SKIMMING AND SCANNING

SKIMMING
Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information or ‘gist’.
It’s not essential to understand each word when you are skimming. Run your
eyes over the text, noting important information. Use skimming to quickly get
up to speed on a current business situation.

Skimming Questions
• What is the general meaning?
• Does this agree with what I already know about this subject?
• What is the writer's opinion?
• Will this information be useful to me?

How to Skim? Working quickly…

1. Read the title if there is one.
2. Read the introduction or the first paragraph if there is one.
3. Read the first sentence of every other paragraph.
4. Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.
5. Notice any italicized or boldface words or phrases.
6. Read the summary or last paragraph if there is one.

Skimming Movie Reviews

Movie reviews in newspapers, magazines, or on the Web usually provide
information and the reviewer's opinion about the movie. To get a sense of
whether or not you would like to see a movie, you do not have to read the
review all the way through you can skim it.
Read the questions and skim another review of Super Size Me. This time
you must decide which part to skim. You should skim only those parts of
the text that will help you answer the questions. Work as quickly as you
can.
1. Does this writer have a positive or negative opinion of the movie?
2. Does the writer the recomend the movie?
3. In which aspect(s) of the movie is this reviewer most interested?
Skimming for Research
Skimming is especially useful when you need to do research, since it allows
you to look quickly through lots of material to get a general idea of the
content and to decide if it is relevant for your purposes.

A. Read the research question.

Research question:
In the United States, the infant mortality rate is 7.0 (seven deaths for every
thousand babies under the age of one). Though this is lower than the
mortality rate in many developing countries (which range up to 287.5 in
Angola), it is higher than in all other developed countries. It is higher even
than the rate in some developing countries, such as Cuba or Singapore (with
the lowest rate of 2.29). What could explain the relatively high infant mortality
rate in the United States?

Skimming questions:
1. Does this article contain information that is useful for your research?
2. Does it discuss the cause(s) of the high infant mortality rate in the United
States?
3. If so, what causes are mentioned?
Skimming question:
1. Does this article contain information that is useful for your research?
2. Does it discuss the cause(s) of the high infant mortality rate in the
united states?
3. If so, what cause are mentioned?
SCANNING
Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want to find specific
information quickly. In scanning you have a question in your mind and you
read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring unrelated information.
Examples of Scanning:
 Browsing television schedules, timetables, recipes, catalogues or
webpages, A Google search list on the internet, A bus / airplane
schedule, A conference guide, A graph for information. 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 text and need to find it quickly.
How to scan? State the specific information you are looking for.
1. 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 identify which sections might
contain the information you are looking for.
2. Look out for words highlighted in bold or underlined.
3. Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you might
use to help you locate the answer. For example, if you were looking for
a certain date, you would quickly read the paragraph looking only for
numbers.
4. Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage.
5. With longer books, use the chapter list or index system.
Scanning Practice
1.

Find as fast as you can

1. How much it pays?
2. Where the job is based?
3. the main contact number
Find as fast as you can…
1. a news programme
2. a movie programme
3. a nature programme
Conclusion
Skimming and scanning is used when reading all types of documents.
We skim to get the idea of what a document is about and typically skim all
documents before we actually begin to read.
The aim skimming and scanning is to learn how to find key information
in a text and to learn how to read fast under pressure. Skimming and
scanning are very rapid reading methods in which you glance at a passage to
find specific information. These reading methods make it easier for you to
graps large amounts of material, especially when you're previewing. They are
also useful when you don't need to know every word.

Skim and scan this paragraph in 30 seconds

When you skim and scan, you need to cover everything, even titles, subtitles,
side features, and visuals. That bit of information you need may not be tidily
packaged in a paragraph, so you need to check the entire page--not just the
main body of the text, there are also many visual clues that help you to find
information. Heads and subheads break up the text and identify the content
of each part. Where key terms are introduced and defined, they appear in
boldface type. Graphs and charts have titles and/or captions that tell you
what they are about. These clues will help you to find information . . . but only
if you use them.
You have thirty seconds starting now…

In other words, when you are skimming and scanning…

 Cover everything
 Check entire page
 Notice visual clues
 Notice graphs, charts, titles, captions