Reviews the book "The Structure of Accounting Language," by Shigetsugu Tanaka.

Although "compressed-course" offerings are widely found in summer programs and intersessions, little published work has evaluated the efficacy of this format relative to conventional term courses, apparently because the controls necessary for strict comparative research are difficult to implement. This study involved such a comparison between several sections of two accounting courses offered under the most compressed format possible and under a regular semester. All aspects of the courses were virtually identical. Evaluation was in terms of (a) terminal performance, (b) post-course student reactions, and (c) comparison of reactions with prior expectations. Analysis of the data showed the compressed format to be highly comparable to the regular format on both performance and student evaluation profiles. The only differences, both marginal, were in the tendency for perceived stress and instructor effectiveness to be greater under the compressed format. Given the rigor of the experimental controls and the power of the statistical tests used, these findings constitute strong evidence of the efficacy of compressed courses.

This article studies an indifference approach to profit-volume analysis. Students of economics encounter indifference curves, in analyzing consumer behavior, welfare and international trade. Employment of this tool in accounting as well should prove practicable even at the introductory as it is likely that enrollees in introductory accounting courses either will have completed introductory economics courses or will be concurrently enrolled in them. Thus, the primary concern need not be centered around a discussion of indifference curves themselves but rather on their application to traditional accounting topics. The family of indifference curves is constructed as follows. The authors of this article assume a firm knows its average variable costs associated with each level of output.