Sally Jones - The Accident Report. Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

Title Page

Creative Writing Tutor

THE ACCIDENT REPORT

by

Sally Jones and Amanda Jones

Publisher Information

Published by GUINEA PIG EDUCATION

2 Cobs Way

New Haw, Addlestone

Surrey, KT15 3AF

www.guineapigeducation.co.uk

Digital edition converted and dstributed in 2012 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2011 Sally A Jones and Amanda C Jones

This pack may not under any circumstances be photocopied, without the prior consent of the publisher.

Choose a topic and start to practise writing. Each booklet has a theme to help you start to write...stories, reports, articles, letters and many more. Start collecting them now.

Guinea Pig Creative Writing booklets also provide extra practice for children who have completed:

- Creative Story Writing

- Persuasive Writing & Argument

- Information Writing

They are for children who are working at Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum, levels 3-5 (in Years 5 and 6 of primary school), children who are working at Key Stage 3, levels 3-5 (Years 7 and 8 of Secondary School). They provide practice for all 9-13 year olds, especially children taking 11+ examinations.

First things first...

Lets learn to write non-fiction.

When you write non-fiction, you may write:

• a police report
• an accident leaflet
• a newspaper report
• an information leaflet
• instructions
• a diary entry

You must decide:

• Who will be my target audience?
• Who will read this writing?
• What is the purpose of my writing?

Use imagery or figurative language:

• Metaphors - princely paper.
• Similes - feeling like a princess.
• Personification - the rustling paper whispers softly.
• Admirable adjectives and nouns - mysterious parcel.
• Powerful verbs and adverbs - rummage eagerly.

If you are writing a police statement, your writing will be formal, or impersonal. It will be the language of a newsreader.

Remember, informal or personal language is chatty and friendly and may include slang words.

Plan your non-fiction writing:

PARAGRAPH 1

• Write an introduction to set the scene.
  • Who are the people involved?
  • When did it happen?
  • Where did it happen?
  • Why did it happen?
  • What time did the event take place?

PARAGRAPH 2, 3, 4...

• To INFORM: Tell the main events in the order they happened in several paragraphs. Pick out the most important details, so the events unfold for the reader.
• To EXPLAIN: Say how and why you think something happened and how it affected other people. What caused the accident and the effects it had on others.
• Use new paragraphs for change of place, time and subject.
• Use connectives or conjunctions:
  • and or but (to join compound sentences)
  • or, so, if, when, while, after, before, because, unless, until, whereas, although (to join complex sentences)
  • use pronouns - who, which, whose, what, that
  • to link ideas use - firstly, later, therefore, on the other hand, at that moment, by this time, next, soon...
• Use a range of sentences - simple, compound and complex sentences

Conclusion

• In conclusion, the writer makes a comment - In my opinion...
• Draw the facts to a conclusion with a comment.

Police Statements

Imagine...

You were driving to your karate class. You saw the horses running down the road. A white van swerved to avoid the animals, but it crashed into a tree. Fortunately, the driver was not badly hurt and neither were the horses. You were the first person to see the accident, so you have been asked to write a detailed account of what you saw. Write a report for the police.

Rushford Police Department

POLICE REPORT

Case No: 3365548

Date: 2nd April 2015

Reporting Officer: John Smith

Witness: Catrina Colins

Incident: Car accident

Time of Accident: 6pm

My mum was driving me to my karate lesson, taking the normal route. As we went round a bend in the road, we saw two horses galloping towards us. The red car, in front of us, was going quite fast. He swerved violently to avoid hitting the horses, but lost control of the car and hit a tree.

We stopped our car immediately by the side of the road and went over to the elderly driver, who had short grey hair. The front of the car was badly dented, the headlamps were smashed and the windscreen was shattered. There were fragments of glass everywhere. I thought the driver was badly injured, but he said that he was fine. Then, he struggled to get out of the vehicle, which was crushed like a tin can and stood shaking his head by the side of the road. His grey suit was also covered in glass. Mum rang 999 to call the police.

By this time, the horses, terrified by the experience, had galloped further down the road at a fast pace. The traffic had come to a halt and there was a long queue. A lady, who was used to horses, attempted to catch them and she managed to get them on to the side of the road. At that moment, there was the sound of emergency vehicles approaching. After this, a police car, an ambulance and a local farmer with a horse box arrived one after the other. A policeman directed the traffic and waved us on, but I was quite late for my karate class.

A deer runs across the road and causes an accident. Write a police report.

Use these sentences to help you write some more accident reports:

Imagine you see an incident.

• Where were you going?
• Why?
• Who were you with?
• When was it? What time of the day was it?
• What did you see?
• What happened next?
• and what were the consequences?
• Was there anyone else involved?
• What was the driver like? (age and appearance)
• How damaged was the car?
• Was there: glass on the road?
  • dents in the door?
  • serious damage (smashed up like a tin can)?
• Give details.
• What did you do next?
• Was the driver unhurt and able to get out?
• Was he injured?
• Did you call an ambulance?
• What did the other witnesses do?
• Which other emergency services attended?
• What happened in the end?
• What was the outcome?
• What in your opinion caused the accident?

Have you witnessed or been involved in an accident? Write an accident report.

TIPS:

1) Write the introduction.

2) Structure and organise your work into paragraphs.

• Explain the details of the accident in the order it happened (point 1, 2, 3...).
• Use connectives.
• Use detailed description to help readers visualise what happened.

3) Write a conclusion. Make some comments.

Write police statements for some more incidents you have seen.

Here are some topic sentences of some crime reports. Complete them. A topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph and tells you what it will be about.

I saw a boy snatch a ladies hand bag. He grabbed...

On my way back from school, I observed a rough looking man putting a ladder up to my neighbours window. I thought it was odd because my neighbours were at work.

I observed some youths smash the back window of a car and snatch a computer from the back seat.

More Police Reports

DIAL THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY...

Read these crime scenarios:

You awake in the middle of the night. It is 3 am. There are some youths on the garage roof next door. They are signalling to a boy on the ground. Why are they there at this time? You ring... The police arrive in a few minutes - their sirens are silent, but their lights are flashing. Is there a chase? They apprehend some suspicious characters and ask them questions. What is the outcome? Have they stolen something? Are they told to go home or hand cuffed and put into the police car?