As discussed in the last blog posting, the metatopic will drive the structural development of the index. The problem with the metatopic is the temptation to over-index the entire document under a single overarching topic or to ignore the direct indexing of the metatopic altogether. There are two approaches to indexing the metatopic: the traditional… Continue reading Approaches to Indexing the Metatopic
Category: indexing
Metatopic and Index Structure
The metatopic is more than just a characteristic, it is the overarching presence in a book index. According to Webster’s, meta- means more comprehensive than the original term. Often used with a discipline, such as linguistics or mathematics, it highlights a discussion in which the discipline itself is the object of critical examination. The term… Continue reading Metatopic and Index Structure
Elegance in a Quality Scholarly Index
A quality scholarly index must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive and elegant. In the last few blog postings, I have discussed accuracy, consistency, comprehensiveness, conciseness, readability, reflexivity, and audience-sensitivity. In the final blog posting of this series, I will focus on elegance as a factor in a quality scholarly index. This is… Continue reading Elegance in a Quality Scholarly Index
Audience in a Quality Scholarly Index
A quality scholarly index must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive and elegant. In the last few blog postings, I have discussed accuracy, consistency, comprehensiveness, conciseness, readability, and reflexivity. In this blog posting, I will focus on audience-sensitivity as a factor in a quality scholarly index. As indexers we often talk about creating… Continue reading Audience in a Quality Scholarly Index
Reflexivity in a Quality Scholarly Index
A quality scholarly index must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive and elegant. In the last few blog postings, I have discussed accuracy, consistency, comprehensiveness, conciseness, and readability. In this blog posting, I will focus on reflexivity as a factor in a quality scholarly index. What is reflexivity? Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines reflexive… Continue reading Reflexivity in a Quality Scholarly Index
Readability in a Quality Scholarly Index
A quality scholarly index must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive and elegant. In the last few blog postings, I have discussed accuracy, consistency, comprehensiveness, and conciseness. In this blog posting, I will focus on readability as a factor in a quality scholarly index. What is readability? Webster’s defines “readable” as “able to… Continue reading Readability in a Quality Scholarly Index
Conciseness in a Quality Scholarly Index
A quality scholarly index must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive and elegant. In the last few blog postings, I have discussed accuracy, consistency and comprehensiveness. In this blog posting, I will focus on conciseness as a factor in a quality scholarly index. Conciseness, defined Webster’s defines “concise” as something “marked by brevity… Continue reading Conciseness in a Quality Scholarly Index
Comprehensiveness in a Quality Scholarly Index
A quality scholarly index must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive, and elegant. In previous blog postings, I have examined accuracy and consistency in quality scholarly indexes. In this blog posting I will explore comprehensiveness as a factor in quality scholarly indexes. Comprehensiveness, defined Webster’s defines “comprehensive” as (1) “covering completely or broadly;… Continue reading Comprehensiveness in a Quality Scholarly Index
Consistency in a Quality Scholarly Index
Consistency The eight qualities of a scholarly index are that it must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive, and elegant. I discussed the first factor, accuracy, in the last blog posting. Consistency, the second factor comprising a quality scholarly index, is the focus of this blog posting. “Qualifiers,” the parenthetical additions that clarify… Continue reading Consistency in a Quality Scholarly Index
Qualities of a Scholarly Index
Scholarly books are the books that are published by academic presses. A good quality scholarly index, according to Margery Towery, must be accurate, consistent, comprehensive, concise, readable, reflexive, audience-sensitive, and elegant. This is the first of a series of blog postings on these principles comprising a good quality scholarly index. I will first examine accuracy… Continue reading Qualities of a Scholarly Index