Indexing

A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers

112 pages
July 2001
William Andrew Publishing
ISBN-10: 0-8155-1481-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-8155-1481-7

“... an effective guerrilla’s guide to producing indexes to technical documentation.”

— Technical Communication

Indexing is not rocket science. It is a relatively simple task that can be learned quickly and painlessly. All you need to start indexing is a practical plan of attack.

This guide explains in plain language and by example exactly how to index any type of print or online documentation quickly and easily. The sequential indexing method presented in the guide has been battle-tested in high-pressure publishing organizations in a variety of high-tech industries for over a decade.

CitATION in The Chicago Manual of Style

Indexing: A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers is cited as an indexing reference in the 15th, 16th, and 17th editions of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Review in Technical Communication

The following book review by Rich Carlson appeared in the November 2002 (Vol. 49, No. 4) issue of Technical Communication: Journal of the Society for Technical Communication.

Book Review
by Rich Carlson

Indexing: A Nuts-and- Bolts Guide for Technical Writers. Kurt Ament 2001. Norwich, NY: William Andrew Publishing. [ISBN 0-8155-1481-6. 97 pages. $39.00 USD.]

Indexing has risen into more prominence as a profession in its own right only recently, lifted on a rising tide of instructional books, college courses, and program certifications. Some leading practitioners make it seem an arcane and difficult avocation. Proclaiming that indexers “are born, not made," they cloak the subject in jargon and mystery, and portray their discipline as one that combines the rigor of a science with the subtlety of an art. These are the people who lend credence to George Bernard Shaw’s observation that “all professions are conspiracies against the laity."

Kurt Ament offers a refreshing perspective in Indexing: A nuts-and-bolts guide for technical writers. “Indexing is not rocket science," he declares at the outset of this short book, but “a relatively simple task that can be learned quickly and painlessly” (p. 1). Ament’s approach, which he calls “sequential indexing,” breaks the indexing process into two general phases (content creation and editing) and, more specifically, into ten sequential steps that lead from the writing of index entries to the testing and delivery of the final index:

Index chapters.
Index procedures.
Index topics.
Index product names.
Index product components.
Index front and back matter.
Edit your index.
Create “see” references.
Create “see also” references.
Test your index.

Short on theory, rich in examples, this book strikes me as an effective guerrilla’s guide to producing indexes to technical documentation. It is less than 90 pages in length and bluntly written in short blurbs and bulleted points -- almost as though adapted from an original online version. Two-thirds of the book is a collection of indexing topics, each topic strapped to the same Procrustean template and subject to the author’s imperious tone. “Read this,” the reader is instructed, and “Do this.” Each indexing topic includes several examples forced into the categories of “Bad” and “Good.”

Don’t look for description of indexing theory in this book. But do look for a project management orientation and directives delivered in recipe style.

Some readers may bristle at Ament’s manhandling style or want to quibble with a few of his particular points regarding the subject of indexing, but on the whole, the book favorably lives up to its title. Technical writers and editors are frequently called on to produce an index, and do it in a hurry. For these people, who may have no previous knowledge of indexing and who need to tackle an indexing project with only an hour’s preparation -- Ament’s book could be a great help.

RICH CARLSON has 20 years' experience in publishing and has worked with corporate publications, computer documentation, commercial magazines, and legal publications.

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Review in The Editorial Eye

The following book review by Leanne Sullivan appeared in the September 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 9) issue of The Editorial Eye.

Indexing Can Be Taught
by Leanne Sullivan

Indexing: A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers (2000, William Andrew Publishing), by Kurt Ament, claims to provide all the guidance you need to succeed as an indexer. In the preface, Ament says that because it is “based exclusively on real-world success, this indexing method is bulletproof.”

The guide has an informal, encouraging tone that had me almost ready to chuck editing and become an indexer (doesn't it seem like a great way to get paid to read books?). But would this book really teach me to index?

I recently became the manager for some indexing projects, so this book landed on my desk at an opportune time. Indexing had always seemed a mysterious art to me, and I had never fully understood the rules, such as letter-by-letter versus word-by-word alphabetization and the difference between see and see also. Ament's guide clarifies these and other key elements of indexing, such as how to index acronyms and abbreviations, which entries to capitalize and which to cross-reference, and how to “nest” subentries. The volume is meant to be consulted as a reference book, but I read it cover to cover in a little over an hour. The layout of the book is very easy to follow: Each topic is first explained in a “Read this” section; step-by-step instructions follow in a “Do this” section.

Ament gives good advice about how to approach the task of indexing; for instance, he advocates breaking it down into more manageable steps by first deciding what your index entries will be (content) and then organizing your entries (format). He advises technical writers to index their own documents, whether or not those indexes are to be published with the documents, in order to discover whether there are gaps that need to be filled. Some writers may not want to take the time and make the effort, but it does seem like a valuable step -- like creating an outline after you've finished to make sure the structure is logical.

Did this book succeed in its stated aim of teaching me “how to index any type of technical publication in a very short time and with minimal effort”? It does provide the basic information and direction needed to do the job, but I would also need guidance on how to use indexing software like CINDEX, which is beyond the scope of the book. So although I can't claim to be an indexing pro after reading this guide, I certainly have a much better understanding of the rules and concepts.

LEANNE SULLIVAN is an EEI Communications editor and project manager.