3.2: Reading Skills- Skimming, Scanning and Careful Reading

As you saw in Unit 1, there are different ways to approach a text. Here are three that you will need to use.

Skimming

Skimming means reading a text quickly to get the main ideas. At this stage, you don’t need to know every detail of the text—you just want to know what it is about. If you are taking a college course and you need to read a chapter of your textbook, it is a good idea to skim it first to see what it’s about. You can (and should!) go back later to read it more carefully.

If you are writing an assignment for a course, you might find a book or website that you think will be useful. Before you read the material in detail, you should skim it first. You may find that it is not useful after all, and you have saved yourself a lot of time!

How to skim

• Survey the text before you start reading. Look at any subheadings. If you are reading a whole book, look at the table of contents.
• Read quickly without stopping.
• Look at the first line or two of each paragraph; often the main idea is found there.
• If there is a section of the text, or a word or expression, that is hard to understand, don’t stop and struggle with it. Make a note in the margin, and you can come back to it later.

Scanning

Scanning is a useful reading strategy to use when you want to find a specific piece of information. Let’s imagine you need to find out what the weather is going to be like in Vancouver this weekend. You find a list of B.C. towns on a weather website, and you run your eye through them quickly until you come to Vancouver. You don’t care about the weather in Kelowna or Nanaimo or Prince George—Vancouver is where you’re going. Scanning is also what you do when you look up a phone number in the Yellow Pages, or when you check a supermarket flyer for one particular product.

How to scan

• Know what you are looking for. Usually this will be a specific fact, such as a name, date, number, or other piece of information. You are not looking for the general meaning here.
• Let your eyes drift down the page until you see what you are searching for.
• Then, read that sentence or section carefully to be sure you have the correct information.

 

Careful Reading

Many times, it is not enough to skim a text quickly. You will need to read it carefully to make sure you understand it properly. If you have a test on a particular book, you will want to do more than just skim the book! 

How to read carefully

• Don’t try to read carefully without skimming first. Have a general idea of what the text is about before you dive right in.
• Ask yourself what you want to learn from the reading. In other words, why are you reading it?
• Read with a pen or highlighter in your hand. You can underline or highlight important points, write notes in the margin, or otherwise mark up the text. Go back to Unit 1 and read the section called Be an active reader in Reading Skills—this is how to read carefully.
• Don’t forget to review what you have read. It is easy to spend hours reading something, and then, when you are done, to not have a clue what you have just read. Repeat the information in the reading back to yourself or to someone else.

 

You try it!

1.      Decide which reading strategy you would use in each of these situations. You may choose more than one.

a)     You look at the bus timetable to see what time the next bus arrives.

b)     You have received an official letter asking you to appear for jury duty.

c)      You are studying for the knowledge test to get your “L” license.

d)     You are reading a newspaper story about someone in your community.

e)     You have bought a textbook for a course, and it looks quite daunting.

 

2.      What is the most recent thing you read, either for school or for pleasure? Which reading strategy (or strategies) did you use?

 

The next reading, The Mining Industry: Ensuring Worker Safety, will give you more practice in skimming, scanning, and careful reading.