Research Paper

Forensic Science: The Importance of Writing

Forensic scientists have to communicate with many different kinds of people in many different kinds of situations.   This all requires different types of communication not all of which are written.   I will be going over some of the forms of communication with a focus on types that are utilized in court rooms.   Hopefully this will aid you in your decision on whether or not you want to pick forensic science as your major.

            The first form of communication a forensic scientist uses is photographs.   Photographs are used at crime scenes to document the location of evidence.   It also shows how the evidence was positioned.   Forensic scientists can use this information later when they are trying to piece together how the crime occurred and the possible timeline behind it.   Photographs can also help keep the integrity of the evidence and the case intact.   This way you can keep track of what evidence is at the scene and what evidence you have after all of it has been collected.   This way you know if you have all the evidence that you photographed and vice versa.   Also later when you are preparing for court you can make sure that extra evidence isn’t slipped in by an unscrupulous individual.   There is a specific way to take photographs, but it changes depending on what kind of evidence it is.

            Another form of communication is video recreation.   Video recreations are used by forensic scientists to run through scenarios and figure out how exactly a crime was committed.  There are two different types of videos.   One type involves actually people being used to demonstrate the events and the other type involves using computer animations.   Both types are used for different reasons.   Real people are only used when the scenario can actually occur without the “victim” ending up dead at the end.   Computer animations are in those cases.   This can occur in cases where the victim was killed due to fall from a high location or if they were hit by a car.  Video recreations are also good to use when cases are taken to trail. They are good way to show a jury how a crime was committed so they can get a true understanding of what happened and are better informed so they can make a good decision when they are attempting to come up with a verdict (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2HvKyx48Qw).

            There are also many different types of written communications.   The first type of written communication is forms that are filled out.   These are filled out when evidence is collected from individuals who might be of interest in a crime that has been committed.  This evidence can be anything from blood on their clothes from the victim or a cheek swab that will be compared against DNA that was found at the crime scene to find out if they were the perpetrator of the crime.  This is generally one of the easier forms of communication since it is mostly just filling out blanks on a paper. They are very important though because it is used to keep track of what investigator does what work.  This is key when a case is being taken to court because you need to know when information is collected and by whom so that you can make sure that there wasn’t any chance of it being contaminated.  It is also how you keep track of who has had the evidence so that again you can make sure that no one has had a chance to contaminate it or traded it out with evidence that will implicate someone else has done the crime or lend support that a certain individual has done it (“The Writer’s Forensics Blog”).

            Another type of written communication are reports.  This is the most important type of writing that can be done in the field of forensic science.  Reports are always written after experiments are done to explain findings.  This way every experiment can be kept track of by the people in charge.  These reports are also put in case files to be used now or later depending on the case.  They usually are what would be considered bland writing.  The reports are fact based and have no opinion in them.  They simply tell what was done to the evidence, what happened during the experiments or what was observed, and what the final result at the end of the experiment.  Another kind of report that is usually written after is what conclusion is made from the evidence.  This more likely what the lawyers will be reading and using in court.  This will be used to decide whether or not the evidence fits with a current suspect they have or if the evidence says they are in fact not guilty.  This is also generally the same sort of evidence you might be presenting to a jury in court if a lawyer decides you are going to testify. There could be multiple ways to explain evidence so there could also be multiple versions of the same report though usually it will support the lawyers’ theory on who committed the crime (“Becoming a Forensics Investigator”).  These are also sometimes read by the jury and are almost always read by the defendant’s lawyer.  So what goes into your report is very important.  You want every step you take to be clearly documented so that is easily understood for everyone.  You also need to be careful on how technical you get since the average everyday person will be reading it.  You want to make sure that they can figure what the point is before they get tired of reading it.  This can cause them to choose a verdict that doesn’t match up with the truth (“Report Writing and Testimony”).

            As you can see being a forensic scientist requires a lot of different types of communication.   Learning to master all the different types of communication in the field of forensic science is very important.   If the standards of communication deteriorate in this field, it can lead to people literally getting away with murder.   Hopefully you have not been scared off by this knowledge and are in fact even more excited to pursue a career as a forensic scientist.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Maher, Mark. “Becoming a Forensics Investigator.” 9 August 2004. 9 March 2014. <https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/forensics/forensic-investigator-1453>

Conroy, Mary Alice. “Report Writing and Testimony.” 2006. 9 March 2014. <http://dev.cjcenter.org/_files/apcj/2_3_Reports_Testimony.pdf>

Kelley, Melia. “Report Writing Guidelines” 30 May 2012. 9 March 2014. <http://www.dfinews.com/articles/2012/05/report-writing-guidelines#.Ux9CDqSYbIU>

Appelbaum, Kenneth L. “Commentary: The Art of Forensics Report Writing.” March 2010. 9 March 2014. <http://jaapl.org/content/38/1/43.full>

Lyle, D. P. “The Writer’s Forensics Blog.” 5 March 2014. 9 March 2014. <http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2HvKyx48Qw>

<http://www.afhub.com/images/hauls/evidence_2_big.jpg>

<http://store.sirchie.com/Assets/images/products/photo/ep3_large.jpg>

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Reflection Piece on Research Paper

            This paper is important to me because I can look at how writing works in a field that is very interesting to me.  I can better understand what I am looking at if say I ended up on a jury or when I am watching the news and see something about forensic scientists in court rooms.  This can also help other people understand what type of writing they will do in the field of forensics science.  This will not only help undergraduate students, but it also can help normal people who are just interested in what they are seeing and why it is being presented that way.

            I am having a hard time wading through all the information I have.  Twelve source is a lot and many of mine are between 70 and 90 pages of small print.  Sometimes it also gets really specific and goes into things that I don’t understand.  I also am struggling with a few of the sources that are for a specific state and are referencing legal codes that I don’t know and am really confused about.  I also want to use a youtube video in my paper, but I am not sure how to cite it.  I don’t know how to cite pictures either so I am trying to work on that and figure it out.  Otherwise my paper isn’t going too badly.  I just really need to have some free time to finish it up and go over it to make sure I don’t repeat myself and confuse anybody who reads my paper.  I also need to work on my thesis statement because I am really bad at those and they never seem to come out how I want them to.

Research Proposal

I am writing my research paper on what type of writing a forensics scientists does specifically what type of writing they use in court.  I am planning on looking into how forensics scientists choose how they are going to phrase what they are writing so as to effect a jury in positive way.  I am also going to look at other types of communication they use as well.  Such as when they are in court and need to demonstrate how a crime occurred.  They use videos with either actors or they use computer recreations.  I am specifically going to look at recreations though since they are used more often now.  I am also going to look at the different ways evidence is photographed.  I am also going to look at the difference between how different kinds of evidence are documented.  I am going to look at not only what types of papers they write, but also forms they fill out.  I am going to investigate not only the writing, but also a variety of other conclusions that can be drawn from what they are writing and how they are writing.

Annotated Bibliography

Maher, Mark. “Becoming a Forensics Investigator.” 9 August 2004. 9 March 2014. <https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/forensics/forensic-investigator-1453> The article explains how to write a forensics report and what you should do before you get to that part. It talks about gathering evidence and collecting data to make it easier when you get to writing and organizing your report.

This article is going to help me write my paper because it shows other types of communication other than the obvious ones. It also does a good job of explaining the actual writing process behind a forensic report.

“Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Forensic Services.” 18 September 2008. 9 March 2014. <http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dmh/forensic-report-writing-guidelines.html> This document explains what requirements are needed in a report that is being written for a court of law in Massachusetts. The author wrote this article for forensic investigators in the state of Massachusetts. The article breaks it down in sections by topic of what information should be included and how that information should be worded.

This article is useful for my paper because it shows one set of expectations of what information should be in a forensics report. I can also use it to compare and contrast with other types of reports and reports from different areas.

Hart, Sarah V. “Forensic Examination of Digital Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement.” April 2004. 9 March 2014. <http://www.forensicfocus.com/computer-forensics-reports> This article looks at how to write a forensic report specifically for investigators who work with computers and other information similar to them. It also takes about the steps before writing your report and gives examples.

I am going to use this article for comparing and contrasting different types of writing and looking specifically at how one type investigator writes. I can also use the examples to show what I mean when I am talking about it.

Conroy, Mary Alice. “Report Writing and Testimony.” 2006. 9 March 2014. <http://dev.cjcenter.org/_files/apcj/2_3_Reports_Testimony.pdf> This article goes in depth on what you shouldn’t put into your report. It focuses mostly on rules for writing reports in Texas, but the recommendations do help you even if you weren’t writing a report in Texas.

This article is useful mostly because it goes so in depth over what shouldn’t be in a forensic report which isn’t something the other articles really do. This information is useful because you want to not only know what to put in your report but also what should not be in it.

Lyle, D. P. “The Writer’s Forensics Blog.” 5 March 2014. 9 March 2014. <http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/> This article is written by a doctor who knows what she is talking about. She covers many different topics all pertaining to forensics. It is probably written for people who are involved in forensics and she assumes that some of what she is writing is common knowledge.

This blog is useful because it is actual writing on the topic. I can draw conclusions from how she writes information and how she words it. This is really useful because it is more of the kind of writing you would find if you were in the field.

Kelley, Melia. “Report Writing Guidelines” 30 May 2012. 9 March 2014. <http://www.dfinews.com/articles/2012/05/report-writing-guidelines#.Ux9CDqSYbIU> This article gives rough guidelines on what should go into a forensic report without going in depth about differences between different areas. It also mentions thoughts forensic scientists have about writing reports. It also gives other advice about writing reports.

The article is useful in writing my report because it is general and I could use the other new information to add some more depth to what I already have. It also adds new information about writing reports.

Appelbaum, Kenneth L. “Commentary: The Art of Forensics Report Writing.” March 2010. 9 March 2014. <http://jaapl.org/content/38/1/43.full> This article goes in depth into the style behind forensic report writing. It explains the things that need to be considered when writing the report more specifically things like who is reading it and what the words are using are saying.

This article is useful because it looks past the surface and goes more in depth. It looks what the information is and into what the words are telling us. It helps by showing why things are phrased the way they are and why it is important that these things are considered.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hcpI9ehDNhY92MIZJpcskEf43AK7youDoVzCi9ZoXKnRVQkWUJ8f92s9oql3Z-37MTNB8dZDlFXMppvvEV7mBmWXlC7tkxGKpwwxohQi0V40syzWn7HhdTo4XC6XEy5H277hNcNTXEoN/s1600/WWFS+2099_OPINION+SCALE.jpg>

<http://store.sirchie.com/Assets/images/products/photo/ep3_large.jpg>

<http://www.afhub.com/images/hauls/evidence_2_big.jpg>

<http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/800*533/DAVIS-PLASTIC-EXHIBIT.jpg>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2HvKyx48Qw>

Research Question

I am really not sure how to phrase this into a question, but I know that I want to look at how a jury's verdict is affected by how evidence is presented to them. I think this will work since it does have to do with communication, but I don't know how to make my idea into a good research question.

What kind of writing do forensics scientists do when they are preparing to go to trial.

Textual Rhetorical Analysis

            I am going to be textually analyzing the article, Helping Severely Injured Children Make a Recovery. I will be looking at what the context tells us about the writer, how the organization of the text helps the writer get their point across, and how the delivery of the information aids in helping the reader understand.

            The context of this article helps us learn a lot about this author which helps us to understand the article. Going by the article as a whole you can tell that the doctor probably has a lot of experience in her field. This could also lead to the possibility that the woman is older and has a different view of things then a younger doctor might which could affect how she plans things and ideas that she might come up with. She might be more likely to stick with a method that is known to work than to try a new method that she was not taught in medical school. The writer is also clearly writing for others in the medical field which is fairly obvious since she uses words that the average person might not understand. For example when she is talking about procedures she uses works like hypotensive, oximeter, and Glasgow coma scale which are all words that are only used in a medical field. The author assumes that the people who will most likely be reading this article will have a basic medical knowledge and will understand these words and know what they mean. The words also help the writer get their point across without having to add in long descriptions about what each medical term was which would have complicated and detracted from the point of the article.

            The organization of the article helped a lot in the understanding of the article. The title article tells you right away what you will be reading about. The article is further separated into three parts which allow the information to be organized chronologically and by importance. The order of the paper makes it easy to understand the order in which things should be done when a child comes into a hospital who has experience trauma. A checklist could probably be made from this article for other doctors to use when treating a child due to the neatness of the organization within the article. The separate subheadings also help you to understand when exactly the author is changing the topic. The first subheading “Oxygen, Airway, Fluids”, tells you exactly what you will be reading about in the next couple of paragraphs and the second subheading, “Outcomes”, tells you that the final paragraph is about what happens to children after they have been successfully treated for these symptoms. Putting all these things together leads to a much better understanding of the topic that the author is writing on.

            The delivery of the article was helpful in understanding it. The use of subtitles aided greatly in understanding the topic the author was writing about. The spacing also helped as it allowed you time to switch to a different topic without confusing the information you just read and the information you are about to read. The lack of pictures or diagrams did detract some from the article. A diagram or picture would have been useful to help with understanding how to accomplish the procedures mentioned such as the intraosseous needle insertion and it could have helped give direction to a doctor who was reading the article and needed assistance in how to complete a needle insertion. The pictures or diagrams would need to be picked carefully though or though could lead to distracting people from the point of the article.

            Overall the organization, delivery, and context of the paper assists in helping the author make their point. Without these things the reader could be confused and end up not understanding the point of the article.

Textual Rhetorical Analysis Article

Helping severely injured children make a full recovery

Shock is the most reversible cause of death in children, but recognizing and treating it in the early stages can be uniquely challenging. Presenting symptoms differ from those in adults, and a child's anatomy and physiology make management more difficult, according to Brenda M. Schiltz, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. And, she points out, children pose investigational challenges, too.
"The hardest thing with children and shock is that they can't always tell you what's wrong. An infant or young child brought in from a trauma scene is probably crying, but whether from fear or because they're hurt often isn't clear. They may be seriously injured, so you have to quickly differentiate between pain, anxiety and serious injury," she says.
For instance, although tachycardia is the first sign of shock in children and infants, it can result from other causes, including emotional upset. Dr. Schiltz explains, "Is there tachycardia because the child is struggling to breathe or because circulation is compromised, or is it simply stranger anxiety? It's certainly possible for a child to have tachycardia not caused by shock, but if tachycardia is there, you have to find to find out why."
First, address the ABCs — airway, breathing, circulation — she advises. "In children, you can rely on capillary refill to tell if perfusion is impaired. Are the legs mottled and skin cool to the touch? These are all abnormal signs in children, who have really healthy cardiovascular systems."
But a strong cardiovascular system can also mask serious problems, keeping blood pressure normal until shock is nearly irreversible. Even profoundly hypotensive children can be resuscitated and make a full recovery, Dr. Schiltz says, "but you absolutely want to recognize and treat shock long before they get to that point."

Oxygen, airway, fluids

For children in shock, Dr. Schiltz recommends starting oxygen immediately, even if oximeter readings are normal. In addition, the airway needs to be secured if a child is unable to maintain patency or is very hypoxic, has compromised perfusion or the Glasgow Coma Scale is less than 8.
Intubation in children presents special difficulties, though. A child's airway is anatomically different from an adult's, and children have small mouths, so there is less space for equipment. Infants, especially, may become profoundly bradycardic during intubation.
Dr. Schiltz says alternatives exist for providers who aren't comfortable with pediatric intubation. "They can hand ventilate the patient until a pediatric specialist is available," she suggests. "Or they can put in an artificial airway such as an LMA or call an anesthesiologist for help."
Rapid restoration of blood volume is also essential, but children's subcutaneous fat and small veins make obtaining intravenous (IV) access challenging. Dr. Schiltz says options exist there, too, particularly intraosseous infusion, a temporary measure that can be used when intravenous access fails.
"You should try to get IV access right away, but if you're struggling, insert an intraosseous needle into a long bone, such as the tibia or femur," she says. "It's more important to get vascular access early than spend a lot of time struggling to put in an IV."
Intraosseous infusion, first described in the 1930s, has experienced something of a resurgence, especially in pediatric resuscitation. The venous circulation around and within the marrow makes bone an effective site for the rapid infusion of fluids and drugs. In experienced hands, intraosseous access can be established in about one minute or less.
What's really important, Dr. Schiltz stresses, is constant reassessment. "The hemodynamics will tell you quickly what's happening. In the majority of pediatric trauma patients who are tachycardic, the heart rate will come down quickly with good fluid resuscitation. If it doesn't, you have to think about ongoing blood loss," she says.

Outcomes

Dr. Schiltz says that despite the challenges for providers, children usually recover quickly when traumatic shock is well managed. "When bleeding is controlled and blood volume restored, tachycardia will normalize, perfusion will get better, skin color will improve and capillary refill will be brisk. We can reverse everything that's going on assuming we have control of the injuries, and we often can restore children to their previous state of health."

http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/trauma/helping-severely-injured-children-make-full-recovery