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	New England Chapter American Society of Indexers Past Events

Fall 1996 Conference Workshop Summary

The Cognitive Half of Indexing 

A Professional Development Workshop
presented by Seth Maislin

September 28, 1996

Cognitive Process

Seth Maislin began his talk by identifying the two halves of the indexing process: the cognitive process and the technical process. The latter involves things such as checking spelling and page numbers, alphabetizing, and determining page layout--tasks that can be accomplished by anyone with training. But what distinguishes an indexer from an non-indexer is the indexer's ability to draw terminology and concepts from a text, and then to deliver that information into a logical and approachable structure. Maislin limited his talk to that first half, the cognitive process of indexing. 

Maislin commented that in years past, when others asked him to explain how he learned how to write an index, for years he answered, "You just know. It's a cross between intuition and experience." Over time, however, he began to distinguish aspects of the indexer's unique skill, and he learned how to explain it more accurately to others. Maislin peppered his witty presentation with actual hands-on activities, supplying his workshop participants with handouts and worksheets. 

He listed four characteristics of a quality index: 

1. The index is technically accurate. 
2. All information in the book has corresponding locators in the index.
3. Every locator in the index points to information in the book.
4. The presentation of locators in the index is efficient and approachable.

Passing References

For the first 30 minutes, Maislin addressed item 3, above, regarding passing referencess, i.e., recognizing when a portion of text does not contain information. He used two different examples to demonstrate. This generated an interesting discussion among the participants. He concluded that, although each indexer must subjectively determine what qualifies as "informative," that determination is crucial to a good index. 

Once the indexer knows where the information isn't, everything that remains must qualify as information (thus solving item 2 above). This information should end up in the index ... someplace.

Threads

The remainder of Maislin's presentation covered the delivery of information: Once information in the book has been found, how should it be included in the index? Maislin introduced the concept of "threads"-- words, phrases and ideas that qualify as topics of information if mentioned in the book. In a book about sports, for example, some threads might be American football, player's names, the Olympics, safety equipment, team statistics, and game rules. According to Maislin, it is possible and important to determine a book's threads before even "opening" the book. Maislin provided a useful list of sources for locating threads, which included the indexer's prior "intuitive" knowledge. He used more handout examples to demonstrate further the "threading" process. 

Once the information has been found and the threads have been determined, only then should the indexer begin marking the pages. Maislin provided one last set of take-home handouts for further independent work beyond the workshop.