A student of accounting may be called upon to complete an accounting dissertation for his or her Bachelor's, Master's, or Doctorate degree. An accounting dissertation is a comprehensive, substantial written report covering original research and thinking on a given accounting topic.
To begin planning the accounting dissertation, a student should first carefully review the assignment with regard to word length, choice of topics, style, and formatting requirements. The student should check with his or her professor or faculty advisor to determine if there are any house style guidelines or expectations governing dissertations in the department.
Locating and reviewing examples of previously completed accounting dissertations can be a significant aid to a student planning an accounting dissertation. Example accounting dissertations can show a student the kinds of research questions that are asked and the kind of research that is conducted for dissertation projects. While the student should design his or her own research project, having access to the work of others can be instructive and inspiring.
Once a student has defined a topic – hot topics in accounting currently include the trend toward greater government regulation of the financial system, the pros and cons of Fair Use and historical accounting systems, and revenue recognition – the student will design and conduct research on this topic. Accounting dissertation research often involves case study work in which the actions of governments and companies in the real world are studied and analyzed. The student should also conduct a thorough review of all relevant research in the leading accounting journals, dissertations by students on related topics, and any other relevant research that bears on the student's topic.
After the research project has been completed, the student will be ready to outline and write the accounting dissertation. Accounting dissertations generally include an introduction, a literature review in which the student reports on the related research, a methodology in which the student describes the research he or she conducted, and results and discussion sections in which the student reports on and then interprets the results of the research. Finally, a conclusion section wraps up and summarizes the accounting dissertation.
