Learning Strategies

Strategy -��Skimming and Scanning

Definition

Skimming:

It is about looking at a page and only taking notice of the things that stand out from the page such as, headings, diagrams, pictures from this you make a decision whether you will read further or not!

Scanning:

This is when you look through material to find specific information or answers without reading all of the material in detail, take note of special text (like bold, boxed, underlined, capitals).

Why use it?

The long way to obtain information on any given topic is to read the information from the first to the last page, whether that be a book, article, or newspaper.

This can be tedious, time consuming, and you may end up reading a lot of irrelevant material.

To find out what a article or book or section is about.
To find a relevant section in a textbook quickly.
You can see if some passage, section or item is of any use, without reading it in detail.

How to skim and scan

Allow your eyes to quickly move across the words in a sentence without stopping on any particular words. Find key words that give you an understanding of what the section is about.
Search for key sentences and words, and read the introductory and/or concluding paragraphs.
The object is to find information quickly or to see if a section is relevant.
Decide whether you want to read the parts of the article or book

1. An Article or Page

As you look at a page, let your eyes search for key words, headings, highlighted text, phrases.
Read the first or last paragraph as it often will be a summary of what has been written or will say what the next section will be about!

2. A Book

read the forward/introduction to identify the purpose of the book
use the table of contents to find the subject for each chapter and chapter sub-sections
read chapter summaries, usually located at the beginning or end of the chapter
read specific chapters which deal with your subject area
within a chapter scan paragraph headings, text in bold, or text specially formatted to draw you attention

scan paragraphs to identify key sentences.

Handy Hints

Have an ideal of what you are looking for before starting

Give all the material a quick skim to get an idea of what is all about before scanning

If the material is long, use skimming to find the part you need.

If it is difficult to read take a little longer with the scanning to pick up the key ideas.

You can practice the technique on newspapers, tv guides, telephone directories.

Activities
Activity 1

How you read a newspaper?. Do you scan, skim, or read every article front to back in the paper? Or do you go to your favourite section, eg. sport, comics, or crossword.

Try consciously skimming and scanning your newspaper to get an overview of the news of the day

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Activity 2

Pick a topic that you have for an assignment, and search two text books using the scanning to identify the relevant pages and sections of the textbooks.

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Activity 3

For one day whatever you read consciously search for the key sentences which identify the main ideas put forward by the writer.