Access Routes

Any given word is a bundle,
and meaning sticks out of it in various directions.

Osip Yemilyevich Mandelstam

In this chapter, we present our approaches to the problem of directing readers into the text. We describe the decisions we made as we developed access to the author's information.

Kari developed access points by focusing on her ideas about readers' potential search terms. She concentrated on selecting terminology that bridged the knowledge gap between the author and the readers.

Sherry developed access routes by concentrating on the analysis process and the author's perspectives. For her, an essential task in this process was creating an access pattern that provided a similar level of detail, varied conceptual perspectives, and language variety.

In our chapter closing, we examine several entries that show similar and differing access patterns. We also demonstrate how these access patterns are consistent within each index.

Chapters

Introduction

Audience
How do these indexers' perceptions of the audience influence the development of their indexes?

Analysis
How do these indexers' understandings of the text influence their approaches to creating entries?

Metatopic
How do these indexers' ideas about Fodor's primary topic impact their index structure?

Gathering
How do these indexers collect information and what influenced their decision-making?

Access Routes
How do these indexers develop pathways into the text?

Phrasing
How do these indexers use words and phrases to support the structure of the index?

Consistency
How do these indexers consider and evaluate consistency when implementing the other indexing principles?

Final Chapter
What have we learned from reading about the two indexes and the decision-making behind the entries?

Index
Download a copy of Martha Osgood's index for Inside Indexing.

Acknowledgements