This book is a short, student- and instructor-friendly guide to writing for law enforcement students and practitioners. It is intended for use as the primary text for a writing for law enforcement class, a supplemental text for introductory-level law enforcement and criminal justice classes, a training manual for police academies, and a resource manual for police departments and practitioners.
In the process of preparing materials for the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) and continuing education training for law enforcement professionals, I have visited with law enforcement instructors and administrators who are concerned about the writing skills of police officers.
As I reviewed professional samples of good and not-so-good writing, it struck me that what these writers need is a set of guidelines and good models for writing. With that goal in mind, I have relied on police chiefs to provide samples of reports and other writing projects that they consider to be good. Who better to provide the models than the people who are returning reports and asking for revisions? I have also spent many hours talking to police chiefs to determine what elements they look for in a good report.
With their responses in mind, I met with law enforcement instructors to find out what challenges they feel their students have in writing for academic work. Many of these instructors assign research papers, but they don't have time to teach the course content as well as to teach students how to write the required papers. Students taking introductory-level classes may not have completed English I, and some degree programs do not require English II, so these students sometimes have no idea how to approach writing a research paper.
After meeting with both groups, it seemed clear that my text needed to include academic and professional writing sections.
The academic writing portion of this text is a guide to writing a researfh paper, from coming up with an idea to producing the final draft. I have also included brief guides for Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and American Sociological Association (ASA) style and a brief handbook of English.
The professional portion of the text is dedicated to actual writing tasks that officers will be asked to complete on the job. I have placed emphasis on writing the narrative portion of the report. Additionally, during my discussions with police chiefs and officers, a topic that came up repeatedly was the need for more funding for police departments. To address this, I have included a section on grant writing.
Features of this text include:
- An overview of writing styles and tasks
- Guidelines and models for professional writing tasks
- Guidelines for writing grant proposals
- Guidelines and models for writing letters and memos
- Guidelines and models for writing cover letters and resumes
- A step-by-step approach to writing a research paper
- A brief handbook of English
- Chapter activities
It is my intent that this text will serve as a valuable teaching tool for criminal justice instructors, specifically at the community college level. Additionally, I hope that practitioners will use this book in the workplace to help them with the multitude of writing tasks they will encounter.
TO THE STUDENT
So you chose to become a cop because you love to write, right? Okay, probably not. Like it or not, though, as an officer, you will create loads of paperwork and lots of different people will be reading that paperwork.
The purpose of this book is to help you become comfortable with the writing tasks you will need to do at work as well as at school.
Students are often intimidated by writing; they view themselves as poor writers and view writing as a dreaded task. But it doesn't have to be hard!
This book is divided into three sections:
- Writing for a Purpose
- Writing for Law Enforcement
- Writing for Academia
Writing for a Purpose is designed to teach you to analyze the writing task to determine its purpose and audience. This unit explores different types of writing tasks and which types of writing are appropriate to those tasks. The unit explores different writing styles as well as the elements of good writing.
Writing for Law Enforcement offers students specific guidelines and examples of on-the-job writing. In addition to covering incident reports, accident reports, search warrant affidavits and returns, and arrest warrant affidavits and returns, this unit offers instruction in writing letters and memos, grant proposals, short reports, and resumes.
Writing for Academia walks you through the process of writing a research paper, from planning the paper through preparing the final draft. Three different documentation styles are outlined, and a brief review of English is included.
This book should be a keeper. The idea behind the content is that you can use the book while you are in college to complete your class-related writing tasks as well as after you graduate and begin your career. The materials concerning on-the-job writing tasks are provided so that you can refer back to this book for help when you have to write during your job, be it report narratives or grants.
TO THE INSTRUCTOR
Writing across the curriculum has become an essential on college campuses. In fact, most introductory-level content classes require some sort of research paper. And law enforcement administrators expect incoming officers to have a command of written language and proficiency in job-related writing tasks.
So where does this leave you? You need to devote your time to teaching the content of your courses, not to teaching writing. This book is designed to take the burden of teaching writing off of you.
Many criminal justice and law enforcement departments are creating specialized writing courses for their students: This book is designed to serve as a primary text for such a course. The chances of an instructor being both a writing specialist and a law enforcement practitioner are slim, so this text is explanatory enough that a specialist in either area can teach the content.
In an attempt to make your job easier, I have included sections on both professional and academic writing. With this book you can customize your writing assignments to meet the needs of your students and your curriculum.
The professional writing section of this text includes guidelines and models for:
- Incident reports
- Non-fatality vehicle accidents
- Fatality vehicle accidents
- Search warrant affidavits
- Search warrants
- Search warrant returns
- Arrest warrant affidavits
- Arrest warrants
- Arrest warrant returns
- Grant proposals
- Letters and memos
- Short reports
The academic writing section of the book includes the following instructions for writing a research paper:
- Defining the assignment
- Brainstorming ideas
- Conducting research
- Organizing information
- Writing the first draft
- Revising and editing
- Documenting sources
- Citing references
- Formatting the manuscript
Other features of this text include a brief handbook of English, chapter summaries, and suggested activities.
Whether you are using this book as a primary text or as a course supplement, it has been written to include everything you need to make helping your students with the writing tasks they will need at work and at school as easy as possible.
