Tech Biz Writing

A good index is essential for any technical document intended for reference. Indeed, the reference value of a technical book may be directly proportional to the quality of its index. Generally, two types of index are used:

* A general index at the back of a book — sometimes divided into names and subject indexes.
* A detailed contents list (so detailed it serves the function of an index) with subheadings — perhaps one for each chapter.

In technical handbooks, the contents list breakdown is normally employed. A list of abbreviations and a glossary are occasionally added, but a full index is often omitted completely. The reason for this is partly that the book must be updated at frequent intervals and may never be fixed into any final form. It may also be the case that few copies will be required and the standards (and costs) incurred for a commercial work would be inappropriate.

Commercial technical books of any weight or reputation include a general index, which is normally the last item in the end pages. The index is the responsibility of the writer and will either be compiled by him or placed with a professional indexer. If the book is part of a series, the depth, and hence length, of the index will be laid down by the series house style. Otherwise, an author should aim to make an index as comprehensive and comprehensible as resources of time and patience allow.

An index can only be finally completed when the book is in page proof. But much of the groundwork can be prepared in advance. In the period between sending the manuscript to the publisher and receiving the proofs, the author should go through the text, extracting the items of subjects required for the index. These can be written out on cards or slips of paper, or preferably using some indexing software. Card index, bundled in with Windows, is a useful tool in this respect, though there are more sophisticated examples.

The complexity of an index will depend on the scope of the subject, and the depth of treatment applied. It may be straightforward as in:

Convergence,111
adjustment, 113–118, 180
dynamic, 148
static, 148

Or all-embracing, as in Hugh Thomas’s Unfinished History of the World in which the index takes up 41 pages:

women, as slaves in ancient Iraq, 39; and childbearing,
52–53; use of wet nurses, 52, 53; breast and bottle
feeding, 53–4, 385; position in India, 56; home workers,
120, 121, 251; Liberation Movement, 172–3, 408–9; era of
100 per cent marriage, 232; fall in age of sexual maturity’
232n; hours of work, 255, 256…&c.

Several points may be made here: “Use of wet nurses, 52, 53;” as against, “breast and bottle feeding, 53–4.” The difference shows that the wet nurses are referred to only in passing on pages 52 and 53, whereas breast and bottle feeding constitute a substantial section over pages 53–4.

If a number of trivial inclusions occur over a sequence of pages, the device 52ff may be employed.

The reference to “fall in age of sexual maturity, 232n” indicates, by the use of n after the page number, that it is included in a footnote on that page.

If a particular topic occurs more or less continuously throughout a work, the word passim can be used instead of page numbers.

Subjects may be cross-referenced if this helps the reader: “Printing…see Lithography”. Too zealous an application of this device, however, can be tedious, if not confusing.

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