced genres (Beaufort 1999, p. 103). After doing her research she shows that through constant examination of the genres rhetorical situations and review from senior members, the new employees were able to, over time, learn the proper ways of textually interacting within the genres. With this act of constant contact by junior members with research memorandas, they can eventually create their own individual and successful styles while at the

same time sticking to the key points needed to be expressed, along with more access within the community and its senior members. Genres exist everywhere throughout our world, and each has their own unique form of social and textual design within their intended discourse community. With my former experience with the accounting community and new understanding of the communities individual rhetorical and written situations, accounting can be very over looked as just a simple profession comprised of financial analysis and number crunching. But, behind this simple assumption is a profession made up of vast forms of written communication. Understanding and mastering the genres within tax accounting is very important. They allow for communication with the firms clients and with communication with the Internal Revenue Service. Without this understanding of the genres and without managing the lines of communication between all three internal and external elements, the trust that most firms want to gain from their clients is lost.

Works Cited: Accounting [Def.1]. (2013). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved February 23, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accounting. Devitt, A. J. (1991). Intertextuality in Tax Accounting; Generic, Referential and Functional. In Bazerman, C., & Paradis, J. (Eds.), Textual Dynamics of the Professions (pp. 336-355). Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. Berkenkotter, C., & Huckin, T. N. (1993) Rethinking Genre From a Sociocognitive Perspective. Written Communication. Beaufort, A. (1999). Writing in the Real World; MAKING THE TRANSACTION FROM SCHOOL TO WORK. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Genre Analysis Samples:

Research Memorandum: Blank and Complete

Tax Transmittal Letter