Indexing verbs?

[Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com]

I keep winding up in positions where I'm editing existing documents, and
almost every time, I encounter an index where the writer has included
generic verbs as keywords. For example:

Changing
     Item's Class
     Owner Security
     Report's Schedule

If I'm using this index and I want to know how to change a report's
schedule, I'm going to look under "report" or "schedule"... but definitely
not under "changing." (Even worse are the cases where a lazy writer has let
the auto-index feature do the work, and the index consists entirely of
entries like "Changing a Report's Schedule" and "Adding Employee
Information" and my all-time favorite, "A word about the reports."  But
that's another issue.)

Before I start chopping, can anyone offer a compelling reason to leave
those entries intact? Or are they just clutter?


Christine Anameier, contract tech writer



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