Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Your Search Result Display
Browsing Documents on Westlaw
When you retrieve your Westlaw search result, the result list is displayed. The result list contains
the citations of the documents in the result (Figure 9.1). The result list helps you identify relevant
documents because each item in the list includes a portion of document text.
Figure 9.1: Result list for a case law search
When you use the Terms and Connectors search method, each document in the result list is
accompanied by a portion of document text showing the first three instances of your search
terms displayed in the context of the 20 words that precede and follow those terms. When you
use the Natural Language search method, the best portion of each document (i.e., the portion
that most closely matches the concepts in your description) is displayed.
When appropriate, KeyCite status flags are displayed in the result list—click a flag to view
KeyCite information for the document.
If you are searching databases containing case law, statutes, regulations, or analytical materials,
ResultsPlus information may be displayed alongside the result list. ResultsPlus automatically
provides references to additional sources of information on Westlaw—such as American Law
Reports annotations and West topic and key numbers—that may be relevant to your research.
(For more information about ResultsPlus, refer to Chapter 10.)
To view the full text of a document you have retrieved, click its title or retrieval number in the
result list.
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