A college accounting instructional system should serve the career ob-

jectives of all students requiring an understanding of accounting. Its

components should satisfy the learning needs of students preparing for

professional accounting careers as well as those students preparing for

other business and professional pursuits. A complete system should con-

tain performance objectives, reading resources, student application ma-

terials (including integrated practice), student self-checks, progress evalu-

ations, and course management guides.

Instructors should be able to customize their accounting offerings

by matching instructional components with the abilities of individual

students and with the levels of accomplishment which delineate different

career objectives. In preparing the third edition of Accounting: Basic

Principles, the authors have created an instructional system that meets

these criteria.