emphasis for inguiry and research broadly defined. Assistance in moving
into a starting position is provided for through the series of guestions
which partly incorporate and partly lead to deriving criteria for precisely
the kinds of decisions that commonly must be taken to get started. In
either case, the guestions provide guidelines or sufficient direction to
formulate guidelines for such decisions. The discriminating reader will

want to scan them all and use those that most help.

WHY FIRST STEPS CONFOUND

A relatively unexplored guestion is why first steps seem to confound
so many. This seems highly important to explore before jumping to ideas on
what remedial action might be taken in general and for individual investigators.
Without meaning to provide crutch or alibi, establishing understanding first
on this point might liberate relative newcomers who might too early think
that there must be answers that they are missing and that all the shortcomings
must be their own. That line of defensive thought plus any defensiveness on
the part of mentors with high needs for structure and certainty themselves can
inhibit precisely the kind of openness and candor most desired for learning

the art and craft of research and completing successful projects.

Defining the Problem Area Is a Neglected Problem Area

The difficulties (problems), of course, for those engaged in first steps
as well as for those who would undertake the presumption to write about them
are several. That is, just looking at the state of the art in general without
getting into highly individualized infirmities or the particular demands of

particular projects,