This book provides comprehensive instructions and real models for the most common types of writing required of law enforcement personnel.It includes narrative reports, proposals, memos, short reports, letters and email. Also included is coverage of conducting a job search and writing cover letters, resumes and follow-up letters. Additionally, the book offers a guide to writing research papers for students who are just beginning to pursue their degrees in preparation for a career in law enforcement.For individuals in law enforcement and criminal justice fields.

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