I was recently talking with a new indexer who was struggling with how much detail to pick up and include in the index. The issues were, how granular the index should be and how much of the author’s argument should be revealed in the index. This discussion got me thinking about the common advice of, “Don’t rewrite the book.”
At face value, this is good advice. It speaks to the index’s role in directing readers to information, and an index that is too large will take up more space (what a publisher probably does not want) and more importantly, will likely be more difficult for the reader to use. An effective index should provide just enough information.
In practice, however, just enough can be difficult to gauge. What constitutes rewriting the text can also provoke clashing opinions. So I want to consider these questions and see if some rules of thumb can be derived.
On the sparse, no-rewriting end of the spectrum, simply directing readers to information without explication is usually sound advice. There may be a damning political scandal behind the entry for SNC-Lavalin, but the reader can discover that on their own. If all entries are like this, however, I think it can be difficult for readers to understand how terms are connected to each other. Such an index lacks context. I believe that readers should be able to receive a rough sense of the book’s argument and contents from the index, so there is space for some light description.
The main place for this are the larger entries, by way of subheadings. Breaking down long strings of locators is helpful for the reader, and by definition will require telling the reader something about the contents of the book. I think it can also be helpful to signal to the reader which are the more important topics by means of a few subheadings or cross-references. This does not have to be extensive, and I see it as part of guiding the reader through the contents of the book.
Clarity should also be a guiding principle when wording main headings and subheadings. The significance of each term does not need to be spelled out, but will the reader at least understand what the term means? The temptation, to avoid rewriting, is to be brief, even to the point of being cryptic. While brevity is ideal, I think it is fine to add a few more words if that is what is needed for clarity.
The last consideration is the audience and the purpose of the book. For books that are intended for reference, where the index will be the first point of entry, an extremely detailed index, to the point of almost rewriting, is probably ideal. Whereas books that the reader is likely to actually read first are probably fine with a lighter index.
As with any advice, “Don’t rewrite the book” needs to be contextualized to the specific project. What constitutes too much detail will vary. And regardless of how much detail is enough, the index entries need to be clear. Lack of clarity will derail any index, detailed or not.