Final Thoughts

Image Source

When members of the criminal justice system complained about how much they hated the paperwork that was involved when writing a report, I was positive that it wasn't as bad as they made it seem. Writing has always been something that I am very good at and that writing reports was not going to be an issue. I am able to analyze and summarize information pretty well. However, in this course, I learned that there's more than that. The many activities that we did in class, I truly enjoyed. Even though it was a lot of writing and picking out important details, it really boosted up my rhetorical skills.

Documentary
I've mentioned this multiple times, but I really enjoyed this project. In a way, it prepared us in being able to take notes of what we thought was important and then being able to summarize them. What I liked about the documentary that I watched was that it wasn't something that was easy to take in and then write about it. However, when joining law enforcement and becoming a police officer, most situations deal with hard situations. The documentary project was definitely something hard to work with, mentally and emotionally, but it definitely prepared us for what's to come.

Making a Murderer and The Interviews
Watching some episodes and having to pay attention to the rights and wrongs of the police officers and having to reflect on peoples gestures also helped me when it came down to writing. With this activity, it gave me the opportunity to not only reflect and give my opinion about the people involved in the case, but it also helped in having to pay attention to someones body movements, such as fidgeting and moving around in the chair. All these little things are things that criminal justice students don't take into consideration when interviewing someone, and I say this because I know I didn't. When interviewing someone, details like this can help you find more information about a crime.

Blogs
When writing, one needs to also have the opportunity to express ideas freely. In the class, we definitely had this opportunity with the blogs. Having us read or view videos and then reflect really helped me in having to express my ideas. It gave me the opportunity to practice summarizing and being able to explain many things.

Throughout the semester, I gained knowledge in how reports are done, and now I believe those who say that writing reports suck. This class thought me that what everything comes out in television is rubbish and that there's more to just writing out someone's name and writing little details of the situation. I truly enjoyed the time in class and everything that I learned.

FIRST DRAFT

Image Source

During the semester, everything we did in class helped us learn the necessities in how to write police reports. Of what I understood, it was more of being able to pick out the important things and being able to explain them in great detail. When writing reports, it also required us to be able to pay close attention to details and others. Something that I didn't like was having to take quizzes. The reason for it is because I felt like I was more worried about memorizing every detail of the chapter and not really grasping the importance of what it was explaining. I think it is more efficient when it came to discussing the chapter. because it cleared up any questions one might have and it brought different input from others. Something I enjoyed a lot doing was the blogs. It gave us the opportunity to be creative. As the same, I also enjoyed doing the documentaries. In a way, it prepared us of what a police report might need by picking out the important details and summarizing it.

Criminal Minds

Image Source

I've never really been a big fan of Criminal Minds. When telling people that I am a major in Criminal Justice and Psychology, I always get the comment of "You want to do that Criminal Minds profiling kind of stuff, right?". I always take offense to this because for one, Criminal Minds is not real life and that's not how things work. When watching the clip, it reminded me that convicting a criminal or getting evidence is more than just looking at a person and making a profile. One really needs to go through steps in order to get to the bottom of things. I have nothing against Criminal Minds or any shows like it, but I really hoped that they depicted more of how things truly are. I know in some episodes they actually show how they need to go through steps in order to maintain evidence and such, but it's not the same.