what your Grade 3 teacher taught you that you can stop doing now

Published December 30, 2008 by Nancy

1. “Never split infinitives.”

Split ‘em. This rule was made up in the 1600s by the first grammarians, who thought that English should match Latin. In Latin, infinitives are one word, so they can’t be split. In English, they are two words: to go. So there is no reason why we can’t slip an adverb in between them.

As an editor, I looked for infinitives that the author had noticeably tiptoed around to the point that it sounded silly. And changed them to a more relaxed sound.

2. “Never start a sentence with because.”

Of course you can start a sentence with because. Just finish it! Because links two sentences, so make sure you are using it to combine two sentences. There will be a comma between them.

The problem with Because results from teachers asking test questions that start with Why. Why did the War of 1812 start on a Monday? It’s natural to quickly link [split infinitive] the answer to the question with Because: Because Tuesday was a holiday. Alas, that’s a fragment.

All the teachers had to do was put something between the Why question and the answer to curb the temptation to write a fragment. Why did the War of 1812 start on a Monday? Explain your answer. You would naturally write The war started on a Monday because Tuesday was a holiday and carry on.

3. “Never start a sentence with And or But.“

I don’t know where this idea came from. I worked with one author who insisted it was an ungodly act to do either.

No. This is goofy. Of course you can start a sentence with And or But. Just make sure it’s a complete sentence.

4. “Never use fragments.”

Good authors and copywriters use fragments all the time. They’re very effective.

But they don’t belong in a formal report or essay.

5. “Use shall with we.”

Not since the 1940s. Or if you are British. Otherwise, shall is extinct.

6. “Never end a sentence with a preposition.”

As one famous author said, Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put.

English prepositions are not always prepositions. The word off is a preposition in He ran off the road. Where did he run? Off the road. It’s starting an adverb phrase of location.

Yet in the sentence I ran off four copies on the copier, the word off is not a preposition. Where did I run? Off four copies. No, that doesn’t make sense. In fact, off is part of the verb: to run off.

English has many of these two-word (or three-word) verbs: to clean up, to finish off, to do up, to turn over, to put up with, etc. The second word attaches to the verb, not to the phrase that follows. So these are not true prepositions, and they can go wherever they sound best.

neurofeedback update for December

Published December 20, 2008 by Nancy

We are hardly remembering to do neurofeedback and heart-rate variability training now. Occasionally we squeeze it in on a weekend.

Phasing out the meds has been a breeze so far. We are now at 1/8 dose and should be off everything completely next week.

We haven’t seen much to be concerned about.

I pronounce the experiment so far a success.

How to index a book - Part 4

Published December 7, 2008 by Nancy

If you’ve followed the first three parts of this series, you should have a saved draft index in page-by-page order, as well as a copy named Index 1 which is the one you will be working with.

In this part, you will alphabetize and start sorting Index 1.

1. Select All and Sort.

In the Index 1, select all, and click on the Sort button. In new versions of MS Word, Sort is in the main toolbar near the font options. In older versions, it’s in the Tables toolbar (for reasons only Microsoft understands!).

When it’s all sorted, do another Save.

Then do a Save As to create Index 2.

Why?

Because you want to have an unedited, alphabetized version to refer back to in case you change your mind about anything.

2. Eliminate repetition.

Remember that you repeated each entry for each sub-entry.

Now you need to go back in and delete the repetition. Remember to do this in Index 2, not Index 1.

Select the repeated entry and comma, then hit [Return] and Tab. You will go from

water, sources of, 19-21
water, wells, 22-24

to

water
–sources of, 19-21
–wells, 22-24

Tip: If there is no comma, then do not substitute with a return-tab. Some entries are noun phrases (see water lily below). Noun phrases need to stay all on one line. If you wouldn’t put a comma in between these words, then don’t put a tab.

water
–sources of, 19-21
–wells, 22-24
water lily, 122-24

Tip: There should be some page ranges beside the main entry. Page ranges on the main entry indicate the main discussions or definitions of this topic. Readers look there first.

Tip: If an entry has just one sub-entry, delete the sub-entry.

Tip: Use prepositions (for, from, at, of) in your sub-entries to link them grammatically to the main entry.

When you are done this step, save Index 2. Then do a save as to create Index 3.

3. Trim your index.

Index 3 is probably very long and unwieldy. You now need to trim out over-indexing to fit the page limit your publisher gave you.

Look for sub-entries that can be combined into one. For example, wouldn’t water, well go under water, sources of? Do you really need a separate entry for well? If wells are discussed just once, you probably don’t. But if wells are discussed in detail later on, then you might want to keep it.

Look for places where a page range may be more appropriate than a series of pages. If France is discussed on page 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, and 20 as part of a larger discussion of European water policies, then condense it to 12-20.

Don’t cut out key ideas. Just group them so that the index breaks down an idea only once.

Tip: As a general rule, there should be no more than 8 sub-entries for any entry. On occasion, I will go as high as 12. Group concepts together to reduce long lists of sub-entries. Use see also to refer readers to look up the sub-entries to find a finer breakdown of the concepts.

4. Clean up the alphabetizing.

Go back through the main entries looking for places where the word-by-word alphetization needs to be converted to letter-by-letter.

Then clean up the alphabetization of the lists of sub-entries. Prepositions (in, from, at, etc.) should be ignored in the alphabetizing. Move sub-entries starting with prepositions so that they are alphabetized based on the first noun.

5. Check cross references.

Provide cross references to help readers who look up a concept under the wrong word. Follow your publishers guidelines for placing these see and see also lines.

Check every one of them. Don’t leave any dead-end cross references.

6. Convert indented style to run-in style (if necessary).

If your publisher has insisted on run-in style, then you have one extra step left. You need to go back through the index and replace those return-tabs with commas. This will make each entry for a block, instead of an indented list. Run-in indexes are harder to use because your eye can’t scan them well. But publishers like them because they take up less space.

Why not just leave the commas in the first place? Because you needed to alphabetize and trim. You couldn’t do that if the index had already been in run-in style.

7. Proofread.

Proofread an index three times. It’s slow and very tedious. But it has to be right.

8. Pour yourself a scotch and get a good night’s sleep.

How to index a book - Part 3

Published December 5, 2008 by Nancy

The two previous posts explained the basics of indexing and index structure. This posting will explain how to use MS Word to create an index.

MS Word is a bit clunky for indexing, and it involves a lot of extra typing that you will delete in the end. But it does work if you follow these steps.

1. Don’t alphabetize as you index. Do it later.

MS Word has an automatic alphabetization feature that works reasonably well. So don’t alphabetize as you go. Put down the concepts and key terms in the order they appear.

2. Retype your entries for every sub-entry.

You want your draft index to look like this:

water, drinking, 12-14

water, sources of, 8-9

You’ll delete those extra water words in the final stage. If you leave them out in this first phase, MS Word won’t be able to sort it alphabetically later on. So type every entry in full, with a comma between the main entry and the sub-entry.

Tip: Include a subentry for every entry (unless you know that this term is never mentioned again in the book). You will delete some of the sub-entries in the final phase. Deleting takes less time that looking up the term again to figure out what it was all about!

3. Index two-part entries twice.

For example:

water, drinking, 12-14

drinking water, 12-14

construction, of wells, 15-16

wells, construction of, 15-16

4. Do two passes of each chapter.

First pass: Index broad concepts,  major sections, and main discussions. You can do this quickly, just flipping through the chapter looking at the headings.

Heck, you wrote it! You should know what it’s about!

Second pass: Go back to the beginning of the chapter, and read it slowly. Index key terms, names, and ideas you know you discuss in detail in later chapters. Catch all the small details in this second pass.

4. Save often!

Save as you go.

When you have indexed the whole book, save this first draft as Index Draft.

Then — and this is important, so listen up — save it again as Index 1. You will alphabetize Index 1, not Index Draft.

Why?

Because you want a draft index in page-by-page order you can refer back to in case you screwed up some of the page numbers.

How to index a book - Part 2

Published December 4, 2008 by Nancy

This posting follows How to index a book Part 1. We’re now going to look at the structure and style of the index. You need to get that right before you start, because it’s hard to change later on.

1. Get an indexing book from the library.

You’re going to need a resource, especially if you have to index a lot of names.

How do you index European names that start with de, von, etc.? How do you index double Spanish names? How do you index someone who is known by their title or stage name? What punctuation do you use where? An indexing book will provide basic answers.

An indexing book will also describe the types of indexes. Match these types with whatever your publisher told you was the house style:

• capitalized or lower-case entries?
• run-in style or indented style?
• are sub-sub-entries permitted?
• overall length?
• alphabetization style: letter-by-letter, word-by-word, or simple?
• placement of the see and see also lines?
• style for ranges of numbers: 222-224 or 222-24?
• bold for key terms?

If you can’t find a book on indexing, ask your publisher to send you a sample index from another book. Then match the sample.

2. Learn to alphabetize.

MS Word will alphabetize for you if you click on the Sort button.

But MS Word uses word-by-word alphabetization. Most book publishers ask for letter-by-letter alphabetization.

What’s the difference?

Word-by-word indexes the first word of the entry, then the second word, then the third. Here is a list in word-by-word order:

water

water restrictions

water wall

waterfall

Letter-by-letter ignores the spaces between words and treats the whole entry as one word:

water

waterfall

water restrictions

water wall

So after you have sorted your index in MS Word, you will have to go back and move some entries so that they fall in letter-by-letter order.

3. Learn to make an en-dash.

In indexes, the dash between numbers in a page range is not the little dash up at the top right of your keyboard. It’s an en-dash, which is a little bit longer.

To create an en-dash, you need to use the numerical keypad on the far right of your keyboard. Hold down the [control] button and click on the minus sign. Do this for every entry.

Okay, you’re ready to get started.

How to index a book - Part 3

How to index a book

Published December 3, 2008 by Nancy

Congratulations on getting your book accepted by a publisher!

But now you’ve been asked to index the book.

My advice — Hire a professional indexer. An index costs a bit of money, but what’s your time worth? Indexers use specialized software that speeds up the process. They also have years of experience and know how to organize ideas.You don’t.

So it will take you at least twice as long to do the same thing. If you earn about the same money as an indexer ($40-50/hour), then it’s more cost-effective to hire out.

However, if you are heart-set on doing it yourself, this is a four-part blog series on how make a decent index using MS Word. Budget about 3 days for a modest-length book (100-150 pages), more for longer books.

Let’s start with basic concepts:

1. Indexes sort ideas and information, not words.

Beginner indexers just look for individual words and base the index around them.

This makes a really stupid index. Trust me on this. People think in ideas and information, not in words. You need to index the concepts. Words are concepts only when they are key terms, and only when they are important to the book.

Tip: Study your table of contents, and make a list of the key concepts in your book. You should be able to think of 2-5 key concepts for each chapter. Add some sub-concepts. Do this before you start indexing to help your brain focus on ideas instead of words.

Tip: Find a library book on a similar topic. Read through the index. Note which entries have a lot of sub-entries. These are the important concepts for that book. Make a list of any entries that will be the same for your book.

2. Indexes use cross references to avoid duplication.

In one chapter, you may have talked about physical conflict, in another, violence, and in another, fighting. But these are all the same concept.

Choose one term to index. For the others, list them with a cross reference.

Violence. See Physical conflict.

3. Indexers need to think like the target audience.

Is this book written for college students? Researchers? Engineers?

You need to index words and ideas where they are most likely to look for them. Don’t make the mistake of indexing for yourself. That won’t work. You already know what’s in the book.

If it’s a self-help medical book for parents, index the term rash, rather than skin irritation. No frantic parent is going to look up skin irritation at 3:00 a.m. They’re going to look up rash. If they don’t find it, they will give up, pronounce the book a waste of money, and call Grandma.

Indexes are supposed to be helpful. As you index, ask yourself: If I was a freaked-out parent, what would I look this concept up under?

4. Indexers don’t index every word.

Remember: you index ideas and information, not words. Just because a word appears on a page doesn’t mean it needs to be indexed for that page.

Don’t index terms mentioned in passing, those used as examples, or those grouped together with many other equally unimportant terms.

Be selective. You can’t index every word in the book. What ideas and information will your readers be looking for? Keep that in mind to help you screen out non-index-worthy terms.

Now that you have a rough plan of the broad ideas that will go in your index, you are ready to start indexing.

How to index a book - Part 2