Looking Ahead

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Looking at my writing, there are a few writing techniques I would like to improve upon. One being my grammar. Sometimes I place commas in places that are unnecessary but usually I can catch them when I edit or reread my papers. Another issue I may have is that sometimes I switch tenses, This is another easy fix that I make sure is fixed when I reread or edit. 

Something I fear is writers block. At times, I do not know what to write. I know there are different techniques. I do force myself to write a lot of the time. I do not really like to interrupt my writing and writer's block is something I do not like.

I Want To Have The Very Best Notepad

In class we discussed note taking for law enforcement. It is pretty straight forward. Dr. Kyburz gave us an assignment to see what notepad would best suit us as law enforcement. To someone who carefully picks out their notebooks, pens, and other school supplies, it is very hard for me to choose one note pad without actually testing it out.

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I like this note pad because it has a place to hold the pens and a place for extra papers or business card. My only dislike is that if it opens to the side like that, it may be harder to write in. So therefore it places third in my most likely to purchase for the job.

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I like this note pad because it has a place to hold pens. It seems like a very straight forward style. It has a little slot for papers or maybe business cards. This notepad seems like it would serve me well. 

Therefore, it places second because I think it is a little flimsy and I may loose pens easily.

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This notepad would have to be my favorite though. It zips up so there is no fear of things flying out and it seems like it would be great to write in. The only thing that I would be skeptical of is if the binding would be able to flip over. This notepad is one I would buy without a question. It places first on my must buy notepads for work.

Rewriting A Report

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On 7-25-15 at approximately 1230 hours, I was radioed to meet the reporting party, Katherine L. Tunney, DOB: 09-16-1989, at 1647 Rancho, El Fuego. Other persons living with K. Tunney are Carol Tunney, DOB: 01-21-1966, and Gary Tunney.

I met Katherine Tunney at 1215 hours. Katherine Tunney said she wanted to run some errands when she saw a white Toyota van wagon stop in the middle of her street. The Toyota only had the driver inside and the suspect was holding a camera to his face taking pictures of her home.

Katherine Tunney decided to call it in because her mother had been contacted by a suspicious person in April this year.

Katherine Tunney tried to approach the car, but when she exited her home, the driver rolled up his window and sped away. Katherine Tunney was able to see the license plate number when the car slowed for a speed bump. The license plate number was 836L92F.

A radio call was initiated on this license plate number and it came back to a 2004 Toyota Wagon, registered to Stephen D. Bond, 3381 El Balazo. El Fuego. Katherine Tunney described the driver as a male, white with graying hair.

Carol Tunney said she filed a report with the police department back in April of this year. In April, Carol Tunney was in the front of her garage, in the driveway re-potting a plant, when she was approached by a male who asked about her name. Carol Tunney told the male that she would not tell him her name and asked for his name but he did not answer.

Carol Tunney said the license plate read ISPYONU. A radio call was initiated on this license plate number and came back to a 2008 SAAB registered to Richard Toomey, 36 Paseo De Bonito, El Rancho.

I told Carol Tunney and Katherine Tunney that there was no crime that had occurred, yet the information would be filed. No contact has been made to Bond or Toomey and the information has been passed on to the investigation division.

Nothing further to report.

The Summary Is Done

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The summary documentary project has been completed. The biggest challenge I faced was avoiding being bias. It was so hard to stop myself from writing an introduction and conclusion without having my own person thoughts in them. Taking myself out of the paper was hard, but I would say that once I started typing away the summary itself was not too hard. There was a couple transition issues I faced. To take myself out of this summary I had to clear my mind and focus on the film. I kept telling myself, Victoria, you cannot add in feelings. In the end, introducing the documentary gave me the most problems. Thankfully, my classmates and my professor were able to provide their own examples and bounce off ideas with me to see what would work best. When I finished typing up the conclusion, I felt like something was missing but I left it how it was. I knew I wanted to add in my own opinion or research I had done, but I stopped myself. Overall, I am very satisfied with all the challenges I faced and was able to overcome. This was a interesting writing experience and gave me hope that I can overcome even the most challenging projects with the help of my peers.

Reflecting On My Writing

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Writing is a skill that one cannot perfect. Every single time I write, there is something new I learn. Sometimes it is a writing skills and other times it is about myself. During this summary documentary project I learned about myself that although sometimes I take excessive notes, it pays off. While writing the summary, I had very little issues remembering what happened in Living On One Dollar. There are some issues in my writing other than the usual grammar ones. For starters, I usually never write in the present tense unless I do it by accident. So it was a little harder for me to switch over, but I was more careful and considerate while typing. There was some MLA formatting issues and some odd spacing. So I need to remind myself to look over the paper closer before I hit print.

I would like to be a psychologist. This experience will help me in the future, because it made me write in an unbiased nature. It was interesting and I felt like I had to shut down my emotions so I would not include my own personal opinion.

For next time, I would look at the assignment closer, so I would not misinterpret it. Also, I would make sure to take a good look at the printer preview so I do not have spacing issues. There is something weird about google docs sometimes. I will be certain to double check my work.

Learning About Myself

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For class, we had to draft a summary on our documentary that we watched. When we came in with our drafted summary we were asked to free write. The documentary I chose to watch was Living On One Dollar.  I am not sure if we had to post our free write or any excerpts but better be safe than sorry.

The reason why I chose this documentary was because in my criminology class we are learning of all sorts of theories people have as to why one may commit a crime. A lot of the theories involve the individual's living conditions. People living in lower class neighborhoods tend to commit more crimes. So the documentary Living On One Dollar, really sparked my interest. Do these theories apply to people outside the United States living in such conditions where crime is needed for survival? After watching the documentary, where the only crime that was committed was videotaping inside a local bank, I can soundly say that crime is not committed because of living conditions. The people living there fight for their lives every day and make choices daily that impact them greatly. 

Anyways back to the whole free write part. We were suppose to answer the question "With the freedom you had for the documentary project, what did you learn about yourself?"

I learned that my intense note taking really pays off. I typically am known for taking too much notes. The amount of notes I took for the documentary helped me a lot though. I was able to easily look back at my notes and recall the film with no issues. Another thing is that I have always struggled to write in one tense and typically write in the past tense. This assignment was to be done with the present tense. That was hard and I am sure that there are some places where I messed up. Grammar is also another issue that I always encounter. I hope it was not too shabby though. My MLA format was a little rusty, so I did have to dust off a lot of cobwebs by visiting the Purdue OWL page. I still missed a couple things. I know I am not a perfect writer and it is okay because practice makes perfect. I know that if I make the effort, I will only grow. 

I really was happy when I found out I could keep my documentary. In my write up I wrote that if I was going to do this again, I would probably just write the summary while watching the documentary, and later fix and add what was needed. The reason being is that my notes were really detailed. All I had to do was make it into complete sentences and I was basically done with my summary. So the biggest thing I learned is that being prepared and taking notes pays off.