How do I judge the quality of an index?
The purpose of the index is to guide readers quickly to the information they need. There are a few specific items you can check to make sure the index is serving its users well:
To request an estimate, call Carol Reed at BlueStem (248-736-9705) or click here to email.
- Length of the index. Is the index appropriately thorough for the text and audience?
- Coverage of important topics. Look up a few of the main concepts in the text. Do the numbers of entries and subentries reflect the relative importance of concepts?
- Locator accuracy. Look up a dozen index entries to be sure they guide you to the correct page. If you find errors, a more thorough edit may be necessary.
- Wording of entries. Do the headings anticipate the different words a user might think to look under?
- Spelling and grammatical errors. If you find errors, plan on a thorough edit.
- Long strings of page locators. More than five or six page locators after a heading becomes cumbersome. Usually these can be broken down with subheadings.
- Cross-reference accuracy. Make sure "see" and "see also" cross-references lead to the appropriate places.
- Term consistency. Are the concepts indexed according to the author's preferred terminology in the book?
To request an estimate, call Carol Reed at BlueStem (248-736-9705) or click here to email.
