Here are some examples of FOIA requests.

A general subject request:

“All documents related in whole or in part to the Department of Defense’s policy regarding the handling and disposition of personal papers or the distinction between personal and official papers.”

A request for records related to a particular event:

“All documents related in whole or in part to the August 14, 2000, sinking of the Soviet submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea.”

A request for documents for a specific period:

“All cable traffic to and from the US Embassy in Bucharest between March 24 and June 10, 1999, relating in whole or in part to Operation Allied Force, NATO’s military operation in Yugoslavia.”

A request for a regularly issued report for a specific time period:

“Copies of the National Intelligence Daily (NID) for the following dates: April 12, 1998; April 14, 1998; and April 15, 1998.”

A request referring to a newspaper article/clip:

“The spring 2003 memorandum from Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, Deputy Judge Advocate General (JAG), Department of the Air Force, on interrogation techniques that is discussed in the attached June 24, 2004, article from The Washington Post by R. Jeffrey Smith.”

A request for a record by its title:

“A December 2002 document titled, ‘2001 Intelligence Report to Congress on the Chemical Weapons Convention.’ This document was cited in the March 31, 2005, report by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Silberman-Robb Report), p. 228.”