Abstract Reviews the book "Contemporary Cost Accounting and Control," edited by George J. Benston.

Abstract The article discusses the results of a survey that examined the factors affecting theses and reports in master's degree programs of business schools. The role of graduate education for business is becoming increasingly important. Many educators believe that research and writing experience, from thesis or report assignments, can be an especially valuable part of the educational process in graduate work. In both AACSB and other schools, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) with no specified major was the most prevalent. However, when the MBA with a major or option in accounting, hereinafter referred to as "MBA-accounting option," is combined with the MS or MA in Accounting category, these two accounting concentration degrees exceeded the MBA-no major class. In two-thirds of the schools surveyed a student can engage in in-depth study in the field of accounting at the graduate level. In many of the schools two or more master's degrees were offered. The status of the report in masters programs having accounting concentrations suggests a greater degree of research orientation than in the MBA-no major programs.

Abstract The article focuses on the use of diagrammatical outline method in examining process cost accounting. When studied in any reasonable depth, process cost is among the most difficult topics covered in cost accounting courses. This seeming contradiction may be traced to the student's almost universal inability to: separate relevant from irrelevant data; and to organize a maze of interrelated data into usable form. Process costing presupposes a processing-type manufacturing situation, and this type of situation is frequently complex. It is this complexity, the processing operation, not the concepts of process cost accounting that often causes difficulty for the student. One device too often overlooked by the student is the diagrammatical outline, which is really nothing more than an application of the concepts of flow charting and block diagramming used in computer programming. Because of the complexity of the manufacturing process situation and because the facts applicable to the process situation are often presented in an order which is not suitable for solution, the student should consider use of a diagram and outline combined as a method of examining the process and organizing the relevant data into usable form.