POST Writing Ability 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?
- The officer, exhausted from the long shift, filed the report.
- I only saw the suspect leave through the front door. (Correct answer)
- Running down the alley, the officer lost sight of the suspect.
- The detective reviewed the evidence carefully.
Correct answer: I only saw the suspect leave through the front door.
'Only' should be placed immediately before the word it modifies; 'I saw only the suspect leave' is clearer.
Question 2: An officer must choose between 'ensure,' 'insure,' and 'assure.' Which sentence uses the correct word?
- Please insure that the report is submitted by 0800.
- I assured the officer of a timely response.
- The sergeant assured the victim that help was coming. (Correct answer)
- The department insured compliance with the policy.
Correct answer: The sergeant assured the victim that help was coming.
'Assure' means to give confidence to a person; 'ensure' means to make certain; 'insure' relates to financial coverage.
Question 3: Which of the following sentences uses correct capitalization?
- Officer smith responded to the call on tuesday.
- Officer Smith responded to the call on Tuesday. (Correct answer)
- officer Smith responded to the Call on Tuesday.
- Officer Smith responded to the call on tuesday.
Correct answer: Officer Smith responded to the call on Tuesday.
Proper nouns (names, specific days) must be capitalized; common nouns and lowercase words must not be.
Question 4: A report states: 'The witness said the suspect was tall, had dark hair and, wore a blue hoodie.' What is the punctuation error?
- Missing comma after 'tall'
- Extra comma before 'wore' (Correct answer)
- Missing comma after 'dark hair'
- Comma after 'said' is missing
Correct answer: Extra comma before 'wore'
There should be no comma between 'and' and 'wore' when listing items in a simple series.
Question 5: Which sentence is written in the most appropriate tone for an official police report?
- The dude totally ran when he spotted me.
- Subject fled on foot upon observing this officer. (Correct answer)
- He saw me and then he took off running real fast.
- The guy freaked out and booked it when I showed up.
Correct answer: Subject fled on foot upon observing this officer.
Reports require formal, third-person or professional first-person language free of slang.
Question 6: Which sentence correctly uses a colon?
- The officer collected: a wallet, a knife, and a cell phone.
- The evidence included three items: a wallet, a knife, and a cell phone. (Correct answer)
- He had: run, hidden, and surrendered before backup arrived.
- She reported: that the window was broken.
Correct answer: The evidence included three items: a wallet, a knife, and a cell phone.
A colon is correctly used after a complete independent clause to introduce a list.
Question 7: Which revision improves the clarity of: 'The reason why the report was late is because the officer was at the hospital'?
- The report was late because the officer was at the hospital. (Correct answer)
- Due to the fact that the officer was at the hospital, which is why the report was delayed.
- The report's lateness is on account of the officer's hospital visit situation.
- The reason is because of the officer being at the hospital caused lateness.
Correct answer: The report was late because the officer was at the hospital.
'The reason is because' is redundant — replacing the full phrase with 'because' alone is cleaner and correct.
POST Writing Ability 5
Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?