Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 8
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Possessives
If you enter the nonpossessive form of a search term, Westlaw automatically retrieves the singular and plural
nonpossessive and possessive forms as well. If you enter a possessive form, only the possessive form is
retrieved.
Term Retrieves
customer
customer’s
Compound Terms
customer
customers
customer’s
customers’
customer’s
but not customer, customers, or customers’
A compound term may appear in various ways in documents; it may be hyphenated, or it may appear as one
word or two words. To retrieve all forms of a compound term, use its hyphenated form. If you do not include
hyphens, you will not retrieve all variant forms.
Term Retrieves
good-will
good-will
good will
goodwill
“good will”
good will
good-will
goodwill goodwill
Abbreviations
Like compound terms, an abbreviation may appear in various ways in documents; it may or may not include
periods or spaces between letters. To retrieve all variations of an abbreviation, enter the term with periods
and without spaces. Also, it is a good practice to include the words or phrase from which the abbreviation is
derived in your query. For example, “environmental protection agency” is an alternative search term for
e.p.a.
Term Retrieves
E. P. A.
E P A
e.p.a.
E.P.A.
EPA
84 Winning Research Skills