Analysis of the Complexity of Writing used in Accounting Textbooks Over the Past 100 Years

Many news reports in the USA describe problems in education, including that of students graduating from high school with very poor reading and writing skills. Published academic studies have also documented the reduction in the content and writing levels of school textbooks. However, no published study has considered the longitudinal trends of the writing styles used in accounting textbooks. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence on whether the complexity of the words and sentences used in American financial accounting textbooks has changed in any systematic manner over the past 100 years. To provide evidence on this question, samples of writing were obtained from introductory financial accounting textbooks published in the USA over the past 100+ years, intermediate accounting textbooks published over the past 50 years, and advanced accounting textbooks published over the past 60 years. These writing samples were analysed for the complexity of the words and sentences used. Trend lines for all three levels of textbooks gathered for this study show decreases in sentence complexity and increases in word complexity over the relevant time periods. Introductory textbooks have the lowest levels of both sentence and word complexity. Implications of these findings on the complexity of the mental models produced by accounting students using these textbooks are discussed.