Preface

New to the 12th Edition NEW

Activation Exercises
For most students, a Principles of Accounting course is their first exposure to both
business transactions and the accounting system. While these concepts are already
difficult to master individually, their combination and interdependency in the in-
troductory accounting course causes students to struggle. Students often resort to
memorization as a way to pass the course, but such surface learning does little to
develop the critical thinking skills and deep understanding that are necessary for
success in future business courses.
To overcome these challenges, the authors created the Activation Exercises to
providing a learning system that focuses on developing a better understanding of
(1)  key terms and definitions, (2) the economics of business transactions, (3) how
these transactions are recorded in the accounting system, and where relevant, (4) how
these transactions are ultimately reflected in the financial statements.
The Activation Exercise structure builds the critical thinking skills that are neces-
sary for students to succeed in both introductory accounting and future accounting
courses. Reviewers have enthusiastically praised the authors’ new online activities and
indicated that they would be both ideal pre-class activities and after-class assignments.
The Activation Exercises are applied to the following financial chapters in this text
and available within CengageNOW: Chapters 1–4, 5, 6, and 8–12.

Blueprint Problems
Blueprint Problems provide an opportunity to teach more than an opportunity to
assess the student’s knowledge. Blueprint Problems cover the primary learning objec-
tives and help students understand the fundamental accounting concepts and their
associated building blocks, and not just memorize the formulas or journal entries

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