Use Boolean operators to further refine your searches and more quickly find what you're looking for
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For a domain as complicated as public policy, Boolean legislative searching is key to finding what you’re looking for. Just a few Boolean operators are necessary to build refined searches in Plural.
Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are useful when searching for bills containing an exact phrase or combination of words.
For example, searching absentee voting in Plural returns over 19,000 results from active legislative sessions. Adding quotation marks and searching for “absentee voting” limits that to just 360 bills containing that specific term.
The OR Operator
The OR operator (must be uppercase) allows you the flexibility to craft a search that works for your unique set of needs. OR allows you to combine multiple search terms into one search.
For example, the search below would allow a Vermont resident to keep track of all legislation sponsored or co-sponsored by their entire delegation. This is done without having to build separate searches for each member.
The AND Operator
The AND operator (must be uppercase) can be useful to define your search by two distinct variables that must be true.
“Marijuana banking” may be too specific of a term to show up exactly in any legislation. “Marijuana” or “banking” will return a bevy of results specific to one, but not both, of those terms. However, searching for “marijuana” AND “banking” will return any bills that include both terms, even if they aren’t directly next to each other in the text.
The NOT Operator
The NOT operator (must be uppercase) can be used to exclude words or phrases from your search. For example, searching "marijuana" NOT "medical" would return a list of bills that include the word "marijuana" but do NOT include the word "medical."
Parenthesis
Putting terms in parentheses can be used to denote precedence of boolean operators.
For example: sports AND (wagering OR gambling) will match bills that contain the word “sports” and at least one of the terms “wagering” or “gambling”
Pro Tips!
Identifying a clear and concise definition of the legislation you’re looking for is a helpful first step in building a search. For example, if you were looking for “legislation that would require social media companies to restrict access to or change content display for minors," break this definition down into digestible parts to be included in your search.
Keep in mind that your goal is to find and use language that is always included in the bills that you are looking for, but rarely used in irrelevant legislation.
In the above example, we know that we want to isolate three things within the legislation:
- It applies to social media applications or companies
- It applies to children
- It focuses on algorithmic content display, “addictive feeds,” or restricting access
Boolean logic will allow you to search for legislation that includes each of these units via multiple terms using the “OR” clause. You will also be able to connect these three parts via the “AND” clause. Example search clause using boolean logic for the above topic:
“Social Media” AND ("Minor” OR “Minors” OR “Children” OR “Kids") AND (“Algorithm” OR “Algorithmic” OR “Addictive” OR “Restrict Access”)
Need to move your cursor to the very end of a long search clause quickly? Use one of the following keyboard shortcuts:
- On PC:
- fn + right/left arrow to move to the beginning or end of a line
- Ctrl + right/left arrow to move to the beginning or end of a word
- On Mac:
- command + right/left arrow to move to the beginning or end of a line
- option + right/left arrow to move to the beginning or end of a word.