MEMORANDUM

DATE: September 26, 2018

TO: Lisa Ramirez, Boss

FROM: Kevanna Sebastian, Student --KS

SUBJECT: Rhetorical Analysis of the Belize Water Service Limited

For the technical writing rhetorical analysis assignment, I have reviewed the Independent
Auditor’s Report for the Belize Water Service Limited, written by Castillo Sanchez & Burrell,
LLP. The purpose of this report is to provide an impartial opinion to the shareholders and owners
of the company about the truth and fairness of the financial statements.

Auditor’s Responsibility
It is the job of the auditor to express honest opinions based on the financial documents of a
company. They must also follow the rules and regulations of international standards of auditing.
The auditor’s job is to obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to
design audit procedures. They must evaluate accounting policies used and deem if it is
appropriate to the success of the company. This also helps to prevent fraud or theft in the
company.

Audience
This document is addressed to the primary audience, the board of director and shareholders of
the Belize Water Service Limited. I know this because the documents states that at the beginning
of the report (“To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Belize Water Services Limited”),
and also it is the nature of a financial report to be addressed to those individuals that have shares
in the company.

Word Choice/ Tone/ Voice

This report is direct and professional. The author shows a strong understanding for words and
uses words that can have subtle or drastic connotations. To fully understand a word and use it
correctly you need to know its denotation which is the standard meaning and its connation which
is the emotions behind it. The following two sentences carry different connotations. The first
sentence is referenced from the audit report on page 8.

 “the amendment to reduce the circumstances in which the recoverable amount of assets”
the amendment to cut down the circumstances in which the recoverable amount of assets

Although the sentences communicate the same information, the connotation behind reduce and
cut down are very different. Being direct and precise, the auditor reduces the length of sentence
and yet get across the message. To keep a professional tone, the report does not contain fighting
words like failure, stole, and ignorance as the readers might get emotionally defensive.
Exigence
In large firms with different shareholders or stakeholders it is important to have an external
auditor to review all transactions of a company. This provides accountability, reliability,
assurance, feedback, boot credit ratings and value, and a complete report for a period of time.

Eight Measures
1. This audit report is honest as the financial statements support the details of the report.
2. The report is clear as the auditor uses technical writing to convey feedback.
3. The language is at a professional level but also easy to understand.
4. The independent auditor is someone who is not affiliated with the business so they have
no reason to be bias.
5. They must breakdown all the financials, so that forces them to remain objective, accurate,
and comprehensive.
6. The report has a detailed table of contents that makes it easy for the audience to locate the
relevant information. The document has no error and it is very professionally written.

An audit report is read by business people so it must be held to high standards. It is important for
financial reports to be done in professional language that is free from grammatical error.

Formatting and structure

The auditor’s report uses a limited amount of fonts. It maintains one type of font for the body, all
the same size with the heading bolded and some underlined to state importance. The only design
this report has is the logo for the audit company. The report is written in the opinion of the
auditor regarding the financial statements. The report is in standard format as mandated by
generally accepted auditing standards. The opinions must be clean, qualified, and adverse.
Adverse opinion is professional opinion concerning financial statements when the results are not
presented fairly and in accordance with the generally accepted principles of accounting. The
report is written is in the passive voice when the author wants to emphasize on the object of the
sentence, and to avoid blaming or identifying a particular individual.

Financial Statement Disclosure

The purpose of the notes to financial statements is to achieve disclosure when information in the
financial documents is insufficient to attain its objective. For example, on page three in the
statement of financial position next to trade receivables is has “2f, 2h, and 4. On page 7 all notes
are detailed and explained.

Final Thoughts
The auditor’s report composed by Castillo Sanchez & Burrell, LLP has many components of
rhetorical writing. The accuracy and preciseness of this document reflects positively on the
company as they hire individuals who are highly trained and professional. Though the document
was comprised of high level writing, it was easy to follow and understand.