Library Guides: Introduction to Legal Research: Terms & Connectors

Terms and Connectors - creating search queries

Connectors Note: on Lexis Advance connectors must be in lower case, otherwise they will be treated as a search term Note: on Westlaw Edge using connectors does not automatically trigger a Terms & Connectors search. You must use a proximity or grammatic connector in the Search Box; type adv: before your search; or use the Advanced search template.
	Lexis Plus	Westlaw Edge	Notes
And retrieves documents with both terms narrows a search	and	and	E.g. dogs and cats retrieves only documents containing both dogs and cats
Or retrieves documents with either term broadens a search	or	or a space between terms	E.g. dogs or cats retrieves documents containing dogs, documents containing cats, and documents containing both dogs and cats.
Exclude terms retrieves documents with one term and not the other narrows a search	and not but not	%	E.g. dogs not cats retrieves documents containing dogs, but not documents containing both dogs and cats.
Proximity Numeric requires that the terms on one side of the connector be within “x” number of terms of those on the other side.	/x w/x	/x	E.g. liability /3 limited would retrieve both limited liability and liability was limited
Proximity Grammatic: Same Paragraph requires that the terms on one side of the connector be in the same paragraph as the terms on the other side of the connector.	/para /p w/p	/p
Proximity Grammatic: Same Sentence requires that the terms on one side of the connector be in the same sentence as the terms on the other side of the connector.	/s /sent w/s	/s
Exact Phrase requires that the terms within quotation marks appear exactly as entered - in the same order, with no other words in-between.	type quotation marks around terms to be searched as a phrase	type quotation marks around terms to be searched as a phrase Note: If you do not use quotation marks, a space between two words is processed as an "or" connector.
Default Order of Processing
The “default order of processing” is the order in which the system processes your search query	Most systems process your connectors in this order: OR, Numerical Proximity Connectors (smallest to largest), Grammatical Connectors (/s before /p), AND, NOT. Override default order by using parenthesis
Terms
	Lexis Plus	Westlaw Edge	Notes
Multiple-Character Wildcard/ Term Expander Also called root expander The term truncation is also used	! retrieves terms that match any number of characters in the middle or end of a word *	! retrieves terms that match any number of characters only at the end of a word	E.g., drunk! retrieves drunk, drunken, and drunkard. com!al retrieves commercial, communal, and computational
Single-Character Wildcard Retrieves terms that match any single character in the middle or at the end of a word	?	*	E.g., *drnk (dr?nk on Lexis)** retrieves drank, drink, and drunk sholder (s????holder on Lexis) retrieves both shareholder and stockholder.
Plurals	the singular will automatically retrieve the plural form of a word, including irregular plurals	the singular will automatically retrieve the plural form of a word, including irregular plurals	On both systems dog retrieves: dog and dogs woman retrieves woman and women

Which to Choose

When should you use a Natural Language search instead of a Terms and Connectors search? Classic legal answer, it depends.

Terms & Connectors search
- With experience in research and practice areas, you will learn to construct more focused, relevant searches
  - More control and precision
- Based on Boolean logic so you will hear it called Boolean searching
Natural Language search
- Work because of the algorithms developed by the research services
- May be more helpful when you are not familiar with a particular practice area

First, you should always write out a clear issue statement. What question are you trying to answer.

What is the liability of the owner of a recreational facility for injury to a customer using rented equipment?

Then draft a search query. For a Natural Language search, follow a basic pattern.

Party --- Cause of action --- Situation --- Situation
Party (fact) --- Cause of action --- Cause of action (term of art) --- Situation (fact)
Example: owner recreational facility liability injury customer rented equipment

Or, if you feel more comfortable with your level of knowledge regarding the practice area, use a Terms and Connectors search

Example: liability and (sport! or recreation /s facility) and (rent! /s equipment)
Using proximity connectors like /s or a root expander like ! makes the search a Terms & Connectors search
The parentheses are not actually required by the research services. They may be helpful for you to visually see how terms relate to each other.

Download Helpful Guides

Lexis Literature & User Guides

Search Terms & Connectors

Westlaw User Guides and Legal Resources

Terms and Connectors Searching

Introduction to Legal Research: Terms & Connectors

Terms and Connectors - creating search queries

Connectors

Default Order of Processing

Terms

Which to Choose

Download Helpful Guides