Your first blogging assignment

For your first blogging assignment, you are expected to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma from the Introduction to p. 64 (stopping before The Feedlot). You will notice that these chapters touch on a lot of information relevant to an accountant and/or financial consultant who may be involved with the industrial production of corn. It is your task to critically reflect on the reading and synthesize it with the course material we are covering, with the results to be posted at your blog for this course. There are a number of different topics that would be appropriate, and you may choose the item(s) of greatest interest to you.

Your blog should be professionally-written and well-organized, with the understanding that it will be reviewed by others and is open for the world to see. Do your best work. To assist you with this, each of you will be assigned a “peer reviewer” whose task it is to help you polish your writing. This will be done at a wiki you develop, where you can post your drafts and receive comments from this assigned reviewer as well as from anyone else you invite. Only when you are comfortable that your work can be displayed with pride should you post it to the blog.

In your blog entry, I expect to see information from a number of sources about your topic. This information should support your arguments regarding the reading, or should present contrasting opinions that you then address. Excellent citation of sources should occur, using APA format with the full citations at the end of the blog. Consider the timeliness and quality of each source as you proceed. The librarians in the MSMC library are able to assist you with this research, and the staff of the Writing Center is an excellent resource for you as well. Were this entry written as a “regular” essay, I would anticipate that it be 2 – 3 pages long, just to give you a rough framework.

Feel free to “think outside the box.” If you are concerned about your idea, please consult with me. Remember, it is always easier to write on a narrow topic than on one that is too broad. Here are just a few topics that come to mind to get you started:

Industrial corn production and “the value chain” and how it has evolved
Costing concepts such as direct/indirect and variable/fixed as manifested in the industrial production of corn
US federal corn policies and/or subsidies and how the price and profitability of corn is affected (whether at farm level or for the big purchasers of corn or for the developers of corn)
The impact of industrial corn production in the US on world markets for corn
Supports for the production of ethanol – what they are and whether they make sense

Why blog in an accounting class?

A review of the Fortune 500 companies indicates that at least 50% of those firms have corporate blogs. A big list with links, kept reasonably up-to-date, can be found at a public relations wiki at http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Resources.CorporateBlogsList. In addition to the firms noted there, most of the major accounting firms also have corporate blogs such as this one from Ernst & Young http://www.ey.com/global/Content.nsf/UK/RR_-_2006_-_11_-_November, or they use other creative forms of technology to communicate with stakeholders, such as podcasts like this one from Deloitte http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/leadership/0,1045,sid%253D107508,00.html. By becoming familiar with the process of blogging, students enhance their marketable skills and their career prospects.

Of course, sometimes the effort to use a new technology can seem a bit silly. Take a look at this Ernst & Young (internal) motivational video posted on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIq9o1H1yo. Or this "team dancing" video from PriceWaterhouseCoopers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64MavToFkP4. I'm not sure either will really make you want to run right out to work for a big firm!

Welcome to my blog for ACC 307!

As you are probably aware, blogging has become an important tool for communication. Individuals use it to share with others their thoughts on particular topics or their creative work, journalists and other members of the media use blogs as "soap boxes" to proclaim their political commentary, and corporations are using blogs to reach customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders. As a significant component of the "Web 2.0" world, the ability to generate a professional blog is a critical skill. Hence, students in this course will be creating blogs integrating accounting and economic concepts with readings from the book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Please check back here on a regular basis to see what has been added!