After preparing to read by previewing and predicting, there are other strategies we can use to understand a reading passage. In this section, you will learn about skimming and scanning. These strategies will help you find the main idea and details presented in a nonfiction text.


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. This is how we skim a text:

  • 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. Scanning is what we do when we look up a phone number in the Yellow Pages or when we check a supermarket flyer for one particular product. This is how we scan a text:

  • Know what you are looking for. Usually, this will be a specific fact, such as a name, date, number, or another 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.

When we use scanning to find specific information in a nonfiction text, we use keywords. The tutorial below explains how we scan to find specific information.


Source:

Text adapted from Tania Pattison and Coast Mountain College,  https://www.nscc.ca/library/docs/copyright/oer/otb197-01-college-skills-intermediate-english.pdf
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Video: Project IDEA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Sn7f7pkXI
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.