In the accounting communication class, which includes both writing and making presentations, the article-based memo has always been the first assignment, in which students learn business formats and writing style, use of headings, audience analysis, and adapting material for different audiences. As part of a large project to revise the accounting curriculum beginning in June 2006, the topic of the article-based memo in the fall of 2006 was limited to a series of systems topics that would eventually be added to the accounting curriculum. In this way students would receive early exposure to the topics that are important to large accounting firms who hire the students. This article describes the results of the assignment change, which showed that students had more difficulty writing about technology, especially new and somewhat untried technology, than they had in the past writing about accounting and business issues. Although this is a good sign about the topics being needed in the accounting curriculum, it did not make for a successful writing assignment, as the original intent of the assignments was to show how a topic could be written up differently for different audiences. Students also had more difficulty presenting with few notes as the material was very new to them and in some cases quite difficult to explain to an audience. Knowledge of systems and technologies used by accounting firms increased, but the quality of the writing suffered. (Contains 1 table.)