- What is the problem the paper is trying to solve?
- What are the key ideas of the paper? Key insights?
- What is the key contribution to literature at the time it was written?
- What are the most important things you take out from it?
- Does the paper solve the problem well?
This is where you should think critically. Every paper/idea has a weakness. This does not mean the paper is necessarily bad. It means there is room for improvement and future research can accomplish this.