Skimming and Scanning
Skimming
What is skimming?
Skimming is one type of fast reading. Skimming is a reading technique that can help you, for example, to:
- read more quickly
- decide if the text is interesting and whether you should read it in more detail.
- identify the main ideas in the text – the gist, the overall sense of a piece of writing.
- find out areas interesting news in a newspaper or on a website.
- find out if a book has some information that you are seeking. (skimming the index or contents or summary of each chapter)
- Look through a tv guide to find out what is on tv
- Flick through a catalogue to see what is on offer
- Look through the options given on a Google search to see what sites it suggests.
How do you skim read?
You don’t read the whole word by word. You should use as many clues as possible to give you some background information. There might be tables, diagrams, pictures related to the topic or an eye-catching title. Let your eyes skim over the surface of the text and look out for key words while thinking about any clues you’ve found about the subject.
- read the title, subtitles, and subheadings to find out what the text is about.
- Look at the illustrations to give you more information about the topic.
- Read the first and last paragraphs to get the main points.
- Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph to see where the content of the paragraph will lead.
- Don’t read every word or every sentence. Let your eyes skim over the text and look out for key words.
- Continue to think about the meaning of the text.
Scanning Text
What is scanning?
Scanning is one type of fast reading.
When you look up the word “valuable” in the dictionary you don’t start at the letter A and read every word. You try to be efficient by going directly to the letter V and then find the words beginning with va-. This is called scanning through the dictionary.
Why do you scan?
You scan a text to obtain specific information. For example, to find a particular number in a telephone directory.
You can use the scanning technique to:
- look up a phone number in a telephone directory.
- read through the small ads in a newspaper.
- to browse television schedules.
- browse timetables.
- browse lists for somebody’s name information about some item.
- browse catalogues (e.g., to find out details or price of a product).
- browse webpages for information.
- know on what page the information you are looking for is in a book by scanning the index of a book.
- know which chapter contains the topic you are interested in by scanning the contents page in a book.
- look up a word in a dictionary or index
- Find an address on a webpage or some article
- Check what time your programme is on television.
- Pick out the website you want from options given by a search engine.
For these tasks you don’t need to read or understand every word. Scanning is also useful when you don’t have time to read every word. This could be when you’re studying or looking for specific information from a book or article and need to find it quickly.
How to scan?
- Don’t try to read every word. Instead let your eyes move quickly across the page until you find what you’re looking for.
- Use clues on the page, such as headings and titles, to help you.
- In a dictionary or phone book, use the header words to help you scan. You can find these in bold type at the top of each page.
- Many texts list things in alphabetical order from A to Z. These include everyday materials, such as the phone book or indexes to books and catalogues. Scan with the help of those indexes to find quickly the information that you are seeking.
How do you practice scanning techniques?
There are many ways to practise scanning skills. Some examples are given below.
- Try looking up a favourite recipe in the index of a cookbook.
- Search for a plumber in your local Yellow Pages.
- Scan web pages on the Internet to find specific information.
Exercises:
There are many ways to practise scanning skills. Some examples are given below.
