THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE AND MECHANICS
CONVENTIONS OF LANGUAGE
● PUNCTUATIONS
● CAPITALIZATIONS
● ABBREVIATIONS
● NUMBERS
● SPELLINGS
CAPITALIZATION
1. The first word of sentences are capitalized.
2. Abbreviated forms of proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized.
Ex. Gen. (General), NBI, SOCO, PDEA, PNP
3. Names of academic degrees are capitalized when they follow a
person’s name.
Ex. Lloyd B. Indoc, RCrim
Cherry-Ann Pracquilez, Ph.D, JD
4. Full names of legislative, deliberative, executive, and administrative
bodies are capitalized.
Ex. House of Representatives, Philippine Congress, Philippine National
Police
5. The names of some historical and cultural periods and movements
are capitalized.
Ex. Fifth Republic, The Renaissance
6. Capitalize months, holidays, and days of the week.
Ex. The bombing happened during the Independence Day.
7. All major word of titles and subtitles of books and articles should
be capitalized.
Ex. Copies of The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology are now
available in the library.
ABBREVIATION
Is a shortened form of a word or phrase; the abbreviated word is
pronounced exactly the same as the full word.
1. Use abbreviations for titles like Mister, Doctor.
Ex. Mr. and Mrs. Macapobre will testify in court.
2. Abbreviate academic degrees after names and separate it with a
comma.
Ex. Princess Angel Chiong, RCrim, MSCJ
3. Do not abbreviate titles if it is not used with a proper name.
Ex. My friend Dan, who is a police inspector, specializes in ballistics.
GRAMMAR STRUCTURE
NOUNS
Are naming words, and could be used to identify people, places or things.
Ex. books, paper, etc.
1. Common Nouns – the generic name of a person, place or thing in a
class or group. (unlike proper nouns, common nouns are not
capitalized.)
Ex. Books, Cellphones, etc.
2. Proper Nouns – refer to specific places, persons, or things and would
always begin with a capital letter. When referring to a specific person within
a report, officers should use proper nouns.
Ex. Encyclopedia,Vivo, etc.
3. Count Nouns – can be counted as one or more.
Ex. pen, computer, bottle, etc.
• Take an “s” to form a plural = Pens
• Work with expressions such as = A few pens
• Work with articles = The pen/A pen
4. Non-Count Nouns – cannot be counted. They usually express a
group.(Generally cannot be pluralized)
Ex. Water, wood, etc.
• Work with/without an articles = I drink water.
• Work with expressions such as = We ate some rice.
PRONOUNS
Are words that are substitute for nouns or proper nouns. There are two
types of pronouns primarily used in report writing.
1. The first person – used when referring to the officer writing the
report.
Ex. I/Me/Mine/My
It can also be used within quotes to refer to the person speaking. Ex.
Wilson told me “I ran fast.”
2. The third person – refers to the person, place or thing being written
about.
Ex. he/his/him
• The PNP caters the third person personality in reporting.
• This perspective promotes objectivity as the report writer attempts to
detach himself from the “action.” oftentimes, to avoid emphasizing
who did what.
Ex.
• A five member response team was dispatched to conduct
surveillance operations.
• PSUPT Sayles, our Chief of Police, dispatched a five-member
response team to conduct surveillance operations.
VERB
Can be defined as word that expresses action.
• Action Verbs – Ex. He eats bread.
• Transitive Verbs – an action word that is followed by a direct object
which is someone or something that’s receiving the action. Ex. She is
walking the dog.
• Intransitive Verb – they are the ones that are not being followed by a
direct object, nothing is receiving the action.
Ex. I arrived at the coffee shop.
• Linking Verbs – do not express action. Rather they connect the
subject to the additional information.
Ex. We were exhausted after the trip.
• Helping Verb – do exactly what is seems like they should do.
Ex. I have been there before.
• Stative Verbs – they describe a position or state of being.
Ex. She hates eating desserts.
ADJECTIVES
Describe or modify nouns. They appear immediately before the noun.
EX. Pretty girl, Red flowers, etc.
• COMPARATIVE – compare two things. Ex. I am older than you.
• SUPERLATIVE – typically accompanied by the word “the.”
Ex. Tom is the oldest man in town.
ADVERBS
Modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It tells more about a verb in
a sentence.
Ex. The fire engine runsfast.
PREPOSITION
Tells you the relationship between the other words in a sentence.
EX.
She puts pizza in the oven. (without “in” we wont know where the pizza
is.)
CONJUCTIONS
Makes it possible to build a complex sentence.
EX.
I like marianara sauce andalfredo sauce, but I don’t like puttanesca
sauce.
(“and” and “but” link your ideas together.)
ARTICLES
EX.
The, an, this, etc.
TENSES
Since most investigative reports are written about things that have already
happened, the words that are used should clearly indicate the events that
occurred in the past.
• Present Tense– express an action currently taking place.
Ex. I am reading this manual.
• Past Tense– express actions completed in the past.
Ex. I red this manual last week.
• Future Tense– express actions that are still going to happen.
Ex. I am going to read this manual tomorrow.