Reading Comprehension and Written Communication
Reading Comprehension and Written Communication asks you to extract meaning from policy excerpts, statutes, incident narratives, and correspondence, then express findings in clear standard English. The exam rewards precision: answers must be supported by the passage, not by assumptions about police work.
Core reading rules
- Identify the question's task word: main idea, detail, inference, sequence, tone, or author's purpose.
- Match the scope: words such as primarily, best, EXCEPT, and NOT change which option is correct.
- Treat a direct quotation as evidence; an inference must follow necessarily from stated facts, not merely be plausible.
- Separate fact from opinion and observation from conclusion. In a narrative, note who saw, heard, or did what.
- For written communication, use complete sentences, concrete nouns, active verbs, and one idea per sentence.
Worked example
Passage: 'The driver said she had one beer at 7 p.m. She then drove east on Highway 22. A witness reported a vehicle matching her description straddling the center line near milepost 14.' Question: Which conclusion is best supported? A correct inference is that the witness saw a vehicle matching the description, not that the driver was impaired. The passage does not supply a BAC or field sobriety result, so impairment would be an unsupported leap. The supported answer stays inside the stated facts.
Traps that cost marks
Extreme wording such as always or never; options that are true in general but not tied to the passage; choosing a conclusion because it sounds like police procedure; and ignoring the difference between what a witness reported and what was independently verified. In writing, comma splices and vague pronouns lose points.