Proximity Searches in NEWS Database
Proximity searches are useful in that they allow you to locate words/concepts that are clustered around one another in an article, thus increasing the precision of your search.  The syntax = search term w/some number search term:

e.g. prisoner w/15 right or prisoner w/10 health care or prisoner w/20 marital
Below, a proximity search for stories about prisoners' rights that are more than 1000 words long
The exclamation points (!) tell the database to search for plurals and singular forms of a word.
prisoner! w/5 right! translates as "find the word "'prisoner' or 'prisoners' within 5 words of 'right' or 'rights'."  Proximity searching gives more control over results.

Any number can come after w/ e.g. w/15 w/20

Note: Length command must be set at Full Text

 

 
Proximity search that locates articles published in the last five years with the words 'prisoner' or 'prisoners' within 10 words of 'right' or 'rights' and finds both of those within 25 words of 'health' or 'medicine' or 'medical.'
This search returns 74+ articles
Below are a few of the results  from the above search as seen in the "Expanded List" view.
Proximity Search restricted to the New York Times or Washington Post. This search locates articles with the words 'prisoner' or 'prisoners' within ten words of 'right' or 'rights' and both of those within 25 words of 'health' or 'medicine' or 'medical' or 'ill' or 'illness' or 'illnesses' or 'treat' or 'treatment' and published in the last five years. This search returned 45+ articles
Note that you can write fairly long lists of search words. I wrote health or medic! or ill! or treat! I could have (and probably should have) added sick! or cure!