Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash

Last Saturday I presented my first webinar on indexing, hosted by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. A couple of weeks ago I gave a similar presentation to the Editors Canada twig here in Edmonton. Many thanks to both groups for allowing me to present. I learned a lot, both about presenting and about indexing, as I reflected on my practice. Whoever said that teaching is the best way to learn was right.

As I thought about how to present indexing in under an hour, with time for introductions and questions, two themes kept reappearing.

The first is that indexing is about analysis. What is the text about? You cannot write a good index without understanding the text.

The second is audience. Who is the index for? How will they be using the index? How familiar are they with the subject? Do they typically use indexes? If the index is not written with the audience in mind, the index will also probably be poor.

These two themes are closely linked. I think that indexing can be described as analysis on behalf of the reader. In a way, both the text and the audience needs to be analyzed. As the indexer, we need to do some of the heavy lifting for the reader, so that using the index is a pleasant and easy experience. The index should also help guide the reader to what the text is about.

Ultimately, if the participants in both presentations took nothing else away, I hope they remember analysis and audience. If both are front of mind when indexing, I think the index has a decent chance of succeeding. Everything else is just detail and polish.

To close, I will leave you with my new favourite quote on indexing, from a recent issue of The Indexer (vol. 36 no. 1, March 2018). It is by Mary Coe, an indexer from Australia. I think she really nails what we attempt to do as indexers, bringing together both analysis and the reader, and the risk that we might get it all wrong. This is also what helps to make indexing so satisfying. Mary writes:

“As indexers, we have the very difficult task of putting ourselves in other people’s shoes (or heads). Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t; however, I think it is inherently our job to try.”