© Jan Worrall 2007-8
Professional indexing
A professional index is produced to British and International Standards which have been developed to help users, and which qualified indexers have learned to use following a training course.
A good index not only reflects the words used in the text, it also provides for alternative approaches from users by identifying synonyms and providing cross references.
Relationships between concepts are also identified and cross referenced so the user is led to related material they hadn't originally thought to look up.
Authors sometimes like to construct their own indexes, but this can be a tedious and time consuming task. Why not give the task to an experienced indexer and avoid having to deal with all the problems and inconsistencies that can arise?