Chpt. 24 Written Communications Flashcards
Cadet J. Points
Identify the components of a sentence:
Adjective
Adverb
Noun
Preposition
Verb
Pronoun
What is an Adjective?
An adjective is a word that typically describes or modifies the meaning of a noun. Adjectives serve to point out a quality of a thing named (“a brave officer”, “a new car”), to indicate its quantity or extent (“some reports”), or to specify a thing as distinct from something else (“this suspect”, “those witnesses”).
What is an Adverb?
An adverb is a word or combination of words typically serving as a modifier of a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a preposition, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence, and expressing some relation of manner or quality, place, time, degree, number, cause, opposition, affirmation, or denial. Adverbs answer such questions as:
- When? (“Please reply at once.”)
- How long? (“This investigation is taking forever.”)
- Where? (“The victim died there.”)
- In what direction? (“Pull the trigger backward.”)
- How? (“The detectives moved expeditiously on the project.”)
- To what degree? (“The book was very popular.”)
What is a Noun?
A noun is a word that is the name of something (a person, animal, place, object, quality, concept, or action).
“The officer received an assignment.”
What is a Preposition?
– A preposition is a word that combines with a noun, pronoun, or noun equivalent (as a phrase or clause) to form a phrase that usually acts as an adverb, adjective, or noun.
“They expected resistance on their part.” “He sat down beside her.”
What is a Verb?
Verbs express an act, occurrence, or mode of being.
“The suspect ran from the officer.” “The witness panicked once on the stand.”
What is a Pronoun?
A pronoun is a word that is used as a substitute for a noun or noun
equivalent.
“Who is she?”
Characteristics of a sentence:
- A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.
- A sentence typically contains both a subject and a predicate, begins with a capital letter, and ends with a punctuation mark.
- A sentence should be short, simple, and concise.
- A sentence should be unmistakably clear to the reader.
Importance of complete sentences in written communication:
- Your written communication will be one of the factors used to evaluate your competence as a peace officer.
- Your written communication may be seen by a diverse audience (your agency, the criminal justice system, the public, etc.).
- Your written communication may serve as a source document for judicial and administrative proceedings.
Problems with sentence construction:
- People often speak in incomplete sentences. If the listener does not understand what is said, they can ask the speaker to clarify. However, this is often not possible with written
communications. Therefore, written communications must state complete thoughts to ensure that the reader understands the author’s meaning. - When someone writes the same way they talk, two serious errors may occur: sentence fragments and run-on sentences.
Run-on sentences:
- Run-on sentences cause confusion for the reader and can lead to incorrect conclusions about the intent of the writing.
- Two or more sentences written as one result in a run-on sentence.
- Closely related sentences are often mistakenly combined into one.
- Example: The officer chased the suspect, and the suspect had a gun.
What is a modifier?
A modifier is a word or set of words that qualifies or limits another word or set of words.
Example: While flying over California, we saw many swimming pools.
What is a misplaced modifier?
A misplaced modifier is one that attaches itself to the wrong word or words in the sentence.
Example: We saw many swimming pools flying over California.
What are Double Negatives?
When two negative words are used in the same clause, the result is a double negative.
The following negative terms should be used one at a time, not in pairs: no, not, never, none, no one, nobody, nothing, nowhere, and neither.
WRONG: Nobody saw nothing. / There is not no time left.
RIGHT: Nobody saw anything. / There is no time left.
WRONG: I can’t hardly see the road in this fog.
RIGHT: I can hardly see the road in this fog.
What is passive voice?
One of the two “voices” of verbs (see also active voice). A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. For example, in “The ball was thrown by the pitcher,” the ball (the subject) receives the action of the verb, and was thrown is in the passive voice. The same sentence cast in the active voice would be, “The pitcher threw the ball.”
Passive: The bystander was hit by a stray bullet.
Active: A stray bullet hit a bystander.
