POST - Peace Officer Standards and Training Written Communication and Grammar Questions and Answers

Question 1

Read the following sentence and choose the option that correctly completes it: "The team of officers, along with their sergeant, __________ responsible for securing the perimeter."

Accepted Answer

is

Answer

The subject of the sentence is 'team,' which is a singular collective noun. The phrase 'along with their sergeant' is a prepositional phrase that does not change the subject. Therefore, the singular verb 'is' is required to agree with the singular subject 'team'.

Question 2

An officer is writing a report about an arrest. Which of the following sentences is written in the active voice, which is the preferred style for clear and direct incident reports?

Accepted Answer

I advised the suspect of his Miranda rights before questioning.

Answer

The active voice clearly identifies who performed the action (Subject-Verb-Object). In the correct option, 'I' (the officer) is the subject who performed the action 'advised'. The other options are in the passive voice, where the subject is being acted upon, which can be less clear and direct for report writing.

Question 3

Which of the following sentences from an incident report contains a comma splice, which is a common grammatical error?

Accepted Answer

The suspect was uncooperative, he refused to provide his name.

Answer

A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses (sentences that can stand on their own) are joined together with only a comma. 'The suspect was uncooperative' is a complete sentence, and 'he refused to provide his name' is also a complete sentence. They should be joined by a period, a semicolon, or a comma followed by a conjunction (like 'and' or 'but').

Question 4

An officer is documenting evidence collected at a scene. Which sentence uses commas correctly to list the items recovered?

Accepted Answer

I recovered a wallet, a set of keys, and a spent shell casing from the floor.

Answer

When listing three or more items in a series, commas should be used to separate each item. The final comma before the conjunction 'and' (known as the Oxford or serial comma) is standard in police reports and other forms of technical writing to prevent ambiguity and ensure clarity.

Question 5

Which sentence correctly uses the often-confused words 'its' and 'it's'?

Accepted Answer

The K-9 unit was tracking the suspect by its scent.

Answer

'Its' is a possessive pronoun indicating ownership (like his or her). 'It's' is a contraction of 'it is' or 'it has'. In the correct sentence, 'its scent' properly shows that the scent belongs to the suspect. The other options incorrectly use the contraction 'it's' for possession or vice-versa.

POST - Peace Officer Standards and Training Practice Test

POST - Peace Officer Standards and Training Practice Test

POST - Peace Officer Standards and Training Written Communication and Grammar Questions and Answers