Skimming-and-scanning

Skimming(略读)Skimmingisreadingforthegeneralideaorthebigpicture.Asarapid-readingskill,skimmingmaynotbesofamiliartoyou.Ifyoudooneofthefollowing,youwillfindyourselfskimming:1.Rereadmaterialyouhavealreadystudied.2.Lookoverandsortoutyourmail.3.Flipthroughanewbookormagazine.4.Keepinformedinageneralwayaboutthenews.HowtoskimLetyoureyesfloatdownoverthecontentofthetext,lookingforcluewordsthatmaytellyouwho,what,when,where,howmany,orhowmuch.Lookalsoforthewriter'sdirectionwords.Suchwordsasfurthermoreandalsosuggestthattheprecedingthoughtisstillbeingdiscussed.Wordssuchashowever,yetandonthecontrarysuggestthatthethoughtisapttoreverseitselfortakeanotherdirection.HowtoskimWhenyoudonotintendtoreadclosely,youstartskimming.Thekeywordforskimmingisgeneral.Yourattentionshouldbefocusedonageneraloverview,notadetailedknowledge.Youshouldlookforonlythetopic,themainideaorthemainpoints.Skimmingisnotthesameascarefulreading.Infact,somepeopledon'tcallitreadingatall;theycallitsemi-reading.Goodskimmersreadselectively,completelyskippingoversomesentences,paragraphs,evenwholepages.Theyknowthattheycanalwayscomebackandreadfordetails,iftheywish.StepsforskimmingThefollowingpracticalstepsforskimmingaresuggestedtohelpyougetstarted:1.Readthetitle.2.Notetheauthor'snameandthesourceofthetext.3.Readthefirstparagraphcompletely.4.Readsubheadingsandfirstsentencesofremainingparagraphs.Stepsforskimming5.Alternativelyreadandfloatoverthebodyofthematerial,lookingforthefollowing:Mainideaofparagraphs,withsomeofthemoreimportantsupportingdetails;Cluewords,suchasnames,dates,andqualifyingadjectives;Directionwords,indicatingthewriter'sagreementordisagreementwiththeideaunderdiscussion;Numberedsequencesandideassetoffbyattention-gettingmarkings,suchasitalicorboldfacetype,capitalletters,asterisksandsoon.6.Ifthefinalparagraphappearstobeasummary,readitcompletely.Scanning（寻读）Scanningislookingfortheexactanswertoaspecificquestion.Thedifferencebetweenskimmingandscanningisthatskimmingaimsatgainingageneralpicturewhilescanninglooksforonethinginparticular.Herearesomeofthesimplestreasonstouseyourscanningability.Reasonsforscanning1.Findingawordinthedictionary;2.Locatingacertainstreetortownonamap;3.Findingacertaintrain'sdeparturetimeinatraintimetable;4.Lookingfornewsofaspecificathlete,meeting,ortrafficaccidentinthenewspaper;5.Findingthesubject,author,ortitleyouwantinthelibrary'scardcatalogorontheshelf;6.Locatinginformationinabookindexortableofcontents.MorereasonsforscanningAsaskillofefficientreading,scanningcanbeusefultoyouinmanyothersituations.Forexample,fromaparticulartextyoumaywishtofindaname,date,statistics,orotherfacts.Oryoumaywishtofindaphraseorgeneralideathatwillsupportatheoryorclarifyathought.HowtoscanScanningisnotreadingintheordinarysense.Whenyouscan,youletyoureyesrunrapidlyoverseverallinesofprintatatime,lookingforaspecificfactoridea.Sometimesitcanbeadifficulttask,aswhenthewordingofyourinformationisdifferentfromthewordingofyourquestion.Theimportantpointisthatyourecognizewhatyouarelookingfor.Stepsforscanning1.Notethetimewhenyoustarttheexercise.2.Readcarefullythefirstquestiononthetext.3.Scan,butdonotreadintheusualway,theparagraphsofthetexttofindtheanswertothequestion.4.Markyouranswertoquestioneitherbycirclingtheletterorbyfillingintheblank.5.Goontothesecondquestionimmediately,andrepeatthisprocess.Completeallthequestionsonthetext.6.Makeanoteofyourfinishingtime