Training

Report Writing
and
INVESTIGATIVE
Training
Contact us today to improve the professionalism of your department’s reports
or to provide critical training on the detection and investigation
of fraud against your organization

Why Take a Writing Class?

After 20 years of reading reports written by educated professionals in various career fields, we have learned that many people are experts in most facets of their jobs, but they often struggle to convey their work in a well-written report. Our program seeks to teach your employees how to apply advanced writing principles to the specific reports they produce for your department.

What Do We Teach?

We focus on how to improve the readability, accuracy, and conciseness of the students’ reports. We also address how to write for a specific audience, how to correct common grammar errors, and how to integrate useful visual tools into reports. And we pay particular attention to teaching proper editing techniques that will dramatically improve writing performance.

How Do We Train?

The training atmosphere is enjoyable and relaxing, ensuring everyone is actively engaged in the class. We integrate practical exercises to offer students an opportunity to practice what they learn, and to allow us to provide critical individual feedback to improve everyone’s writing. And we tailor the training to the specific needs of your department or office.

Investigative Skills

Whether your staff or department needs refresher training, or you have new employees who need to learn fundamental skills, we can provide critical training to improve your organization’s investigations.  Specializing in interview techniques, identifying important information in documentary evidence, determining appropriate investigative techniques for unique cases, and effectively presenting the results of an investigation to the decision makers, our engaging classes will enhance the investigative results of your staff.  Contact us to schedule a training class for your investigators.

Conferences

We have provided presentations to local, state, and federal government conferences, as well as corporate, non-profit, and member organization conferences.  As you can see from the testimonials below, our presentations are engaging, informative, and well-received by conference attendees.  We can adapt our presentation to the needs of your audience, but common topics include case studies of captivating major corruption investigations, contract and fraud investigative techniques, and report writing refresher training.  Contact us to discuss the needs for your next conference.

Details

Report Writing Benefits

  • Improve the overall professionalism of your reports
  • Overcome readability, clarity, and accuracy issues
  • Improve editing techniques
  • Provide tailored feedback to improve writing skills

Investigation Benefits

  • Learn how to develop an effective investigative plan
  • Improve interview skills to obtain critical evidence
  • Learn to identify crucial information in documents
  • Use practical exercises to reinforce the training

Audience

  • Investigators, Detectives, Probation Officers, LEOs
  • Auditors
  • Attorneys
  • Internal investigators
  • Anyone who can benefit from new or refresher training

Duration

  • The standard class is two days
  • A three day class is also available with more personalized feedback
  • Shorter classes can be customized for conferences or continuing professional education requirements

Location

  • Training can be conducted in your office, at an off-site location, or virtually
  • Virtual classes are useful for remote employees
  • Training at your location saves in travel costs

Biography

Biography

Mr. Darnell retired in 2021 after serving nearly 25 years as a federal criminal investigator.  As a Special Agent, he conducted diverse investigations involving internal corruption, contract fraud, health care fraud, counterintelligence matters, and protective security operations. He is a certified adjunct instructor for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), and regularly teaches search warrant affidavit and report writing classes for the Inspector General Academy.  Additionally, he presents effective report writing techniques and case studies at government and industry conferences.

Prior to becoming a criminal investigator, Mr. Darnell taught English composition at the university level.

Mr. Darnell has received multiple awards, including the Agent of the Year award in 2013 and the regional Agent of the Year award in 2007. He was the lead investigator on a major public corruption case that received the Significant Fraud Case award from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in 2017. He received an Award for Excellence in 2012 from the Council for the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) for his work on a case involving defective battlefield munitions, and he received the adjunct instructor of the year award in 2017 from the CIGIE Criminal Investigator Academy.

Testimonials

Testimonials
Seriously, great class.  You did something that most cannot do – you made a writing class interesting and super fun!
Excellent instruction and coordination. Instructor was well-prepared, captivating, humble, and informative…I am very pleased with the course and would highly recommend it to others.
The instructor was excellent at maintaining the attendees’ attention…Overall, this training was by far the best I’ve attended!

I found everything in your discussion extremely helpful. I could benefit from more training like this. You were entertaining while providing your instruction. You made the day fly by!

I have seen great improvements in the overall writing of staff, and I can confidently say that the training was well worth it and extremely beneficial.
I felt the whole class was wonderfully organized…[he] kept things moving, interesting, and engaging for the entire session.
Great energy, upbeat. Dynamic speaker. Best speaker of the conference.
Very good speaker – best one at conference
Tremendous presentation! Should be giving this presentation to all…classes
[He] did an excellent job providing guidance to me during this training course. He is professional yet brings friendliness that encourages interaction and discussion.
Mr. Darnell was highly valuable to the course. His feedback and guidance gave me the confidence to continue to become a better writer.
He is an expert at writing and brings a level of knowledge required for a class like this one.
I have been struggling with report writing and almost immediately you’ve really helped me to understand why I stare at my computer screen without being able to type.
Honestly, having someone with great people skills to discuss an otherwise dry topic makes all the difference. Also, [his] passion for writing makes it easy to learn from him because you feel you are basically asking an expert for advice on something that greatly affects…your job.
The greatest strength of this training comes from the instructor’s ability to tailor the training to our specific needs and base it on the work we produce…His empathy and amazing personality made it a comfortable and safe environment. This proved to be extremely beneficial for helping us remain open and not defensive when discussing our errors or shortcomings.  
[He] showed us all aspects of search warrant writing that we all could improve on. Based on his training and experience, we all were able to draw from his instruction and create a new set of skills that will allow us to be successful in the future. Very well done.
The SW affidavit elements were extremely helpful. I appreciated the advice and insight that [he] provided regarding suppression hearings and electronic evidence as it relates to the Attachment B portion of the warrant.”
The instructor…was knowledgeable and clearly had a passion for English. The content of the training was interesting and the instructor helped facilitate good classroom discussions.  

Contact

Contact

Have questions or need more information?
Please contact me at
web@edarnell.com
and I will be happy to help.