Indexes For Study

Getting feedback from a professional indexer is one of the best ways to learn indexing. However, the opportunities to get feedback are limited. You either need to take a course, or pay a professional for a consultation. Here is another way to get "feedback" of a sort from a professional indexer: Study the index of a well-indexed book. Compare the index with the text: what terms did the indexer select? Which ones were double-posted under alternate headings? How did they phrase that bit of information?

In order to make this process easier, volunteer "inputters" have taken existing indexes, and excerpted them for easier analysis. In addition, these index excerpts have been sorted so that the information is in page number order - i.e., you can read along with the text, looking at instances where indexers have made their entry choices.

Credit for starting this project goes to Jill Edwards - she input the first index excerpt here, from Chapter 17 of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Indexers interested in contributing input index excerpts should contact Dan Connolly. The best format to save the index excerpt will be RTF.

Links to index excerpts:

Chicago Manual of Style, Chapter 17

Posted 4/2/2004: Index to The El Paso Chile Company Margarita Cookbook RTF version

Posted 4/2/2004: Index to Marketing Your Indexing Services RTF version