How to Write an Overview of a Paper

How to Write an Overview of a PaperIn a writing class for English majors, the student asked how to write an overview of the paper. He did not have any problems or difficulty with this question but felt he was unable to answer effectively. I can relate to his problem.I once found myself stuck in a situation that showed me how easy it is to get stuck in a rut and be unable to get out of it. I was reading through my notes, trying to think of something I needed to work on in my writing and I simply went back to where I had written down the current topic of the assignment. I then got into a rut and began to work on something completely different, a topic I hadn't worked on at all.This is the exact same thing that happens to writers when they have no idea how to go from point A to point B without having a problem with taking the actual problem and turning it into something else. But, there is a way out of this situation. It is simply by thinking about the actual problem as it is when you a re doing the writing and not as you expect it to be after you finish the writing. When I say write what you expect to read I am referring to the actual problem.The 'what' that you write in your summary is the problem and nothing more. It should always be to write what you expect to read as if it were something that has already been written. When you do this you will find that you can write the information more easily and also retain the information better when writing it.The purpose of an article summary is to be able to present the problem as presented in the writing and not as a dead end in the writing process. By the time you get to the end of the writing process, it will already be apparent in your summary. Thereader will have no reason to go back to what you originally wrote about or even stop the writing process for that matter.What is also really important is that what you write about should be only what the writing requires you to write. There is no need to add in things tha t are outside of the specific work that you are doing in the writing process. If you use the summary to add information that is not relevant to what you are doing then you are only going to make the problem worse.The writer has to be clear in his mind what his writing is about, and what the problems are before he ever starts writing. The reason why the problem should not be vague is because people may have different ideas about what the problem is and what they expect to be the solution. This is what leads to a lot of misunderstanding as well as people getting lost in the writing process.When the writer begins to write, he should find himself focusing on the problem and not the solution. Once the writer has written about the problem, he should be able to use his summary to take him to a solution.