Question

You've located three books on a topic you're researching for an essay. The first thing you should do in determining if any of these books will be useful is
A. examine the index of each book.
B. study the table of contents carefully in each book.
C. inspect each book jacket for notes about the author.
D. browse each book from front to back.

Answer 1

Not C; who cares about the author at this point.
Not D; takes too long for an initial feel. Save that for later.

It's a toss up between A or B.

A: The index would provide a more thorough breakdown of words, ideas or interrelated topics.

B: give you chapter outlines; the author could be clever & give the chapters funky names which might not be helpful.

My answer is A.

Answer 2

The correct answer is A examine the index of each book.