skimming-and-scanning

SkimmingWhatisSkimmingSkimmingisveryfastreading.Whenyouskim,youreadtogetthemainideasandafew,butnotall,ofthedetails.Toskimrapidlyyoumustleaveoutpartsofthearticleorstory.Skimmingisaveryusefulskill.Itwillallowyoutogetinformationquicklyfromanythingyouread.Knowinghowtoskimwillmakeyouabetterreader.WhyskimmingGoodreadersareabletoadapttheirreadingskillstosuitthereadingmaterialandthepurposeforreading.Forexample,witheasymaterialsuchasnewspaperornovel,theaveragerateofspeedforanadult(nativespeaker)mayvaryfrom250-500words/mwithabout70percentcomprehension.UsinganaveragerateofspeedtocoverthislargeamountofreadingmatterwouldtakemoretimethanisusuallyavailableInaddition,thereisnotneedtoreadsuchmaterialwithahighdegreeofcomprehension.Whengoodreaderswishtocoverlargeamountsofmaterialquickly,theyskim.Skimmingvs.AverageReadingItisimportanttonoteabasicdifferencebetweenskimmingandaveragereading.Inaveragereadingthereaderomitsnopartofthereadingmatter,i.e.,sentencesorparagraphs.Skimmingrequiresthereaderselectivelyomitpartsofthereadingmaterial.Forexample,thereadermaynotfinishaparagraphaftergraspingthemainidea.Inskimming,thereaderomitsportionsofthematerialtoincreasereadingspeed.ComprehensionandSpeed-Skimmingalsodiffersfromaveragereadinginthattheacceptedlevelofcomprehension.Inaveragereadingthegoalistotoachieve70or80percentcomprehensionwhileinskimmingalowercomprehensionlevelisexpected,.Anaverageof50or60percentcomprehensionisacceptable.-Itisdifficulttosayexactlyhowfastskimmingshouldbe,butaruleofthumbisthatitshouldbetwiceasfastastheaveragereadingspeed.HowtoSkimWhattoReadLetussaythatasixthgradestudent(125-250w/m)wishestoskimafactualselectionofseveralthousandwords.Thestudentshouldreadthefirstparagraphortwoinitsentiretyatthefastestaveragerate(200-300w/m)tograsptheideaofthestory,thesetting,alittleoftheauthor’sstyle,thetoneormood,andsoon.Frequentlyanauthorwillgiveanintroductioninthefirstfewparagraphs,presentinganoverallpictureoftheselection.WhattoLeaveOutOncethestudenthasanoverviewoftheselection,heorsheshouldbeginimmediatelytoleaveoutportionsofthetextinordertoachieveaskimmingrateof400wordsperminuteorbetter,Hence,onthethirdorfourthparagraph,thestudentreadsonlythekeysentencetogetthemainideaoftheparagraphandskipstheremainingpartoftheparagraph.Orthestudentmayreadthekeysentencesthroughouttheparagraph,pickinguponeortwoimportantwords,phrases,ornumbers.FindingtheManIdea-Inskimming,thestudentshouldattempttogetthemainideaofeveryparagraphplusafewfacts.He/shecannothopetopickupallthefactsinthestorybutpickupsomefacts,namesornumbers.-Anexampleofhowastudentmightskimanarticleisgiventoyou.Noticethathe/shereadsallofthefirstandsecondparagraphstogetoverview.Bythethirdorfourthparagraphthereadermustbegintoleaveoutmaterial,readingonlykeysentencesandphrasestogetthemainideasandafewofthedetails.Notealsothatsincefinalparagraphsoftensummarize,itisoftenwisetoreadthemmorefully.-Dothefollowingexercises!ScanningWhatisScanningScanningisareadingtechniqueusedwhenonewishestolocateasinglefactoraspecificbitofinformationwithoutreadingeverything.Thegoalistofinditquickly.Scanningisaskillyouuseoften.Knowinghowtoscanbetterwillhelpyoufindinformationmorequicklyandaccurately.WhyscanningScanningisnotnewtoyou.YouhaveusedthisreadingskillmanytimesindailyactivitiessuchaslookingforthetimeandchannelofaTVprograminthenewspaper,orscanningpagesinthetelephonedirectorytofindatelephonenumber.Inordertofindtheinformationquickly,youhavetousethetechniqueofscanning.Scanningshouldbebothfastandaccurate.HowtoScanInordertoscanquicklyandaccurately,youshould:1.Notethearrangementofinformationa.AlphabeticalArrangementMuchoftheresourcematerialthatisscannedisarrangedalphabetically,suchasadictionary,theindexofabook.b.Non-alphabeticalArrangementNotallmaterialisarrangedalphabetically,however,forexample,TVlistingsarelistedbydayandtime,historicaldatemaybearrangedbymonthandyear.c.ProseMaterialWhateverthesourceofreference,itisarrangedinsomelogicalway.Inordertosavereadingtime,itisimportanttoknowthearrangementofthematerialintheresourcebeingused.Toprepareforscanning,youshouldtakeafewminutestodiscovertheorganizationofthematerial.2.KeepcluewordsinmindWhenthestudenthasfoundthesectionlikelytocontaintheinformationneeded,he/sheisreadytobeginscanning.Somecluewordsorphrasesassociatedwiththespecificfactswillaidinthescanning.SpeedandAccuracySincethepurposeinscanningistolocateinformationquicklyandaccurately,accuracyandahighrateofspeedisveryessential.Oncefindingtheappropriatesectionofthematerialandhavingcluewordsinmind,thestudentsshouldstrivetoscanasmuchoftheprintedmatteraspossibleintheleastamountoftime,andthegoalshouldbe100percentaccuracy.