Scanning, Skimming &

Speed Reading
Adapted from BBC
  You can use the scanning technique to look up a phone number,
read through the small ads in a newspaper, or for browsing
television schedules, timetables, lists, catalogues or webpages for
information. For these tasks you don’t need to read or understand
every word.
Scanning text  You can use the scanning technique to look up a phone number,
read through the small ads in a newspaper, or for browsing
television schedules, timetables, lists, catalogues or webpages for
information. For these tasks you don’t need to read or understand
every word.
  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.
 In a dictionary or phone book, use the header words to help you
scan. You can find these in bold type at the top of each page.
 If you’re reading for study, start by thinking up or writing down
Tips: better some questions that you want to answer. Doing this can focus
your mind and help you find the facts or information that you need
scanning more easily.
 Many texts list things in alphabetical order from A to Z. These
include everyday materials, such as the phone book or indexes to
books and catalogues.
 There are many ways to practise scanning skills. Try looking up a
favourite recipe in the index of a cookbook or scan webpages on
the internet to find specific information.
  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.
What are  When scanning a reading passage, it is most important that you
some know the key words in the question so that you can find the key
words in the reading passage.
scanning  When looking for specific details, there are different ways to scan
techniques? a reading passage.
 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.
  There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the
number is rising by more than 40 million each year. The average
distance driven by car users is growing too - from 8 km a day per
person in western Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in 1995. This
dependence on motor vehicles has given rise to major problems,
including environmental pollution, depletion of oil resources, traffic
Find all of the congestion and safety.

key words in  There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the
number is rising by more than 40 million each year . The average
the paragraph: distance driven by car users is growing too - from 8 km a day per
person in western Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in 1995 . This
dependence on motor vehicles has given rise to major problems ,
including environmental pollution , depletion of oil
resources , traffic congestion and safety .
  Skimming is a reading technique that can help you: • read more
quickly • decide if the text is interesting and whether you should
Skimming read it in more detail
 You can use the skimming technique when you want to identify
the main ideas in the text.
  The term skimming is often confused with scanning.
How is  You skim a text to obtain the gist - the overall sense - of a piece of
skimming writing. This can help you decide whether to read it more slowly
and in more detail. • You scan a text to obtain specific information.
different to For example, to find a particular number in a telephone directory.
scanning?
  When you use the skimming technique you don’t read the whole
text word for word. You should use as many clues as possible to
give you some background information. There might be pictures
or images related to the topic, or an eye-catching title. Let your
eyes skim over the surface of the text and look out for key words
while thinking about any clues you’ve found about the subject.
HINTS:
How do you  Read the title, subtitles and subheadings to find out what the text
skim read? is about.
 Look at the illustrations to give you more information about the
topic.
 Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
 Don’t read every word or every sentence. Let your eyes skim over
the text and look out for key words.
 Continue to think about the meaning of the text.
What Is Speed  On average, an adult can read somewhere between 200 to 300
Reading? words per minute. With speed reading, you can read around 1500
words per minute.[1] Yes, that sounds impossible, but it is true.
  The first step is for the eyes to look at a word. This “fixation” on
every word takes around 0.25 seconds.
 Next, the eye moves on to the following word. It takes 0.1 seconds
for the brain to move from one word to the next. This is called
“saccade.”
The Reading  Usually, a person reads 4 to 5 words or a sentence at once. After all
Process the fixations and saccades, the brain goes over the entire phrase
again in order to process the meaning. This takes around half a
second.
 All in all, this allows the average person to read 200 to 300 words
in a minute.
  The concept of speed reading is to speed up this process at least 5
times. Since the saccade period cannot be shortened any further,
speed reading emphasizes quicker fixations.
 To accomplish this, scientists recommend that the reader skips
the subvocalization: when the readers actually say the word in
their mind, even when reading silently.
Speeding up  Basically, speed reading is the technique of only seeing the words
instead of speaking them silently.
the process  Do not confuse this with skimming. When a reader skims through
a text, they skip the parts that their brain considers to be
unnecessary.
 You may skip important information in this process. Moreover,
skimming does not allow the brain to retain what has been read.
  Speed reading is not just quick, but also effective. This skill saves a
lot of of time without sacrificing information.
 Also, it has been proven to improve memory. The brain’s
performance improves during speed reading, which allows the
Why Speed reader to remember more information than before.
 Since speed reading stabilizes the brain, the information is
Read? (1) processed faster and more efficiently.
 Believe it or not, this technique leads to improved focus, too. As
the brain receives a lot of information during speed reading, there
is far less chance of distraction. The brain focuses solely on the job
at hand.
  Since the brain is, after all, a muscle, the process of speed reading
acts as an exercise. Just like the rest of your muscles, your brain
needs exercise to grow stronger, too.
 A focused brain means improved logical thinking. As your brain
gets used to receiving and organizing so much information so
Why Speed quickly, your thinking process will become faster.
Read? (2)  As soon as a problem is thrown at you, your brain will quickly put
two and two together. You will be able to retrieve stored
information, figure out correlations, and come up with new
solutions, all within seconds!