September 2009
SEARCHING THE NEWS? START AT THE TOP.
When searching for news documents relating to a particular issue, restrict your search to the titles and lead paragraphs.
Q: Why would you ever search news sources in the course of your job?
A: Because for a wide range of matters there is simply no substitute.
News sources are essential when you are monitoring developments such as
- industry trends
- the activities of a specific company or individual
- government or public reaction to a policy or issue
- proposed legislative or regulatory actions
But how do you search quickly for news articles that relate to a topic? After all, news articles don't come equipped with West topic and key numbers, headnotes, tables of contents, or other West enhancements that help you search for cases, statutes, and regulations.
Westlaw offers a solution: Restrict your search to titles and lead paragraphs.
Here's why it works:
Important terms tend to be concentrated toward the beginning of articles, thanks to the "inverted pyramid" style of newspaper reporting. By restricting your search to the title and the first two paragraphs of a news article, you increase the likelihood that your terms will be more central to the story. (You don't want to retrieve thousands of articles that mention your terms only in passing.)
To restrict your search to titles and lead paragraphs, access the appropriate news database, e.g., All News Plus Wires (ALLNEWSPLUS), and select the Search only the headlines and lead paragraphs check box at the Search page after typing your search in the Search text box. (In the alternative, you can choose Hlead – HLD() from the Fields drop-down list and then type some or all of your search terms within the parentheses in the Search text box.) For example, to retrieve news articles on Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement activity against credit repair operations, access ALLNEWSPLUS. In the Search text box, type a query such as the following: "federal trade commission" f.t.c. /p credit-repair. Select the Search only the headlines and lead paragraphs check box, then click Search Westlaw.