Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada
Symbole du gouvernement du Canada

Liens institutionnels

 

Avis important

L’outil The Canadian Style a été archivé et ne sera plus mis à jour jusqu’à son retrait définitif.

Pour obtenir notre contenu le plus à jour, veuillez consulter Writing Tips Plus, un outil combinant le contenu des outils Writing Tips et The Canadian Style. N’oubliez pas de modifier vos favoris!

Rechercher dans Canada.ca

9.41 Entry versus subentry

The indexer is constantly faced with the problem of whether to list references to a topic in a series of simple entries or as one main entry with a number of subentries. For example, references to the various types of statistical mean are scattered throughout a statistical work. They could be indexed in one large, complex entry:

  • Mean
    • arithmetic, 28
      • for grouped data, 29, 135
      • properties of, 29, 136–37
    • geometric, 31
      • for chained ratios, 32, 138
      • properties of, 31, 139–41
    • harmonic, 32, 142

Since the document is a specialized one, however, it makes more sense to create main entries for each type of mean, with a cross-reference (see 9.52 Cross-references) from Mean, thereby obviating the need for sub-subentries and the repetition of page number references.

In general, avoid single subentries and sub-subentries. In the interest of conciseness, the complex entry

  • Spasticity
    • neonatal, inherited, 1046
    • periodic, inherited, 1046

can easily be reduced to

  • Spasticity, inherited neonatal and periodic, 1046