How to Write Overviews for Process Diagrams

In this video I’ll show you how to write the overviews for the process diagrams so you’ve seen this

process diagram before when we wrote our introduction so let’s move straight to the overview so here

we have unnumbered process diagram.

This means that we have the number of stages clearly listed out here as the numbers 1 2 and 3 so the

first thing that you need to do when you’re writing the overview for the process diagram is you need

to list the number of steps in the first sentence.

So let’s see what that looks like.

Here is our first sentence on the whole it is clear that salmon go through a series of three stages

to complete their lifecycle so that’s what we have to do in the first sentence.

We have to describe the number of stages in the process so when you have a numbered process diagram

this is very easy to do because you can simply count the number of steps in the next sentence.

What you have to do is you have to describe the first stage of the process and the last stage of the

process.

So in this case this here is the first stage of the process and here is the final stage.

Now I want you to note that even in the process diagrams we do not mention any specific details.

Okay so you should not be mentioning any key details similar to how you don’t discuss any key numeric

details in the trend graphs and comparative graphs in the process diagrams.

You have to do the same thing.

You cannot discuss any specific details in the overview.

We only discuss the specific details in paragraphs 3 and 4 so let’s describe this forest and final stage

in our second sentence to this overview.

So here it is they initially hatched from eggs as tiny fish and continue to develop into full sized

adults over a number of years so notice that here we’re just giving some basic information.

We’re saying that in the first stage the salmon hatched from eggs as tiny fish and then they develop

over a number of years into full sized adults which you can see in the final stage here.

So that’s all you have to talk about in the overview to a process diagram.

Just talk about the number of steps or stages in the first sentence and then talk about the first and

the final stage in the second sentence and your overview is complete.

Let’s look at our next example.

This time we have a process diagram which is unnumbered meaning that we don’t have the number of steps

or stages clearly laid out for us.

So what you have to do in this case is you simply have to count the number of steps or stages so let’s

go ahead and count the number of steps in these diagrams so here we can see that in the first stage

limestone and Clay go through a crusher.

That’s the first stage in the next step.

They go through a mixer next.

They pass through a rotating hearer.

Here we have a rotating here.

And finally in the last stage the limestone and Clay go through a grinder and that’s when they get converted

into cement so if we were to count the number of steps here we can see here is number one.

Here is number two.

Here is number three.

And here is number four.

So in our first process diagram we have a total of four steps.

Now let’s go ahead and count the number of steps in our second process diagram.

So in this process diagram we can see that there are four different ingredients.

We have cement water sand and gravel and all four of these different ingredients go through a concrete

mixer and they get blended up.

They get mixed up.

So here you can see that we actually only have one stage only one process is happening here to produce

concrete so when our second process diagram we only have one stage so you may recall from our previous

discussion that the first thing you need to describe in the overview of a process diagram is the number

of steps or stages.

The next thing that you have to describe in the overview is you have to describe the starting point

of the process and the ending point of a process.

So let’s take a look at the starting and ending points of cement production so here we have the starting

point limestone and Clay go through a crusher.

That’s the first step of the process.

And here we have the final step of the process.

The final step is that this cement is put into bags again.

You should not be describing any specific details or numbers in your overview.

Now let’s take a look at the starting point and the ending point for concrete production.

Here we can see that this is the first step to concrete production and this is the last step.

So all you have to do in the overview is you have to describe these two points the starting and the

ending.

I want you to note that we’re not particularly looking at the steps here.

So when we look at the starting and the ending points in a process we’re not necessarily looking for

the stages so we’re not looking for the first stage and the last stage.

Instead we’re just seeing what’s at the beginning of the process and what’s at the end of the process

so here in the beginning of the process we have a bunch of ingredients.

Notice that this is not a stage.

However at the end of our process here we do have a stage which is the only stage in this process so

in the overview when we’re describing concrete production we’re going to be talking about these two

points the beginning and the ending so let’s go ahead and take a look at the first sentence to our overview

overall limestone and Clay path through four stages before they are turned into cement and bagged for

use so in our first sentence to our overview we are describing the first process diagram we’re saying

that limestone and Clay pass through these four stages before they are bagged for use.

So what we’ve done in this overview is first of all we have described the number of stages in the first

process.

Also we have described the starting point of the process and the ending point of the process in the

next sentence we’re going to describe concrete production.

So here’s our next sentence producing concrete however is a simple one step process wherein various

substances are blended in a concrete mixer so in this sentence we have given some very basic information.

First of all we’ve said that there is only one step to this process.

Next we’ve described that there are a number of ingredients which are mixed into a concrete mixer.

So here we’ve given some very basic information about this process diagram.

So now that we’ve discussed the number of steps and stages in both the process diagrams and we’ve also

given information about the starting and the ending points of our process our overview is now complete

So that concludes this video.

I’ll see you in the next video in which we’re going to talk about how to write the overviews for map

questions.