Indexing Students

Office Hours: Sundays from 6-7pm Pacific

During my office hours I'm available to answer phone calls from students. Send e-mail any time, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. You can also e-mail or phone me to make arrangements for phone meetings at more convenient times.

Supplemental readings

Titles of articles and books I recommend for further reading on topics about which students have mentioned that they'd like to read more.

I highly recommend that you subscribe to USDA-indexw, a discussion list for GS students assigned to me. This list includes discussions about indexing, about this particular course, notifications about any slow-downs that might happen on my end, etc.

Questions?

As described in my introductory letter, please contact me with your questions, comments, or concerns. I reserve one hour a week for nothing but grading. If you contact me during that office hour, you're most certain to reach me. Feel free to call or e-mail me at other times, too, and if I'm not available we can arrange another time to talk. (If you send me e-mail and I don't reply within a couple of days, call me. Once every few months a legitimate e-mail message gets deleted by my ISP's spam filter. Not bad considering I get about 1000 spam notes a month. Well "not bad" if you're not the person sending that one legitimate note.)

For quick feedback and networking with other students, I highly recommend that you subscribe and post questions to:

• USDA-indexw - a discussion list for GS students assigned to me. This list includes discussions about indexing, about this particular course, notifications about any slow-downs that might happen on my end, etc.
• IndexStudents - this is a great place for students of indexing to find guidance, hints, encouragement, and support from others learning indexing and from professional indexers who like fielding questions from new and potential indexers.
• INDEX-L - the main discussion list for indexers around the globe.

See also FAQ about me as an instructor.

Speeding up the Process

Take a look at the process of submitting lessons along with my suggestions for speeding it up.

I can accept index writing lessons (Lessons 5, 6, 8, and 11) through e-mail. If you'd like to do this, please follow these guidelines.

While you're Waiting

Dawn Spencer has written a great article called "Over 80 Productive Things to Do" that outlines things you need to do in order to prepare for a career in freelance indexing. I've also written a page about things you can do while you're waiting.

Myths About the Graduate School, USDA (GS) Indexing Courses

There has been much misinformation about the GS indexing courses disseminated over the years and instructors have recently heard yet another inaccurate myth being perpetuated. The instructors have put together a factsheet to dispel some of these myths.

Contacting the GS

Students of the GS course can contact the Graduate School for administrative-type information (like getting extensions, checking records of lessons received, etc) or other general course information.