RE: Indexing style refs

[Sean Hower <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com>]

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John wrote:
You misunderstood, or I wasn't clear. I meant using the thesaurus in CREATING the index. It takes away the skill between knowing how to create an index that contains the terms needed to find something, and an index with so many words that you would eventually find what you are looking for with a dart.

<sigh> maybe it's just me. I just don't think that a quality index is 
based solely on how alternative I can think of for a word.
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No, it's not just you. I happen to agree with you. At some point, you have to stop dumping total responsibility onto the documentation and dish a little of that responsibility out to the reader/user. I mean, is it the documentation's fault if it doesn't warn a user that dowsing a computer with gasoline and setting fire to it may result in memory loss not to mention damage to the surrounding area, peripherals, and any human relationships the user may have, and any other possibility that we currently haven't thought of?

John did suggest up to 10 synonymns for an index entry. I mean, really, that's seems like too many (in most cases). And on a practical level, if you stick with that kind of word count, indexes will get too big to use. The examples of the bad indexes are bad not because they didn't have the right synonym. They were bad because the entry wasn't even in there. Others who have answered to this thread seem to think the following would be a good way to index something like the word toolbox:

Toolbox

Instrument container
   see toolbox
Instrument box
   see toolbox
Instrument holder
   see toolbox
Instrument carton
   see toolbox
Implement container
   see toolbox
Implement box
   see toolbox
Implement holder
   see toolbox
Implement carton
   see toolbox
Device container
   see toolbox
Device box box
   see toolbox
Device holder
   see toolbox
Device carton
   see toolbox
Utensil container
   see toolbox
Utensil box
   see toolbox
Utensil holder
   see toolbox
Utensil carton
   see toolbox
Apparatus container
   see toolbox
Apparatus box
   see toolbox
Apparatus holder
   see toolbox
Apparatus hcarton
   see toolbox
Contrivance container
   see toolbox
Contrivance box
   see toolbox
Contrivance holder
   see toolbox
Contrivance carton
   see toolbox
Gizmo container
   see toolbox
Gizmo box
   see toolbox
Gizmo holder
   see toolbox
Gizmo caton
   see toolbox
Means container
   see toolbox
Means box
   see toolbox
Means holder
   see toolbox
Means carton
   see toolbox

If you don't think this kind of indexing is a good idea, then you agree with John, because it's the kind of thing he's talking about, and it's a perfect example of what an index with only ONE term would look like if you went through a thesaurus (because it's what I did). Now imagine this same index with five words with an equal number of synonyms. Now how about 50 words, or 100 words (that would yield an index with 3200 entries for 100 terms).

There's a difference between possiblity and probability. And it's the indexer's job to figure out that difference and write for it. Spraying a cover fire of words hoping to catch every possibility is as bad as not putting enough terms in.

That's my opinion at least. :-)


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"And in the morning, I'm makin waffles." ~ Donkey
Sean Hower - tech writer
http://hokum.freehomepage.com

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