Customer Reviews

Plain English for Cops

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This books begins by describing police report writing as being like dental work without Novocain, and that is essentially true. No one likes writing reports, and learning to write reports is worse by several orders of magnitude. This book *is* the Novocain, the tool that can make the process relatively painless.

Meier and Adams have collected advice and anecdotes from cops at all levels of the hierarchy and experience to craft a book that covers the essentials without being ponderous. Humor is used to make a dull subject bearable. There are some examples of English mechanics in the book, but they are in the context of practical examples that make the grammar lessons meaningful. This is the first police report writing book that one could actually sit down and read.

This would be the first book I would recommend to a training officer with a recruit with writing deficiencies, for a police academy instructor, or for an academic instructor that wanted to do a course or workshop on report writing. The book itself can serve as your curriculum plan. If you need to know how to write police reports, or need to know how to teach someone to write police reports, buy this book.

I recently read this book in conjunction with the seminar put on by the authors Nicholas Meier and R.J. Adams. The book is a must read for all future police officers as well as a must have for current officers and supervisors. This is the first report writing book that I was actually able to read and enjoy. I was able to pick up several tips that have made my job much easier. You will learn so much from this book you'll wonder how you worked without it.

If you have the chance sign up for the seminar!

G. Ladwig

The book has a lot of text and a lot of humor. It's entertaining to read but I didn't find it very helpful for report writing. When you look at the highlighted portions of the text you have to do extensive reading to find out if you are doing it the right way or the wrong way. It felt more like an episode of the world's worst police reports. The book could have been organized better with major points highlighted. The commonly confused word section was very helpful.

I feel this book is a great resource for police report writers. It teaches the basics of english usage and reporting as it relates to police writing without putting you to sleep. A valuable book for everyone who "pulls paper."

This book is right on the money. I work for a small department and guidance when it comes to report writing is limited. This answered just about all my questions and the hummor definitly helped.