I blogged for different reasons the past five years (see Ref. 1 for a good read) including simply liking to write, expressing myself that way. I also belong to a group that could be characterized as a story-writing and -telling group. Chronicling a forensic investigation is telling the story of the investigation – a good and simple way of explaining it to the judicial system.
But I’ve realized even more lately that striving to blog well, write well, partly out of respect for my readers, trains me in another way: To think and analyse on paper, formulate an opinion then present it in a well-written expert’s report. And it’s so effective when you get to the word processor stage after the cursive writing stage.
I’m in the middle of analysing data now on two cases and formulating opinions. It will go on for a good few days yet as I turn the data over in my head and squeeze the truth of each matter out on paper – also as more data comes in from follow-up investigations.
There’s a lot implied in the words forensic engineering and a lot of writing is involved at some stages:
- Investigate the cause of a failure or accident
- Examine and observe
- Measure and test
- Analyse and assess
- Draw conclusions
- Formulate opinions
- Present reliable evidence to counsel and the court or tribunal in simple, non-technical English in well-written, experts’ reports
Reaping the benefits of writing/blogging is not unique to me nor is it new. Journalizing in some form as a means of working things out – e.g., your thoughts – drafting a talk or preliminary report, noting an item to remember – has been around a long time. I carry a journal with me most times to capture a thought along the way (I don’t like to dictate to my cell phone because of security issues)
It’s just that it’s not so very technical-sounding – thinking on paper – even though it has an important role in the different stages of forensic investigation. I like to think, “I knew that!”, the benefits, but the penny did drop and make a louder noise recently. I thought I must tell you this.
References:
- Why do I blog on forensic engineering investigation? Posted July 22, 2016.