What’s the phrase or saying that our panel of experts repeat to themselves over the course of their work?
Nic Nicholas, Fellow
“Does this entry make sense?” Also “Remember to be consistent”.
Marian Aird, Advanced Professional Member
Will the reader look for this? Will they find anything useful if they do?
Christine Boylan, Advanced Professional Member
Will someone seek this entry in the index and if they look at the corresponding page will what they find be useful or will they be disappointed?
Sue Penny, Advanced Professional Member
“What is this really about?” And at the editing stage, “Is this heading really useful? Would anyone actually look this word up?”
Ann Hudson,Fellow
Would anyone look this entry up? If they did, would they find anything useful? If the answer to either of these questions is ‘no’, then don’t put it in the index.
Rob Gibson, Advanced Professional Member
A motto I adopted in my 20s and that has kept me going throughout my working life – fate leads the willing…
Rohan Bolton, Fellow
I am inclined to over index so I try to ask myself “Is the user likely to use this search term and will they actually find anything of use if they follow up this reference?” (borrowed from an early Ann Hudson workshop that I attended.)
This post is part of our Ask the Indexers series. The previous post asked about the use of tables of content and headings during indexing.
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