Generic Conditionals

In my retirement from police service, I'm busier than ever. One of the projects that I'm involved with is the creation of an instructional program in report writing for a national police service. In defining the instructional problem, I've found that the learner population has a problem with "factual conditionals." I've also noted this problem in the report writing samples of their forensic science practitioners.

Because people have problems with the relationship between the dependent and independent clauses, their reports are hard to read and interpret. What should be a clear statement - (dependent variable / action) resulted in (independent variable / result) - is often a confusion of meanings.

Often, what should be written as a conditional is written as a declarative statement. This problem hides potential meanings, and obscures avenues for inquiry.

For example, one of the sample videos that I use in my Content Analysis class (link) examines a traffic collision scene. A collision occurs as V1 attempts to turn left whilst exiting a parking garage. In the declarative statement, fault is obvious - turning left eludes to issues of right of way. What is missing is the conditional. If V1's progress is purposefully impeded, then the inquiry turns from a simple traffic collision to a "staged collision," - an entirely different line of inquiry.

When the responding officer records the statements of those involved, as well as witnesses, it becomes important to consider the statements in a "conditional sense." If Person 1's statement is true, then the scene would be arrayed thus." or "If Person 2's statement is true, then Person 1's statement is untrue." The conditional statements help frame the analysis of the statements and the evidence.

Using an example from the weekend's posts, "If headlight spread pattern analysis is a subset of digital / multimedia forensic science (comparisons), then the analysis must examine the recording of the pattern and not the pattern itself."

Just something to ponder on this beautiful Tuesday morning. Have a great day, my friends.