professional sentence patterns for police reports part i
DESCRIPTION
Effective sentences are the building blocks for successful police reports - and they're essential tools as you climb the career ladder in law enforcement. This PowerPoint shows you how to write (and punctuate) two essential sentence patterns.TRANSCRIPT
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Professional Sentences for Police Reports: Part
I
by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.
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Sentences are the basic building materials for police writing.
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Writing error-free sentences makes you look
professional.
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Professional sentence patterns are especially important as you climb the career ladder in law enforcement.
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Today we’re going to look at two useful types of professional sentences.
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Let’s look at the first type of sentence.
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Can you see a problem with the sentence below?
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It sounds like “John Henry” is one person. Confusing!
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You probably had to read the sentence twice before it made sense.
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A comma solves the problem:
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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.
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A sentence ends with a period.
An extra idea ends with a comma…and then it keeps going.
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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.”
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“Look at the first word” is a great trick that you’ll use often.
Let’s try another one.
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Confusing, isn’t it? (Was it really raining outside Smith’s shoes?)
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Now the sentence is easy to understand the first time you read it!A comma saves the day.
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“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.)
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Let’s go on to our second professionalsentence pattern.
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Sally is not a very nice person…or did we miss something here?
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Sounds better, doesn’t it?
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Is there a way to fix this sentence to eliminate the confusion?
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Yes! Once again, the answer is a comma.Put a comma at the end of the first sentence:
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Now the sentence makes sense the first time you read it!
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Good writers think about that comma every time they join sentences with and.(Incidentally, but works the same way.)
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Let’s look at another example. Here are two incomplete sentences. Can you see a difference in between them?
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Without the comma, your partner probably suffered an injury:
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Insert the comma, and your partner is probably okay:
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Here’s an example with but. Here are two incomplete sentences. Do you see a difference between them?
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Now you can see that the comma makes a difference!
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Here’s your second handy rule: Use a comma when you join two sentences with and or but.
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You can learn more about professional sentence patterns at
www.YourPoliceWrite.com.
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Everything there is free, and no registration is needed:
www.YourPoliceWrite.com.
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