The primary focus, therefore, is on the first steps, the matter of
getting research started, an area relatively neglected, an area of important
need. Exploration of why the first steps freguently entail unexpected set-
backs for newcomers should provide therapy and encouragement for people who
have experienced difficulty and doubt. It should also invite concern for
understanding the decision processes involved so that they may be repeated

on later ventures with increased ease.

Major Purposes, Premises and Applications

Two purposes guide the total presentation. One is to explore why first
steps freguently seem so ill-defined and so taxing. From nothing to a pro-
posal that has sufficient possibility to merit discussion is the relatively
neglected area, The other is to set forth and to discuss the use of a series
of guestions precisely intended to help in filling that gap. Cycling and
recycling the guestions should result in generating decision criteria for
limiting and spečifyins the area and the ingredients of any inguiry. The
somaidatatlons and the discretion needed to put the guestions to use in de-
ciding on a particular piece of research are later discussed item by item.

The major premise is that first steps in the conduct of inguiry of any
sort are probably the most difficult, the most important, the most conseguential,
the least understood, the least treated and those on which čle least help is
likely to be available.

They are difficult because the limits are not clear until one decides
what they are to be and the decisions involved are difficult. They are im-
portant because early decisions set the terms of reference for any subseguent
judgments. "They are conseguential because standards and cut-of£f points for

any project are built into the early choices. They are not well understood