Nicholas wrote and wrote Hi, I am an accounting student in UK and having a slight problems regarding my Financial reporting essay. It is like this ....'use your understanding of important aspects of both SSAP2 /accruals concept and user conflict, as an analytical tool to expose gaps and contradictions in SSAP19 Accounting for investment Propertise.' Well I may not know if you could help me with is as I could not fully write an essay like this and also went to check on ur web and wondering if you could tell me how to approach this 'motion' and I would really appreciate your help. I may need you to direct me and what shopuld I do and if you can could you let me know?? NH My answer was: Hello Nicholas, The key to success in such exercises comes in two parts: having the knowledge you need by having read all of the relevant standards and anything else you can find in the books and journals relating to them having a good plan of what to say and how you are going to say it To some extent your planning is the most important part of your work. In this case, make sure you begin by reading the relevant pages on my site in the financial accounting section on concepts, conventions and the contradictions in some of those concepts: this includes a general view and an up to date ASB view of these issues. SSAP 2 is old hat now so be careful how you refer to that. I have to confess that I am not that familiar with SSAP 19 seeing as how my focus is on IAS these days: feel free to send me the standard if you have it electronically and I’ll sort out what I think you need. I am not in the UK at the moment and don’t have that standard with me. My pages almost give you the answer to the first part of the question “'use your understanding of important aspects of both SSAP2 /accruals concept and user conflict” and you should start by discussing (and that’s not just writing a list, but really discussing) the issues that you think are important then find the gaps and contradiction in SSAP 19 that arise from the first part of your discussion … what are they, do you know? Did you lecturer mention these in his lectures or tutorials? If not, what do your friends think? Do a search on the Web for SSAP 19 and its problems … look around! Finally, you need to discuss why you chose the gaps and contradictions you did and give your proofs of, or support, for believing that they are gaps and contradictions. Of course, your essay needs to start with an introduction and finish with a conclusion and possibly ideas for further work by the ASB to tidy up any mess you think you’ve found; and that might include a statement of how important you think this issue is. If this issue is mainly an academic one you should say so. If you think the issue is very important and that it leads to serious under or overstatement of asset values then you should say so … justify your answers too. I hope you find this helpful Nicholas and feel free to contact me again. I hope this response is not too late for you and don’t forget to tell me how you get on. Best wishes DW Then ... Nicholas, just came across this which MIGHT help a bit: Chris Lamb's links and resource suggestions BTW, I just spotted the Hyperlinks button on the WeBlog edit site ... sorry for previous difficulties! DW