DAVID DUNN

INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC READING

Skimming and scanning

What is skimming?

• used to quickly find the main ideas of a text

When might you use skimming?

In what situations is it useful?

• 3-4 times faster than normal reading

Typical skimming strategies

• Read the first and last paragraphs of an article first.

• Notice the titles and headings and subheadings.

• Look at the illustrations, graphs or other visuals on the page.

• Read the captions of the visuals.

• Read the first sentence of each paragraph.

Now look at a copy of the front page of Monday’sWashington Post.

Skim the page and tell the class which stories caught your attention and why

Scanning

• Reading a train timetable

• Looking on the VLD for the room number of your English class

• Checking the price for those super cute shoes on Zalando

Scan the Washington Post front pageand find the following information

• How much does it cost?• What did Souza do?• What was the weather like in Washington on Tuesday?• On what page is the article about a dog?• What is Dawn White’s job title?• On what page is the TV guide?• What is the name of the scriptwriter of “State of Myths”?• What is Kames Clapper’s father’s name?• Find and explain these numbers:

• 1-0• 0.3 %• 102• 297,000• 79/62

So what’s the differencebetween skimming and scanning?

When you skim, you read through an article three to four times faster than when you read each word. You skim when you want a quick idea ofwhat’s in the text.

Scanning refers to reading through material to find specific information. When you scan, you run your eyes over text or information to pull out specific words, phrases, or data. When you scan, you already know whatyou are looking for.

So what’s the differencebetween skimming and scanning?

Now do the skimming exercises with the article

Remember! You always read with a purpose.

Ask yourselves questions to focus your reading

• Who is the story about?• What is “neglect”?• What is the cause?• How are social workers dealing with the problem?• What percentage of potentially neglected children

are NOT being helped?• What may happen in the future?• How can the problem be fixed?*

* After this quick skim read, go back and see how many new/useful words you could learn.

Useful resources for reading the news in English

• 6 Q’s about the news – Learning with the New York Times

• Dutchnews.nl – News from the Netherlands in English

• BBC Learning English – News, quizzes, games

Take-home message

You can read more effectively and efficientlyby using simple strategies such as skimming and scanning.