SKIMMING 

is reading quickly to find the general overview of the passage.

Always think about the title, headings, and topic sentences of reading passages, as they are the
main ideas. Always read the major parts such as the titles and headings carefully when you are
skimming a reading passage. The main idea of entire readings, sections, or paragraphs of
reading passages should become clear when doing this.

Reading either the first sentence, or the first and last sentence of a paragraph is another great
skimming technique. The first and/or last sentence of a paragraph will provide enough
information about the general overview of a paragraph for the most part. Heading match and
title match questions are easier to answer when using this technique.

Purposes of Skimming
o To see what is in the news on a website or on a paper
o To look through a text to decide whether you want to read it or not
o To look through the television guide/program schedule to plan your evening
o To see through a catalog to choose an offer
o To go through the options after searching something on Google
o And many more

Skimming: Steps to Follow

o Read the title first. Generally, titles will give you the most important idea of the text.
If the title does not interest you, you will probably skip it at once.
o Then read the sub-headings (if any) of the text. It will give a basic idea about the text
and what’s in it.
o If there is no sub-heading, read the first line or first few lines of the text. It will give
you the gist of the text.
o If you want to skim it further, you may read the first lines of all the paragraphs and
focus on the emphasized (bolded & italicized) words in them to get more ideas about the
text.
SCANNING is reading quickly to find specific details within the passage.

Key words are most important when scanning. When scanning a text, vocabulary such are
proper nouns, dates, numbers, and times is what you are looking for. Specific details can also
be found when using scanning techniques.

When scanning a reading passage, it is most important that you know the key words in the
question so that you can find the key words in the reading passage.

When looking for specific details, there are different ways to scan a reading passage. Here are
some examples:

You can follow your finger or a pen/pencil in order to create better scanning techniques.
Circling or underlining the key words within the reading passage is another good option to
consider.

Purposes of Scanning
o To search for a word in a dictionary or index
o To find a phone number or an address in a directory
o To check the time schedule of a program in an agenda
o To check the price of a specific item in a catalog
o To know a particular information from a text

Scanning: Steps to Follow

o Before starting to scan a text for a particular information, you know some basic things
about that text. You will not be able to scan a text efficiently if you do not have a basic
idea about that text. If the text is completely unknown to you, you should skim it first to
get some ideas about that text. This will help you to guess the section or part of the text
where you might find the information you need.
o Notice how the information is arranged. It can be arranged either alphabetically or
numerically. However, some texts are not arranged at all. In that case, you have to guess
a section and scan it through to get your information.
o Scanning a random unknown page of a text is difficult. It may take more time than the
usual. However, it won’t take too much time if you move your eyes vertically and
diagonally keeping in mind the exact letters or numbers you are looking for.