NCJ Number
211403
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 32 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2005 Pages: 160,162-164,166,168
Date Published
September 2005
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Writing instructors who have specialized in analyzing and improving police report-writing offer guidelines for this critical task, and a computer program that helps officers assess and improve their writing skills is described.
Abstract
Some police report-writing tips are as follows: avoid jargon (police or technical) that a juror may not understand; write in the first person; use the active voice; be complete and detailed; and use quotation marks for what others have said. In assessing the quality of a given report, officers should ask themselves whether the report includes all the information relevant to the purpose of the report; whether it is accurate; and whether the wording will be clear for those expected to read the report. A computer program offered by Vantage McCann of Newtown, PA, in November 2004, helps officers assess and improve their writing skills. ConvictionWriter is a Web-based writing-assessment system that uses open-ended, essay-type questions online as a means of scoring writing according to its clarity. The system evaluates a writing sample as accurately as a human expert would evaluate it after years of experience in assessing reports of police personnel. Among the tools offered by ConvictionWriter are writing tips, a report checklist, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and model reports, in addition to feedback in the areas of sentence structure, grammar and spelling, word use, and abbreviation. The article also suggests training and practice techniques, such as viewing a video of an event and then writing a narrative of what occurred.