Logic – What is the Logical Connective for Either.. Or?

logic

I have a statement,

Either p or q

and I have to write it in terms of logical connectives but I don't get which logical connector should I be using?
Here is what I did (I think there could have been a better way to do this)

$(p \lor q ) \land (\neg((p \Rightarrow q) \land (q \Rightarrow p)))$

Best Answer

To me, the word "either" is unnecessarily confusing, and should be avoided if possible (of course, since it is part of the problem we have no choice in this case).

If "either $p$ or $q$" means the same thing as "$p$ or $q$", then the answer is simply $p\vee q$ (by the definition of $\vee$).

However, if "either $p$ or $q$" means "either $p$ or $q$, but not both" then this is equivalent to "$p$ is true and $q$ is false, or $p$ is false and $q$ is true". Do you see how to write the logical expression for this?