Secondary Starting Points
Unlike primary starting points, secondary starting points are usually not the first node a reader sees: they are the results of searches, or document starting points (for example).Search engines are starting point when a reader is looking for something. The reader enters a keyword or two and with the press of a button the search engine searches the Web for documents that match those key words and displays the titles of the documents it finds, usually with some kind of annotation. The reader can then jump directly to each document.
Another type of starting point can be found at a particular document: nodes that present the reader with various options for "entering" the work. For example, in this work, I have various indexes or tables of contents, each of which are starting points for this work: I have an index that lists all the nodes in entire work alphabetically; I also have indexes for referenced authors, and one for topic threads in the work. I even have a node devoted especially to showing the reader where some of my favorite starting points in the work are.
Secondary starting points narrow the reader's temporary text to a certain subject matter, if only for a moment. Whereas the primary starting point leaves the reader open to go in any direction on the Web, secondary starting points narrow the field of possibilities considerably.
Starting Points Defined
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