I’m adding a new Q&A element for my newsletter subscribers. I will respond to a new question on the last Tuesday of every month. To kick off this new Q&A, here is a question about subheadings. To summarize, “How can I become faster and more decisive when writing subheadings? I… Read More »Q&A: How Can I be Faster and More Decisive Writing Subheadings?
I want to write today about a request I receive maybe a couple of times a year, which is to update a previously written index. The usual advice is to avoid updating and to rewrite the index from scratch. The rationale, as counterintuitive as it may seem, is that rewriting… Read More »Four Questions to Ask When Considering Updating an Index
Last week was a strange work week for me. I had two indexing tasks to complete, neither of which I typically do or enjoy. The week felt like a long grind, like I wasn’t really indexing even though I was. My first and primary task was to update an index… Read More »How to Cut an Index By Almost Half
I am back home and catching up on sleep after attending the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI)’s annual conference, held this year at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Vancouver. I enjoy attending the Canadian conferences. Being Canadian myself, ISC/SCI feels like “my” society in a way… Read More »My 2025 ISC/SCI Conference Highlights
I’ve been freelancing for almost thirteen years now, and I feel like I am at another juncture at which I am reassessing my business and contemplating how best to move forward. I periodically find myself here. This is partly driven by external factors, often the need to earn a little… Read More »Freelancing Within a Niche
Before I begin another mini-series, I want to touch on a topic that has been on my mind again recently, which is turning down projects that I don’t want. This has been a persistent struggle for me throughout my freelancing career. As a new freelancer, FOMO, or the fear of… Read More »Learning to Say No (to Projects)
Welcome to this last reflection in the mini-series on the basic elements of an index! Over the last three months I’ve discussed entries and arrays, main headings and subheadings, locators, cross-references, and format. Today I look at sorting. Sorting and format are like twins. They both have to do with… Read More »Sorting: Putting Entries in Order
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been exploring the components of an array—main headings and subheadings, locators, and cross-references. It’s time to now look at how these are all held together. Formatting the index, by which I mean either run-in or indented format, along with punctuation, has to do with… Read More »Format: Pulling the Index Together
Welcome back to the mini-series on the basic elements of an index! I previously discussed entries and arrays, main headings and subheadings, and locators. Today I am writing about cross-references. Cross-references are a type of locator, but instead of directing readers to the text, cross-references redirect readers to a location… Read More »Signposts within the Index
My original plan for today was to write about indexing Oxford University Press (OUP) titles, of which I recently indexed two. I will still reflect on OUP, but as I was writing this, I realized that my main issue with OUP’s system is its impact on cognitive load. So partway… Read More »Cognitive Load and Indexing Oxford UP Titles