The Question That Won't Go Away

By Carol Reed
Spring 2011

You’ve just told an acquaintance what you do for a living, and they look puzzled. “Can’t that be automated?” they ask. You patiently explain that an index is different from a concordance. You have maybe seven seconds to do so before their eyes glaze over.

But some prospective clients are genuinely interested in the answer to that question. After all, a fair amount of money is at stake, and authors have a personal investment in the production quality of their work. 

Martha Osgood provides a concise, well-reasoned answer in her article “Can’t the Index Be Written by a Computer?”