Ryan's assignment is to prepare a research paper on the Industrial Revolution for his American history class. What should Ryan do to
get an overview of the topic?

An overview of the topic is a specific topic that will receive the larger amount of focus on the research paper.

In order to get this, there are several steps that Ryan need to do :

- Understanding the theme of the research.

  Ryan need to cross out the topics that do not fit with the theme.

- Identify experts, researchers and theorists

  These would determine the amount of sources that Ryan can    use in his paper. The more people he can identify, the more information he can obtain from their works

- Finding out potential questions that might arise from the paper

  The overview topic will provide at least a general answer to these questions

- Collecting facts and  statistics related to the topic

  This being done to made sure that the information that he put within the overview of the topic is credible.