The Blue Guide: Written Communication for Leaders in Law Enforcement

The Blue Guide helps to develop written communication skills and to demonstrate how effective writing is linked to leadership. These are valuable skills for veteran officers, future law enforcement practitioners and students who will ultimately pursue careers in other fields. The text uses authentic writing samples—dozens of sentences, paragraphs, and full documents submitted by current police officers— to promote student motivation and learning.

The book is based upon a long-standing and highly successful workshop designed for current police officers. These officers have granted permission to use their actual police documents as writing samples, and so the Blue Guide is filled with dozens of sentences, paragraphs, and whole documents of actual police writing.

Elizabeth Brockman is an English professor at Central Michigan University. In addition, she is a consultant for the Police Executive Leadership College, where she has worked with literally hundreds of police officers in workshops on effective written communication. Dr. Brockman is an assistant editor for Pedagogy, and she has published articles about teaching writing and professional communication in regional, national, and international journals.