Technical English I – CDI4 Module 1: Investigative Report Writing

Reading Material No. 1.

Investigative Report Writing

a. Definition
- an account of any occurrence prepared after thorough investigation. It is
also defined as an account or statement describing in detail an event,
situation, or the like, usually as the result of observation or injury.

b. Purposes
- To Preserve Knowledge
- To Provide Accurate Details
- To Aid the Personnel and Other Agencies
- To Coordinate the Activities within the Organization

c. Characteristics of Effective Investigative Report Writing

- Accurate and Specific
- Brief and Concise
- Clear and Complete
- Factual and Objective
- Well-Organized and Grammatically Correct

d. Importance
- Serve as records for police administrators in planning, directing, and
organizing the unit’s duties and functions;
- Use as legal documents in the prosecution of criminals;
- Use as basis by law enforcement agencies and other government and
private organizations;
- Provide information to the media which need access to public documents;
- Be a basis for research; and
- Reflect the competence and personality of the police writer regarding his
written.

Eight Parts of Speech

a. NOUN - refers to the names of persons, places, things (living and non-living),
events, activities or concepts.

Example: Rodrigo R. Duterte, Criminologist, police trainees, book, gun,

field, university, Camp Aguinaldo, Graduation Day, Intramurals, webinar,
lessons, laptop, military camp, Police Academy.

1. Proper Noun – indicates specific name of persons, places, or things

such as Sta. Cruz, Ramil, Aragones, Asus, Apple Watch S6, Bea Alonzo
etc.

2. Common Noun – indicates the general group of person, place, or thing

such as a actor, politician, laptop, watch, car, chair, etc.

3. Collective Nouns and Mass Nouns (No Plural Form)

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Technical English I – CDI4 Module 1: Investigative Report Writing
Reading Material No. 1.

Example: Ammunition, armament, baggage, equipment, information,

investigation, furniture, luggage, traffic, and others.

b. PRONOUN - refers to a person, place or thing in place of nouns.

- Personal Pronouns are used for a specific object or person.

Pronoun Chart
Subject Object Possessive Possessive Reflexive
Pronouns Pronouns Adjectives Pronouns Pronouns
1st I Me My Mine Myself
Person
2nd You You Your Yours Yourself
Person
3rd He/ Him/ His/ His/ Himself/
Person She Her Her Hers Herself
3rd It It Its Not used Itself
Thing
1st We Us Our Ours Ourselves
Person
(Plural)
2nd You You Your Yours Yourselves
Person
(Plural)
3rd They Them Their Theirs Themselves
Person
(Plural)

c. VERB - refers to a word that describe an action, occurrence, or state of being. It

also indicates action, condition, or circumstances about how the subject of the
sentence acts.
Example: The instructor discusses the lesson. (“discusses” is the verb being
it describes what the instructor is doing.)

d. ADJECTIVE - refers to a word or phrase that modifies a noun or pronoun.

Example: The police officers wear their new field service uniform. (“New”
is the adjective. It describes the field service uniform.) the trainees are
riding their beautiful motorcycles. (“Beautiful” is the a adjective. It
describes the motorcycle.)

e. ADVERB - refers to a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies a verb, adjective,

or another adverb.
Example:
Officer John chanted loudly during the road run (“Loudly” is the adverb. It
qualified how John chanted.)
Police Information and Continuing Education (PICE) is conducted monthly.
(“Monthly” is the adverb. It describes how often a PICE is conducted.)
Police Lieutenant Tigasin received his suspension order yesterday.
(“Yesterday” is the adverb. It tells when he received suspension order.)

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Reading Material No. 1.

f. PREPOSITION - refers to a word that connects or show relationship of noun,

pronoun, or phrases in a sentence.
Example:
The Police Service Anniversary Celebration will be held on Monday. The
suspects were arrested on May 2, 2021. The conference was rescheduled
in the afternoon. Police Staff Sergeant Baltazar is detailed to Malabon City
Police Station. The trainees are at the precinct.

Use of Prepositions ON, IN, and AT

ON is used for days, specific dates, and occasions.

- on Monday, on Christmas
- on May 2, 1988, on Oathtaking, etc.

ON is also used when talking about the surface.

- on top the table, on the floor, on the computer, on the paper, etc.

IN is used when referring to weeks, months referring to weeks, months,

years, parts of the day (except at night), and seasons.
- in December
- in week 8, in the morning
- in summer
- in Manila
- in a newspaper, etc.

AT is used to indicate a specific time, place, and address.

- at 641 Sales Street, Sta Cruz, Manila,
- at 8:00 AM,
- at work,
- at the laboratory, etc.

g. CONJUNCTION - refers to a word that joins or connects words or clauses in a

sentence.
Example: The trainees were allowed to go on pass for four hours and
ordered to return on time for physical exercises.
The police responded immediately at the scene of the crime but the
suspects managed a good escape.

h. INTERJECTION - refers to a word that is not part of the sentence but expresses
emotion such as “Ouch!”, “Hey”, “Oh no”, “Ahwhoah!”, and the likes.

Punctuations

A. Apostrophe (‘)– used to form most possessives, contractions, as well as the

plurals and inflections of words
The field operative’s report is accurate
She wasn’t in the trial hearing yesterday.
The victim’s body is in a state of decomposition.

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Reading Material No. 1.

B. Colon (:)– used to mark an introduction, indicating that what follows it generally
is a clause, a phrase or a list.
Examples:
a. The judge has trial experience on three (3) judicial levels: county, state, and
federal.
b. The issue comes down to this: will death penalty be legalized or not?
c. We are required to pass the following: initial, progress, and final reports of the
case.
- it comes before an explanation, description, definition, or list. It can
also be used to draw attention to something, or join ideas together.
Examples:
a. LIST
He was charged for three counts of Grave Misconduct: Violation of RA No.
6713, Violation of RA No. 3019, and Violation of Article 124 of the Revised
Penal Code.

b. EXPLANATION
I only ate one cup of rice: it had too much cholesterol.

c. SEPARATE INDEPENDENT CLAUSES

The policemen responded quickly: the suspects’ ill-motive did not materialize.

d. EMPHASIS
After stringent scrutiny of the pieces of evidence adduced by both parties, the
Chief PNP had reached a decision: guilty.

e. QUOTES
Dr. Mark Louie Tamayo once said: “Sit down, and learn from the master.”

C. Semi-Colon (;) – A semicolon creates more separation between thoughts that

comma does but less than a period does. Use semi-colon appropriately and not as
replacement for commas.
Example:
a. WRONG: The drug paraphernalia recovered were lighters, rolled aluminum
foil; and tooter.
b. CORRECT: The drug paraphernalia recovered were lighters, rolled
aluminum foil, and tooter.
c. The respondents were found guilty as charged for two counts of Grave
Misconduct; Conduct Unbecoming of a Police Officer; and two counts of
Less Grave Neglect of Duty.
d. My father is a policeman; my son is an army.

D. Comma (,) – used to separate items in a series, and to set off or distinguish
grammatical elements within sentences.
Examples:
a. He was charged with reckless imprudence, and robbery resulting to homicide.
b. The suspect was described as tall, has brown complexion, medium-built, and
between 20-25 years old.

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Reading Material No. 1.

c. We are required to pass the initial, progress, and final reports of the case.

- Use comma before the article “AND” especially when referring to three
or more items.

E. Hyphen (-) – used to join the element of compound nouns and modifiers.
Examples:
The officer-in-charge of the case is on leave.
The first-runner-up of the pageant was shot in the head.
His mother-in-law was invited for questioning after the disappearance of the
child.

F. Parenthesis () – used to enclose material that is inserted into a main statement,

but is not intended to be an essential part of it.
Examples:
The six patrol cars (all outdated models) will be replaced soon.
The diagram (Fig.1) illustrates the flow of the traffic.
The suspect (who was also an ex-army) was caught.

G. Period (.)– serves to mark the end of a sentence or an abbreviation.

Examples:
There is a vehicular accident in the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.
Bill Clede is the author of the book Police Handgun Manual.
Atty. Dargantes teaches law subjects in the College of Criminology.

- Use and Non-Use of Period (.) – periods are not used for
abbreviations in measurement.
Example:
mm (millimeter), cal (caliber), in (inches), g (grams), and kg (kilograms).
9mm pistol/.45 caliber pistol – (not dotted for mm and dotted for cal.)
Et al. – (no period after “et” but witrh period after “al”)

H. Quotation Marks (“ ”)– used to enclose quoted statements in a regular text.

Examples:
“Not guilty”, was the plea of the rapist.
“Shhh”, says the judge.
“He made me do it!” was the last statement of the witness.

REFERENCES:

1. Tamayo, M.L.M. et. al. (2021) Guns and Ammo of Police Investigative Report Writing. Central Book
Supply Inc.; Quezon City, Philippines.
2. Balares, M.F., Garcia, N.L., Annanayo-Sanao, M.J. (2016) Police Report Writing. Philippines:
Wiseman’s Books Trading, Inc.
3. Bajado-Nano, M.C. and Pioquinto, P.V. (2014) Technical Report Writing I for Criminology Students.
Philippines: Wiseman’s Books Trading, Inc.
4. Paligat, E.P. (2015) Police Report Writing (A Handbook for Police Officers, Trainees, and Public
Safety Students). Philippines: U.P. Diliman, Quezon City.

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