[Anonymous]

I have my test tomorrow and WC is not my strong point, although I got comparable the second time and weaker the first. I use Roger and he said to make sure to include an intro, middle, ending paragraphs, and write with no grammatical errors. He also said to restate the question in the intro paragraph. The problem is when I am at the test, I blank out and forget to include the meat (specific keywords). I am not good at BSing a topic. I just wrote this WC in 10 minutes, let me know if it will pass during the test?

QUESTION

The CEO of Urton Corp., George Jones, is preparing for a strategic planning session with the corporation’s board of directors. The company has pursued a product differentiation strategy in the past but is having difficulty maintaining margins due to significant competition from domestic and foreign competitors. Write a memorandum describing the product differentiation strategy and another strategy that might be pursued if product differentiation is not working.

ANSWER

As I understand, your company is preparing for a strategic planning session with the corporation’s board of directors. As requested, this memorandum will describe the product differentiation strategy and another strategy that might be pursued if product differentiation is not working.

Product differentiation is a key strategy in strategic leadership. It helps your company stand out amongst its competitors. For example, your company may change perceived brand differences by increasing the quality of the product.

Another strategy is cost leadership. This will help your company have an edge over your competitors. In lowering the cost of your product, you can compete in price. The public could choose your product over competitors because of the cost difference.

As you can see, both product differentiation and cost leadership strategies are vital in strategic planning. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

[W_HAMILTON]

I'm not one to talk since I usually write very complicated sentences, but I would recommend being more straight forward and “direct” in your opening. Instead of what you wrote, I'd go with:

“I understand that your company is preparing for a strategic planning session with the corporation’s board of directors. This memorandum will describe the product differentiation strategy and another strategy that might be pursued if product differentiation is not working.”

REG - 93 (7/30/13)
BEC - 90 (8/19/13)
AUD - 98 (8/31/13)
FAR - 84 (10/19/13)

[jkpoker1]

Wow that is the easiest writing question ever. If someone couldn't answer that perfectly, they don't deserve to be a CPA. Looking at your answer, you need to write much more. I would always error on writing too much against writing just enough to get by. You need to explain more what product differentiation and cost leadership is. Give examples of firms that use these strategies and explain why they will help an organization reach its goals.

Quest to be a CPA

BEC-74 (7/13),
REG- ?? (8/13)
AUD-TBA
FAR-TBA

[jkpoker1]

Wow that is the easiest writing question ever. If someone couldn't answer that perfectly, they don't deserve to be a CPA. Looking at your answer, you need to write much more. I would always error on writing too much against writing just enough to get by. You need to explain more what product differentiation and cost leadership is. Give examples of firms that use these strategies and explain why they will help an organization reach its goals.

Quest to be a CPA

BEC-74 (7/13),
REG- ?? (8/13)
AUD-TBA
FAR-TBA

[Anonymous]

Another thing you might want to think about while you are practicing the WC is to use the readability statistics in Word. If you turn those on, you will get a “grade” after you run a spell check. It tells you how easily something can be read and gives you the grade level of your writing.

I copied and pasted your answer into Word and got the following information:

Passive Sentences: 9%

Flesch Reading Ease: 44.5

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10.2

I copied and pasted W_Hamilton's paragraph and got the following:

Passive Sentences: 50%

Flesch Reading Ease: 22.1

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.0

Passive sentences are bad, or so I've been told my entire life. Try to keep those to a minimum or eliminate them all together. The Flesch Reading Ease score will go up as the grade level goes down. You should pay attention to the recipient of your memo to decide if you need to increase or decrease the grade level and reading ease.

I hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Another thing you might want to think about while you are practicing the WC is to use the readability statistics in Word. If you turn those on, you will get a “grade” after you run a spell check. It tells you how easily something can be read and gives you the grade level of your writing.

I copied and pasted your answer into Word and got the following information:

Passive Sentences: 9%

Flesch Reading Ease: 44.5

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10.2

I copied and pasted W_Hamilton's paragraph and got the following:

Passive Sentences: 50%

Flesch Reading Ease: 22.1

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.0

Passive sentences are bad, or so I've been told my entire life. Try to keep those to a minimum or eliminate them all together. The Flesch Reading Ease score will go up as the grade level goes down. You should pay attention to the recipient of your memo to decide if you need to increase or decrease the grade level and reading ease.

I hope this helps!

[Author]

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