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Subjects > Writing (Search for Writing)
The Book Index is an important part of any book.
Indexers create an index by developing a list of concepts, topics, individuals, and places, as they read every page of a book. The goal is to index relevant information on each topic, instead of just passing mentions.
While it is important to create an index (references to topics), rather than a concordance (a comprehensive list of the references to every word), in the area of document indexing, some experts take the view that an indexer should be a "harmless drudge" and even index simple words such as "to","the","be","is". Usually these are thought of as stop words, and excluded from some indexes, such as the one maintained by Google. However, try to search for "To Be Or Not To Be", and you quickly discover how problematic it can be to not have such stop words indexed.
Many books do not have an index, and it makes it difficult to find passages in the book. Even for the author! Nationally syndicated talk show host Michael Savage (Search for Michael Savage) was recently (April 27, 2005) unable during his broadcast (Search) to find a passage that he wrote about Iraq in his latest book Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder. He asked his call-in audience to help him find the passage. If his book had a properly constructed back of the book index, it would have been easy for him to find this passage on his own. (To his credit, within a couple of minutes he was able to find the page he was looking for.)
One important job of an indexer is to develop lists of synonyms to help readers find concepts even if they don't know the exact wording used by the book. A properly developed book index may also include lists of topics that aren't directly included in the text of the book.
Check out [Facts About Trees]
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