Accounting

This report aims to help the editor of a professional journal to assure him or her the articles that are written and printed in the journal are up to the mark of the technical writing criteria. The article under review is Retain Clients and Help Them Recover by Larry Bildstein, a CPA, which was published in February 2010 in the Journal of Accountancy.

The main aim of this article is to help the editor know the weaknesses and strengths of the articles written for the journal. The article under review is specifically written for the companies that sell services to other companies which in turn develop and manufacture products.

The author Larry Bildstein, a Certified Public Accountant, has written the article to help the companies which are struggling in this weak economic time and has provided guidelines concerning the ways to increase or at least maintain the business. Though many times the author has used the activities of a CPA as an example but the same practices can be used by any other company to sustain its business.

The text of the article is not difficult for understanding for the readers. It can easily reach its purpose, because the readers can easily understand the structure. Sometimes, articles are written in such a manner or using such a language, that it becomes cumbersome for the readers to vividly see the purpose of the article. But the author of this particular article has managed to transfer the idea properly to the intended audience in a clear and concise way.

In my opinion, the article is in general well written, but it could definitely be improved by adding graphs and tables as they give a visual impact and help in understand the idea presented.

Another problem I have found with the article concerns the starting paragraph, which is confusing to a certain degree and does not contribute much to the explanation of the topic of the article. Thus, I was able to figure out what the article was about only from the main heading. There are a few other disadvantages, for example, the ideas are not very well logically connected and certain important terminology is introduced at wrong places. For example Grading your Client subheading came after mentioning the A and B clients in the previous paragraph, though it should have been introduced earlier to ease the further reading. Besides, the idea concerning the ways to attract new customers should have been introduced at the beginning

Developing an Argument
The article can be of interest for the companies and individuals specializing in providing services to the other larger organizations. These companies could be enterprise resource planning software manufacturers, network support or financial services providers, such as auditing staff or CPAs and people, working for the automobile producers and other heavy industries etc.

The author has positioned the ideas in the form of bullet points for the primary readers of the article discussing the ways they can retain their existing customers and encourage a more active cooperation with them. The ideas recommend the target audience to do the following forecast obstacles improve lender relationship, explain statutory changes, invest in I care time, conduct a cost-cutting review, discuss their fees, define excellent client service, communicate value proposition and be proactive. Although these ideas are very simple, but they are at the same time very effective and though provoking for the service companies who wish to do well in these economic times.

Therefore, the article very well meets the criteria of the audience, as it includes all the possible details, after reviewing and explaining the strategy to focus on the existing customers instead of trying to get new customers the author has described, how that could be achieved.

The author has used the structural patterns effectively to make the logical flow of ideas convincing, having applied proper techniques to achieve this goal. The author has very well argued that new clients would be difficult to get, because the business concerns are no longer interested in buying new enterprises, even if it could facilitate and enhance their performance. The reasoning techniques applied by the author make the article stronger.

The article is very persuasive the author has resorted to more than three criteria which make the argument convincing and appealing for its readers. The article has been written in a tone that appeals to the emotions of the readers, for example, taking into consideration that the economy is in a bad shape today, the author has devised and recommended a way following which the readers can make more money, which is definitely a reasoning method worth attention.

The author has critically considered all the possible viewpoints having although asked the readers to focus on the existing customers, but having also advised them concerning the ways to approach the potential new customers, i.e., through proper client referrals, strong networking and targeted marketing.

The author has correctly identified the elements of the argument and stated clearly in the initial part of the article what the purpose of the article is, and how the readers can employ the techniques to effectively make more money. The table which compares the possible revenue generation scheme from the new and the existing clients gives a clear picture that investing and working with the existing customers is a good idea in this bad scheme instead of trying to attract new customers.

Design Elements 
The author has used the headings effectively to meet the design features of the article the subheading within the start over serving your clients part of the article is well structured and can attract the attention of the readers easily and can help them use the article effectively if they are reading for themselves or making a presentation for their own company to modify the overall business strategy of the company. The way So Your Client Wants Lower Fees part has been dealt is also very attention-grabbing and retains the attention of the reader and in fact focuses his thoughts.

The title of the article is appealing and has the capability to seize the attention of the reader very quickly and so are the other headings such as Grading Your Clients, this part of the article specially can be used by the readers even if they are not interested in the overall article. Unfortunately the tools have not been correctly utilized some information such as graphs and data could have been used to project some figures and hence augment the reading.

The typography is good and helps the readers eyes to look at the main points and get a general idea before diving into the text as a whole, this further helps in the clear reading and understanding of the technical writings.

The page design is not effective, as in this format the article is not organized very well  there are large ads on the right side and makes the article difficult to read.

Conclusion
All things considered, the technical writing in the journal is on the right track and only minor changes are required. This article in particular has all the major elements to attract and keep the attention of the readers. The article has been written with much thought and has been organized to really help the companies who are struggling at the economic recession.