Reading Comprehension and Written Communication
Reading Comprehension and Written Communication on the Police Communications Technician exam checks whether you can identify the controlling fact in a passage and express it in clear, grammatically correct English. Expect short incident narratives, policy excerpts, and sentence-correction items covering main idea, detail, inference, and report-ready wording.
Core rules
- Answer the question asked: establish the main idea before judging details.
- Track pronoun reference; an ambiguous 'he' or 'they' is a defect in a report.
- Prefer active voice and plain wording: 'The caller saw a man run west,' not 'A man was seen running west by the caller.'
- Keep tense consistent; avoid comma splices and run-ons.
- Distinguish stated fact from inference: a passage can support a conclusion without saying it.
- In written communication, include who, what, when, where, and how without speculation.
Worked example
Item: 'The dispatcher told the officer that he had missed the call.' The pronoun 'he' could refer to the dispatcher or the officer. A clear rewrite is: 'The dispatcher told the officer, You missed the call.' If the dispatcher missed it, write: 'The dispatcher said that she had missed the call.' The reasoning is practical: ambiguity in a dispatch record can misassign responsibility.
Traps
- Choosing a true statement that does not answer the question.
- Treating an inference as a stated fact.
- Confusing affect/effect, ensure/insure, and their/there.
- Adding detail the passage never supplied.
- Using casual or vague phrasing in a report line.