Professional Sentences for Police Reports: Part

I

by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

Sentences are the basic building materials for police writing.

Writing error-free sentences makes you look

professional.

Professional sentence patterns are especially important as you climb the career ladder in law enforcement.

Today we’re going to look at two useful types of professional sentences.

Let’s look at the first type of sentence.

Can you see a problem with the sentence below?

It sounds like “John Henry” is one person. Confusing!

You probably had to read the sentence twice before it made sense.

A comma solves the problem:

Here’s a handy rule: Use a comma when a sentence starts with an extra idea.

“While I was interviewing John” is an extra idea.

A sentence ends with a period.

An extra idea ends with a comma…and then it keeps going.

You can spot an “extra idea” (which needs a comma) by looking at the first word.If it’s not a person, place, or thing, it’s an “extra idea.”

“Look at the first word” is a great trick that you’ll use often.

Let’s try another one.

Confusing, isn’t it? (Was it really raining outside Smith’s shoes?)

Now the sentence is easy to understand the first time you read it!A comma saves the day.

“Although it was raining outside” is an extra idea that needs a comma.(You knew a comma was needed when you looked at the first word: Although.)

Let’s go on to our second professionalsentence pattern.

Sally is not a very nice person…or did we miss something here?

Sounds better, doesn’t it?

Is there a way to fix this sentence to eliminate the confusion?

Yes! Once again, the answer is a comma.Put a comma at the end of the first sentence:

Now the sentence makes sense the first time you read it!

Good writers think about that comma every time they join sentences with and.(Incidentally, but works the same way.)

Let’s look at another example. Here are two incomplete sentences. Can you see a difference in between them?

Without the comma, your partner probably suffered an injury:

Insert the comma, and your partner is probably okay:

Here’s an example with but. Here are two incomplete sentences. Do you see a difference between them?

Now you can see that the comma makes a difference!

Here’s your second handy rule: Use a comma when you join two sentences with and or but.

You can learn more about professional sentence patterns at

www.YourPoliceWrite.com.

Everything there is free, and no registration is needed:

www.YourPoliceWrite.com.

And if you’re looking for a low-cost, practical book that covers sentence patterns, English usage, and police reports…

Criminal Justice Report Writing is available from www.Amazon.com for just $17.95.

View a free sample online.

An e-book edition is available from www.Smashwords.com for only $11.99.

A free Instructor’s Manual is available on request: Send an e-mail to jreynoldswrite at aol.com.