The CHARTWHEEL:
A Brainstorming Technique for the Legal Researcher
Bill Statsky created the CHARTWHEEL in 1980. He has included it in many editions of his books. The CHARTWHEEL is a technique designed to help you think of a large variety of words and
phrases to be check in indexes, tables of contents, and on online search engines.
Most people think that using an index is a relatively easy task — until they start trying to use indexes of law books! These indexes are often poorly written because they are not comprehensive. To be comprehensive, an index might have to be as long as the text it is indexing. Because of this reality, one of the most important skills in legal research is the creative use of indexes in law books. When you master this skill, 70 percent of the research battle is won. The CARTWHEEL is a word-association technique designed to assist you in acquiring the skill by giving you a method of generating words and phrases. (The skill can also be used when checking tables of contents and using online search engines.) Professor Roy Steele, a veteran teacher of legal research, made the following observation about the CARTWHEEL:
“The CARTWHEEL is one of the most effective ways of systematically developing a list of search terms. [It is] a method of analyzing a legal problem and developing a list of descriptive words, which can be used to search indexes.
The objective of the CARTWHEEL is to develop the habit of phrasing every major word involved in the client’s problem fifteen to twenty different ways! When you go to the index (or to the table of contents) of a law book, you naturally begin looking up the words and phrases you think should lead you to relevant material in the book. If you do not find anything relevant to your problem, two conclusions are possible:
■ There is nothing relevant in the law book.
■ You looked up the wrong words in the index.
Although the first conclusion is sometimes accurate, nine times out of ten, the second conclusion is the reason you fail to find material that is relevant to the client’s problem. The solution is to be able to phrase a word in as many different ways and in as many different contexts as possible. That’s what the CARTWHEEL is designed to help you do.
There are 8 categories in the CARTWHEEL: broader words, narrower words, synonyms, antonyms, closely related words, terms of procedure and remedy, courts and agencies, and long shots.
Here are the steps to follow in using the CARTWHEEL:
1. Identify all the major words from the facts of the client’s problem, e.g., wedding (most of these facts can be obtained from the intake
memorandum written following the initial interview with the client). Place each word or small set of words in the center of the CARTWHEEL.
2. In the index, look up all of these words.
3. Identify the broader categories of the major words.
4. In the index, look up all of these broader categories.
5. Identify the narrower categories of the major words.
6. In the index, look up all of these narrower categories.
7. Identify all synonyms of the major words.
8. In the index, look up all of these synonyms.
9. Identify all of the antonyms of the major words.
10. In the index, look up all of these antonyms.
11. Identify all words that are closely related to the major words.
12. In the index, look up all of these closely related words.
13. Identify all terms of procedure and remedy related to the major words.
14. In the index, look up all of these procedural and remedial terms.
15. Identify all courts and agencies, if any, that might have some connection to the major words.
16. In the index, look up all of these courts and agencies.
17. Identify all long shots.
18. In the index, look up all of these long shots.
Note: The above categories are not mutually exclusive.
Suppose the client’s problem involved, among other things, a wedding. The first step would be to look up the word wedding in the index of any law book you are examining. Assume that you are not successful with this word, either because the word is not in the index or because the page or section references do not lead you to relevant material in the body of the book. The next step is to think of as many different phrasings and contexts of the word wedding as possible. This is where the eighteen steps of the CARTWHEEL can be useful.
If you applied the steps of the CARTWHEEL to the word "wedding," here are some of the words and phrases that you might check:
1. Broader words: celebration, ceremony, rite, ritual, formality, festivity, union, etc.
2. Narrower words: civil wedding, church wedding, golden wedding, proxy wedding, sham wedding, shotgun wedding, formal wedding, informal wedding, etc.
3. Synonyms: marriage ceremony, nuptial, etc.
4. Antonyms: alienation, annulment, divorce, separation, legal separation, judicial separation, etc.
5. Closely related words: license, blood test, contract, minister, matrimony, monogamy, intermarriage, marital, conjugal, domestic, husband, wife, bride, anniversary, custom, children, premarital, spouse, relationship, family, home, consummation, cohabitation, sexual relations, betrothal, espousal, hand, wedlock, oath, community property, name change, domicile, residence, troth, etc.
6A. Terms of procedure: action, suit, statute of limitations, complaint, discovery, defense, petition, jurisdiction, etc.
6B. Terms of remedy: damages, divorce, injunction, partition, rescission, revocation, specific performance, etc.
7. Courts and agencies: trial court, appellate court, superior court, county court, court of common pleas, court of appeals, supreme court, justice of the peace court, magistrate court, bureau of vital statistics, county clerk, department of social services, Social Security
Administration, license bureau, secretary of state, etc.
8. Long shots: dowry, common law, single, blood relationship, fraud, religion, illegitimate, remarriage, antenuptial, alimony, bigamy, polygamy, pregnancy, gifts, chastity, impotence, incest, virginity, support, custody, consent, paternity, etc.
If the CARTWHEEL can generate this many words and phrases from a starting point of just one word (wedding), potentially thousands more can be generated when you subject all of the important words from the client’s case to the CARTWHEEL. Do you check them all in the index volume of every volume of every code, digest, encyclopedia, practice manual, and legal treatise? No. You can't spend your entire career in the law library on one case! Common sense will tell you when you are on the right track and when you are needlessly duplicating your efforts. You may get lucky and find what you are after in a few minutes. For important tasks in any line of work (or play), however, being comprehensive is usually time-consuming.
Final points about the CARTWHEEL:
--The categories of the CARTWHEEL may overlap; they are not mutually exclusive.
--There are two reasons for checking antonyms: they might cover your topic, and they might give you a cross-reference to your topic.
--It is not significant whether you place a word in one category or another so long as the word comes to your mind as you comb through all
available indexes.
--Perhaps some of the word selections generated by the CARTWHEEL may seem a bit far-fetched. You will not know for sure, however, whether a word is fruitful until you try it. Be imaginative, and take some risks.
The CARTWHEEL is, in effect, a word-association game that should become second nature to you with practice.
As indicated, the CARTWHEEL can also be helpful for generating search terms when you are doing online searches in search engines such as Google and Bing. In addition to typing words generated by the CARTWHEEL into an online search box, find out what method is used by the search engine itself to generate additional terms. For example, in Google, if you place a tilde (~) immediately in front of the word, Google will automatically search for synonyms of that word. Hence a search for sites on the police (~police) will give you sites that mention police and those that mention the synonyms cops, law enforcement, and officer.
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