ENGL 1024 - Writing Police Reports: Theory and Practice Credits: 1 Hours/Week: Lecture 1 Lab None Course Description: This college-level writing course emphasizes the theory and practice of using information observed and gathered at a crime scene to prepare a professional-quality police report. Typical assignments include audience analysis, situation analysis, police report checklists, narratives, and police reports written after contact with simulated situations involving law enforcement. This writing course assumes familiarity with a word processing program. MnTC Goals None
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1020 with a grade of C or higher OR ENGL 1021 with a grade of C or higher. Corequisite(s): CJS 1024 Recommendation: Knowledge of the required content of a police report; knowledge of basic techniques for collecting information at a crime scene; word-processing skills.
Major Content
- Key terms, concepts, and content of police reports
- Elements and issues of technical writing
- Characteristics of acceptable and unacceptable police reports
- The role of police reports in the legal process
- Writing, reviewing, and revising police reports
Learning Outcomes At the end of this course students will be able to:
- define key terms and concepts of writing police reports (1.1.2, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.3.1)
- describe the role of police reports in the legal process (1.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.2.1, 3.3.1, 3.3.3, 3.3.4)
- differentiate between rhetorical characteristics of academic and police report writing (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.4, 3.3.1, 3.3.3, 3.3.4)
- describe the relationship between good report writing and testimony (3.1.3, 3.3.1, 3.3.3)
- write a police report in first person (1.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.3)
- differentiate between facts, inferences, and opinions when writing a police report (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.2.1, 3.2.2)
- use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence and paragraph structure in a police report (1.1.6, 3.1.3)
- write a police report that is clear, complete, concise, and accurate (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.3.1, 3.3.3)
- write a police report that presents all relevant details in chronological order (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.3.1, 3.3.3)
Competency 1 (1-6) None Competency 2 (7-10) None Courses and Registration
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