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Juley Torkomianis <...in the final stages of my first help
project and I am stuck... I'm really having a hard time
selecting keywords for my topics. Can anyone point me to a
site that addresses identifying keywords at a rookie level?>>
What you're really asking is for a primer on learning how to
index a document, since that's effectively what you're doing
when you pick keywords. (Before the indexers jump down
my throat, I hasten to add that a good index is far more than
just a list of keywords... what I mean is that the principles
behind parsing text and picking descriptive keywords are
similar for both activities.) Here are four useful references
from an article of mine that should appear this summer in
_Intercom_:
- Bonura, L.S. 1994. The art of indexing. John Wiley & Sons, New
York, N.Y.
- Holbert, S. 1998. How to index Windows-based online help.
Intercom, May, 26-27.
- Mauer, P. Embedded indexing. Intercom, April, 8-10.
- Mulvany, N.C. 1994. Indexing books. University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, IL.
Another excellent resource is the "Chicago Manual of Style"
(University of Chicago Press, various years depending on which
edition you find). I note from your address that you're at Vanderbilt
U., so I'd be very surprised if you don't find this style guide in your
library. It has a decent introduction to indexing if you don't have
time to find one of the two books I mentioned and really dig into the
subject.
