ABSTRACT
The report of investigation Earlier in this text we identified three very broad duties or aspects of the job of an investigator. They talk to people, listen to people, and write about it. This chapter will focus on the writing aspect, the report of investigation (ROI). When teaching my course on criminal investigation at Georgia State University, I would assign a writing exercise. When examining the course syllabus, the majority of the students would moan and groan when the writing assignment came up for discussion. I asked why writing was so disliked and many students expressed timidity toward it, while others said that it was too much work. I asked “what do you mean it’s too much work?” The responses I often got included “you have to think,” “you have to organize your thoughts,” “you have to think of what words to use,” “writing is not fun,” and to name a few.
