Technical English 2

(Legal Forms)
CDI 8
By: Dr. Reggie Ledres Latog RCrim
2022
 Module I:

Distinctions of Technical English 1 and 2

 UNIT TOPICS:
1. Technical English 1
2. Technical English 2
 UNIT 1:
Technical English 1
Definition of Technical Writing
The word "Technical” comes from the Greek word
'techne' that means "skill”.
Technical writing then is a form of technical skills
and is used in fields like the military, police,
computer industry, robotics, finance, consumer
electronics, biotechnology, and many other fields.
Technical writing according to Vicente, et.al
(1997), as cited by Nano, et al 2014, is also
termed as report writing, which is the giving of
an account or description of an aspect of a
particular art, science, trade, or profession
learned by experience, study, observation, or
investigation.
The Significance of Technical Writing
Technical writing is a skill that must be acquired
not only by every criminology student, but also
by those who are already practicing their
profession in the criminal justice system. Every
practitioner, either in different law enforcement
agencies, or learners in the academe are
confronted with a variety of writing activities.
Specifically, law enforcers are required to write
beat patrol reports, fill up routing slips, write
traffic accident reports, compose blotter entries,
and submit various kinds of police reports.
Likewise, those in the academe are also expected
to hand in researches, proposals, feasibility
studies, technical reports, and many other
classroom written outputs.
There are Two Important factors of
Technical Writing
Writing is a form of communication, it becomes more
effective if the writer must consider two important
factors:
a. the purpose; and
b. the subject matter.
Subject matter refers to the objective
information that the writer wants to convey;
whereas, purpose refers to the goals that the
writer wants to achieve for himself and his
readers after presenting his written output.
Qualities of a Good Technical Report

Not only does a technical writer required to have

good writing skills, but also his technical reports
must have good qualities that are appropriate and
relevant.
BASIC ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR
The words in the English language can be
designated to one of the eight categories, known
as the parts of Speech. The meaning and the way
the words are used in a sentence determine what
part of speech it is.
These parts of speech are considered as one of
the basic elements of grammar. Each of the parts
functions in accordance with the standard rules
of grammar. The eight parts of speech are
discussed in detail in the next pages.
A. Nouns and Pronouns

Nouns are the labels or names given to the

people, places, and things about which human
beings communicate. Pronouns on the other
hand, are word used in replacement of nouns.
Nouns

The largest of the parts of speech categories

constitute nouns. The chart below shows the
kinds of nouns with its corresponding
description and examples
Pronouns

Pronouns are words that help writers avoid

awkward repetition of nouns. They are used in
replacement of nouns.
Examples:
● Mar is taking up BS Criminology at
University of Cebu; he will graduate next
year.
● The crime scene was secured. The police
officer cordoned it.
Antecedents
Antecedents are nouns or words that take the
place of nouns for which pronoun stands. The
italicized word in the examples below is the
antecedent of the underlined pronoun.
Examples:
● Before their release, the victims paid a
ransom.
● While writing his notes, the police officer
noticed errors in it.
Kinds of Description
Pronoun
Personal Are used to refer to
Pronouns particular people, places,
and Things; specifically
refer to the person
speaking, the person
spoken to, or the places or
thing spoken About
Examples
First Person: I, me,
mine, us, our, ours,
Second Person: you,
your, yours
Third Person: he, she,
it, him, her, his, hers,
its, they, them, their,
theirs
Kinds of Description Examples
Pronoun

Reflexive Both have the same myself-ourselves,

and -selves, they are formed yourself-yourselves,
Intensive from personal pronouns form and end in-self
Pronouns or himself, herself,
itself, themselves
Kinds of Pronoun Description Examples

Demonstrative These are used to that, these, those

Pronouns point out nouns
Relative Used to begin a that, which, who,
Pronouns subordinate clause whom, whose
and relate it to
another idea in the
sentence
Kinds of Description Examples
Pronoun

Interrogat These are used to begin a what, which, who,

ive direct or indirect question whom, whose
Pronoun
Indefinite Are used to refer to anybody, everyone,
Pronouns persons, places, or nothing, all, each,
things often without nobody, someone,
specifying which ones everybody
B. Verbs
Verbs are words or groups of words that express
time while showing an action, a condition, or the
fact that something exists. Every complete
sentence contains at least one verb.
The examples below show the different kinds of
verbs with their corresponding description.
C. Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs are considered as
"sentence builders" because they fortify
sentences by expanding ideas, modify nouns,
pronouns, verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.
They are also termed as "structures of
modifications."
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that qualify the meaning of
a noun or pronoun by giving description about
its appearance, location, and other
characteristics. It can answer four questions
about a noun, as exemplified below:
● What kind? A white patrol car (what
kind of car?)
● Which one? The first witness (which
witness?)
● How many? Two.45 caliber pistols (how
many pistols)
● How much? P100,000.00 ransom (how
much ransom was paid?)
An adjective that modifies a pronoun usually
follows it, or sometimes may precede the pronoun.
Consider the examples below:
● They are hopeful about the positive
result of the case. (after the pronoun)
● Hopeful about the positive result of the
case, they started to celebrate. (before
the pronoun)
● His brutal killing was a sad reminder for
everyone. (after the pronoun)
● The brutal killing of his brother was a sad
reminder for him. (before the pronoun)
Adverbs
Adverbs are also modifiers, as they
describe words and make them more
specific in a sentence. When an adverb
modifies a verb, it can answer any of the
following questions:
● Where? The SOCO Team secured the
crime scene behind the building.
● When? The victim was found dead at
around 2:00 o'clock yesterday.
● In what manner? The judge officially
dismissed the session.
● To what extent? The conclusions of the
investigators are extremely important.
Normally, adverbs modifying adjectives and
adverbs will immediately precede the word
they modify.
Examples:
● The investigator's analysis of the crime
was quite logical.
● He performed very competently in his
station.
D. Prepositions, Conjunctions,
and Interjections
Prepositions
Prepositions are part of speech that
express the relationship between words
and phrases of the sentence.
Below are examples of common prepositions:
Above down
into our
across behind
Below are examples of common prepositions:
before for
ahead of
from during off
Below are examples of common prepositions:
under below
nearby Through
after beneath
Below are examples of common prepositions:
onto until
beyond inside
within out
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words used to join or connect
other words in a sentence. Below are the
descriptions and examples of the three kinds of
conjunctions.
There are three kinds of conjunctions, namely:
Coordinating, Subordinating, and Correlative.
They perform different functions in the
sentence. Refer to the discussions of each kind
below!
Coordinating Conjunction- used to connect
similar parts of speech or group of words.

Examples: (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet)

Correlative Conjunctions- used to join elements of
equal grammatical weight in sentences; they
always work in pairs.
Examples: both...and, either...or, neither...nor,
not only...but also, whether...or
Subordinating Conjunction- used to join two
complete ideas by making one of the ideas
subordinate to or dependent upon the other.
Examples: (after, because, provided, unless,
although, before, since, until, as, even, that, while,
as if, lest, whenever, if, as soon as, in order that)
Interjections
Interjections are words that have no grammatical
connection to other words in a sentence; they are
just statements that express feelings or emotions.
List of Common Interjections

Well ouch
hey dear
ah whew
List of Common Interjections

psst hurray
aha goodness
WOW tsk
List of Common Interjections

oh alas
gracious Hello
oh my
List of Common Interjections
yuck good
gee huh
really great
yippee gosh
The Sentence
A sentence is a group of words expressing a
complete thought or idea. A complete sentence is
made up of a subject and a predicate. The diagram
below explains further on this concept.
SENTENCE
group of words expressing a complete thought or
idea
Subject
● the topic of the sentence
● tells who is spoken of
● t is a noun or pronoun
Predicate
● talks about the subject
● talks about what the subject is doing
● it is a verb
The Paragraph
A paragraph is a brief composition having only one
main thought or idea. It is a group of related
sentences developing into one topic, or with a
specific part of a longer composition or a larger
topic.
A paragraph is composed of a topic sentence and
supporting details. A topic sentence contains the
main idea or thought of the composition. On the
other hand, the supporting details substantiate or
help develop the main idea expressed in the topic
sentence.
Read the paragraph below and identify the topic
sentence and the supporting details that help
developed the main idea.
The value of human life in our society is immeasurable.
Police officers are charged with the awesome
responsibility to protect life and property, and to
apprehend criminal offenders. The apprehension of
criminal offenders and the protection of property must be
subservient to the protection of life. The police officer's
responsibility for protecting life must include his own.
---by Bill Clede from Police Handgun Manual, p. 126
UNIT 2: Technical English 2
Nowadays, the people are relying too much from
the graduates of Criminal Justice Education in
terms of delivery of services for they know for a
fact that they are well trained in terms of theory
and practices and in other techniques while they
are in school.
The preference now of the uniform sector is to hire
graduates of Criminal Justice Education knowing
that they already have the background on how to
handle their work.
A basic training of course is necessary to add on to
what the agency would really want to do and for
them to be. Once they are already in the service you
can see their performances and responsibilities.
So if a certain investigator does not know how to
prepare a report what will happen now to the case
you filed. It is really important that the Criminology
students must be required to have a subject Police
Report Writing for them to be able to write a
complete report as what really is needed by the
court.
There are four (4) types of operational reports:
1. Patrol Reports
2. Arrest Reports
3. Preliminary Investigation Reports and
4. Supplementary Progress Reports/ Follow-up
Reports.
Oftentimes law enforcers assigned as investigators
are not prepared. They have not underwent a
thorough police investigation course as a
qualification to become one.
Nor they are not educationally qualified to be
assigned in that particular assignment. This book
will teach students how to become an effective
investigator so he can write a good police report
once assigned in a certain case.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE A
POLICE REPORT?
1. Police Report is any written matter prepared by
the Police involving their interaction with the
community.
2. A Police Report is an exact Narration of facts
discovered during the course of crime investigation
which serves as a permanent written record for
future reference.
3. Police Report is a permanent written record of
police activities classified as informal and formal
which communicates important facts concerning
people involved in criminal activities.
WHAT ARE THE PURPOSES OF
POLICE REPORTS?
1. Written report to serve as the raw materials from
which records systems are made.
2. Written report to reveal as part of the component
of the record system, the direct relationship between
the efficiency of the department and the quality of
its reports and to reporting procedures.
3. Written report to guide police administrators for
policy formulation and decision making.
4. Written report to serve as a gauge/yardstick for
efficiency evaluation of police officers.
5. Written report to guide prosecutors and courts in
the trial of criminal cases investigated by the police.
WHAT IS POLICE REPORT?
According to Dr. Oscar Soriano, report is basically a
story of actions performed by man. A police report is
a chronological or step-by-step account of an
accident that transpired in a given time, at a given
place.
. It is also defined as an account of an investigation,
or an official statement of facts. Police reports result
from the fact that someone has asked for them and
needs them for immediate or future use. In any
event, police reporting has become one of the most
significant processes in modern police operations.
WHAT ARE THE
IMPORTANT USES OF
REPORT WRITING?
1. Reports serve as records for police administration
in planning, directing, and organizing the unit's
duties.
2. Reports can be used as legal documents in the
prosecution of criminals.
3. Reports are utilized by other agencies.
4. Reports can be useful to tri-media for public
information purposes.
5. Reports can be utilized for research purposes.
6. Reports improve the personality of the writer.
WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA
TO BE CONSIDERED IN
REPORT WRITING?
 The Language
1. Clarity
2. Accuracy
3. Brevity
4. Specificity
 The Language
5. Completeness
6. Timeliness
7. Security
8. Impartiality
According to the book of Dr. Oscar Soriano, One of
the most basic considerations of report writing is the
language used. Direct-to-the-point words are
essential to good police report writing.
Use of specific words also contributes to factual
police reports. Every complete sentence must have
at least one subject and one predicate. Diction refers
to the manner and style of expression in words.
LEGAL FORMS
In criminal law, search means examination of a
person's body, property or other area to which the
person would reasonably be expected to consider as
private by a law enforcement officer for finding
evidence of a crime.
Ordinarily a search cannot be conducted without
probable cause as the Fourth amendment prohibits
unreasonable searches and seizures.
A search can occur under varied circumstances. For
example Border search (search conducted at the
border of a country especially check points for
excluding illegal aliens and contraband);
Emergency search ( A search conducted by a police
officer without warrant as s/he believes it necessary
to life or property or has some probable cause and
has no time to obtain a warrant);
Private search (a search conducted by a private
person rather than a law enforcement officer); Title
search (records search performed in connection with
real property to uncover information).
Private search (a search conducted by a private
person rather than a law enforcement officer); Title
search (records search performed in connection with
real property to uncover information).