Writing Great Indexing Entries
The Key to Creating Clear and Concise Headings and Subheadings
The Chicago Manual of Style describes two kinds of subheadings, those describing a grammatical relationship with the main heading and those consisting of divisions of the main heading.
There is a fundamental significance in this brief mention of a grammatical relationship. This may be overlooked by indexers as they create entries for an index. Creating a grammatical relationship gets at the elementary level of communicating ideas from source to user. If the written form of anything is confused, poorly worded, difficult to derive the meaning of, then easy transmission of information is hampered.
Therefore, it behooves indexers to be clear and concise when creating entries. No reader of this article would argue this point; however, wherein lies the secret of creating these marvelously clear entries? It begins with being a good writer—even before one can become a good indexer.
Becoming a Good Writer
Basic English composition still may be taught in grammar school and continued in high school. Based on multiple observations, this almost certainly will not make a person into a really good writer. Even in college, unless someone goes into an English major program, it probably will not happen. Learning to write well is a skill that can be mastered but it requires effort on the individual’s part.
The key to the first door in learning to write clearly and effectively lies in one book. Visit the nearest bookstore, or order online William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White White’s Elements of Style. Strunk was an English professor at Cornell. His self-published work was the textbook for his course in English. Students called it the “little book.”
This little book, first published in 1919 and later revised by White after Strunk died, still contains nearly everything a writer needs to know about clear writing. Three little words from Strunk could summarize a basic rule for indexers in creating entries—“Omit needless words.” The perfect example is the book itself. The third edition, published in 1979, is only 85 pages plus an index.
Translating Good Writing Skills into Good Entries
After an indexer grasps and learns to apply the principles in The Elements of Style to everyday writing, the next step is overcoming the problem of translating an author’s writing, which may lapse from particularly good grammar, into concise entries. This is where awareness of the principles of good writing will come to the indexer's aid.
There is a way to cope with this type of problem in a difficult or murky passage needing some index entries. If the ideas expressed in the questionable section strongly resist the indexer’s best efforts to extract several clear terms, then open Notepad or a similar text editor file. Try re-writing the paragraph as if you were an expert editor and wanted to make it as clear as possible. Keep a thesaurus handy if stuck for inspiration on particular words. In the beginning this will add a bit to input time. As experience in using the technique grows, the actual effort of physically created new wording can be replaced with mental re-writing. This is the way a good editor works.
Once reformulated either on the screen or in your mind, several alternate ways of indexing the author’s words should emerge. Of course, key words used by the author need to be included in the index, but the real value of an index is judged by how well it represents the reader’s needs. By using additional terminology as well as cross references that should become obvious after this exercise, the indexer will be a step further in providing clarity and conciseness in index entries.
