Introduction
SKIMMING AND SCANNINGSkimming and scanning are two specific speed-reading techniques, which enable you to cover a vast amount of material very rapidly. These techniques are similar in process but different in purpose. Quickly "looking over" an article is neither skimming nor scanning.
Task
There are different types of skills used when approaching reading material. When people wish to find only important ideas and not all the details, they often skim a text. This involves different strategies; for example, when a person skims a newspaper article, he/she reads the headline, the opening lead line, the first paragraph which contains an overview of information. However, the reader probably merely skims the remaining paragraphs of the article, reading the beginning sentences and glancing at nouns in the paragraph. Skimming is used when a person is not interested so much in total comprehension, but is instead trying to locate essential points and major details. Skimming is used to find the main ideas of a text. Skimming is useful in three different situations.
•Pre-reading : Skimming is more thorough than simple previewing and can give a more accurate picture of text to be read later.
•Reviewing : Skimming is useful for reviewing text already read.
•Reading : Skimming is most often used for quickly reading material that, for any number of reasons, does not need more detailed attention.
Scanning is a technique used when a person tries to find a specific item such as a telephone number, a date, a time, etc. For instance, people often scan flight and train schedules, or they scan a page in a telephone book. Scanning involves very rapid movement of a person's eyes up and down a page. When scanning people often focus on the author's use of organizers such as bold print, lettering, numbering, colors, signal words such as first, second, and so on. After locating the area on the page that the person desires, he/she may then skim for more information. Scanning is very useful for finding a specific name, date, statistic, or fact without reading the entire article.
Process
Steps in skimming an article
• Read the title--it is the shortest possible summary of the content.
• Read the introduction or lead-in paragraph.
• Read the first paragraph completely.
• If there are subheadings, read each one, looking for relationships among them.
• Read the first sentence of each remaining paragraph.
a. The main idea of most paragraphs appears in the first sentence.
b. If the author's pattern is to begin with a question or anecdote, you may find the last sentence more valuable.
• Dip into the text looking for:
a. Clue words that answer who, what, when, why, how
b. Proper nouns
c. Unusual words, especially if capitalized
d. Enumerations
e. Qualifying adjectives (best, worst, most, etc.)
f. Typographical cues--italics, boldface, underlining, asterisks, etc.
• Read the final paragraph completely.
• Mastering the art of skimming effectively requires that you use it as frequently as possible.
• Skimming can usually be accomplished at about 1000 words per minute.
Steps in scanning an article.
• Keep in mind at all times what it is you are searching for. If you hold the image of the word or idea clearly in mind, it is likely to appear more clearly than the surrounding words.
• Anticipate in what form the information is likely to appear--numbers, proper nouns, etc.
• Analyze the organization of the content before starting to scan.
a. If material is familiar or fairly brief, you may be able to scan the entire article in a single search.
b. If the material is lengthyor difficult, a preliminary skimming may be necessary to determine which part of the article to scan.
• Let your eyes run rapidly over several lines of print at a time.
• When you find the sentence that has the information you seek, read the entire sentence.
• In scanning, you must be willing to skip over large sections of text without
reading or understanding them.
• Scanning can be done at 1500 or more words per minute.
Conclusion
The reading scanning techniques and skimming can improve the ability to read and understand