These six tips will help police officers sharpen their writing skills and produce better police reports.

1. How to Improve Your
Writing Skills for Police
Reports
by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

2. How to Improve Your
Writing Skills
by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

3. Writing police reports
takes time and effort.

4. You want to please
your supervisor…

5. …but maybe
your writing
skills aren’t as
sharp as you’d
like them to be.

6. What are some
things you can do
to become a
better police
writer?

7. Here are six things
you can start
doing right away.

8. 1. Enlist a friend.

9. Ask a friend to
look over your
reports before
you submit them.

10. Pay attention to what others tell you
about your writing. You can learn a
lot that way.

11. Even the best writers sometimes have
trouble spotting their own mistakes.
Another set of eyes can be a big help.

12. 2. Use resources.

13. If you’re writing
on a laptop, use
the spellchecker
and grammar
checker.

14. If you’re writing
by hand, keep a
dictionary
nearby—and use
it!

15. The Internet has many free resources
for police officers.

16. 3. Proofread.

17. Don’t be in a
big hurry to
hand in your
report. Read it
over carefully
at least twice.

18. 4. Keep a notebook.

19. Jot down reminders about words that
cause problems for you.

20. 5. Read.

21. Nothing
(nothing!)
sharpens your
brainpower like
reading.

22. You’ll pick up all kinds of information
about language without even realizing
you’re doing it.

23. Set aside some time
for reading every
day.
(It doesn’t have to
be serious or
heavy!)

24. 6. Keep it simple.

25. You don’t need a lot of grammar
terminology to be a good writer.

26. Good writing isn’t complicated!
• Start every sentence with a person,
place, or thing.
• End every sentence with a period.
• Keep your sentences short.

27. Let’s review.

28. Here are six
things you can do
TODAY to start
becoming a
better writer.

29. What’s stopping
YOU?

30. You can learn more about report writing
at www.YourPoliceWrite.com.

31. All the resources there are FREE:
www.YourPoliceWrite.com.

32. And if you’re
looking for a
low-cost,
practical book…

33. Criminal Justice Report
Writing is available
from www.Amazon.com
for just $19.95.
View a free sample
online.

34. An e-book edition is
available from
www.Smashwords.com
for only $9.99.

35. A free Instructor’s Manual
is available to instructors
and administrators – and
there’s a discount for class
sets of five books or more.
Send your request to
jreynoldswrite at aol.com.