skimming-and-scanning

1、SkimmingWhatisSkimmingSkimmingisveryfastreading.Whenyouskim,youreadtogetthemainideasandafew,butnotall,ofthedetails.Toskimrapidlyyoumustleaveoutpartsofthearticleorstory.Skimmingisaveryusefulskill.Itwillallowyoutogetinformationquicklyfromanythingyouread.Knowinghowtoskimwillmakeyouabetterreader.WhyskimmingGoodreadersareabletoadapttheirreadingskillstosuitthereadingmaterialandthepurposeforreading.Forexample,witheasymaterialsuchasnewspaperornovel,theaveragerateofspeedforanadult(nativespeaker)mayvary。

2、from250-500words/mwithabout70percentcomprehension.UsinganaveragerateofspeedtocoverthislargeamountofreadingmatterwouldtakemoretimethanisusuallyavailableInaddition,thereisnotneedtoreadsuchmaterialwithahighdegreeofcomprehension.Whengoodreaderswishtocoverlargeamountsofmaterialquickly,theyskim.Skimmingvs.AverageReadingItisimportanttonoteabasicdifferencebetweenskimmingandaveragereading.Inaveragereadingthereaderomitsnopartofthereadingmatter,i.e.,sentencesorparagraphs.Skimmingrequiresthereaderselective。

3、lyomitpartsofthereadingmaterial.Forexample,thereadermaynotfinishaparagraphaftergraspingthemainidea.Inskimming,thereaderomitsportionsofthematerialtoincreasereadingspeed.ComprehensionandSpeed-Skimmingalsodiffersfromaveragereadinginthattheacceptedlevelofcomprehension.Inaveragereadingthegoalistotoachieve70or80percentcomprehensionwhileinskimmingalowercomprehensionlevelisexpected,.Anaverageof50or60percentcomprehensionisacceptable.-Itisdifficulttosayexactlyhowfastskimmingshouldbe,butaruleofthumbisthati。

4、tshouldbetwiceasfastastheaveragereadingspeed.HowtoSkimWhattoReadLetussaythatasixthgradestudent(125-250w/m)wishestoskimafactualselectionofseveralthousandwords.Thestudentshouldreadthefirstparagraphortwoinitsentiretyatthefastestaveragerate(200-300w/m)tograsptheideaofthestory,thesetting,alittleoftheauthor’sstyle,thetoneormood,andsoon.Frequentlyanauthorwillgiveanintroductioninthefirstfewparagraphs,presentinganoverallpictureoftheselection.WhattoLeaveOutOncethestudenthasanoverviewoftheselection,heorshe。

5、shouldbeginimmediatelytoleaveoutportionsofthetextinordertoachieveaskimmingrateof400wordsperminuteorbetter,Hence,onthethirdorfourthparagraph,thestudentreadsonlythekeysentencetogetthemainideaoftheparagraphandskipstheremainingpartoftheparagraph.Orthestudentmayreadthekeysentencesthroughouttheparagraph,pickinguponeortwoimportantwords,phrases,ornumbers.FindingtheManIdea-Inskimming,thestudentshouldattempttogetthemainideaofeveryparagraphplusafewfacts.He/shecannothopetopickupallthefactsinthestorybutpicku。

6、psomefacts,namesornumbers.-Anexampleofhowastudentmightskimanarticleisgiventoyou.Noticethathe/shereadsallofthefirstandsecondparagraphstogetoverview.Bythethirdorfourthparagraphthereadermustbegintoleaveoutmaterial,readingonlykeysentencesandphrasestogetthemainideasandafewofthedetails.Notealsothatsincefinalparagraphsoftensummarize,itisoftenwisetoreadthemmorefully.-Dothefollowingexercises!ScanningWhatisScanningScanningisareadingtechniqueusedwhenonewishestolocateasinglefactoraspecificbitofinformationw。

7、ithoutreadingeverything.Thegoalistofinditquickly.Scanningisaskillyouuseoften.Knowinghowtoscanbetterwillhelpyoufindinformationmorequicklyandaccurately.WhyscanningScanningisnotnewtoyou.YouhaveusedthisreadingskillmanytimesindailyactivitiessuchaslookingforthetimeandchannelofaTVprograminthenewspaper,orscanningpagesinthetelephonedirectorytofindatelephonenumber.Inordertofindtheinformationquickly,youhavetousethetechniqueofscanning.Scanningshouldbebothfastandaccurate.HowtoScanInordertoscanquicklyandacc。

8、urately,youshould:1.Notethearrangementofinformationa.AlphabeticalArrangementMuchoftheresourcematerialthatisscannedisarrangedalphabetically,suchasadictionary,theindexofabook.b.Non-alphabeticalArrangementNotallmaterialisarrangedalphabetically,however,forexample,TVlistingsarelistedbydayandtime,historicaldatemaybearrangedbymonthandyear.c.ProseMaterialWhateverthesourceofreference,itisarrangedinsomelogicalway.Inordertosavereadingtime,itisimportanttoknowthearrangementofthematerialintheresourcebeinguse。

9、d.Toprepareforscanning,youshouldtakeafewminutestodiscovertheorganizationofthematerial.2.KeepcluewordsinmindWhenthestudenthasfoundthesectionlikelytocontaintheinformationneeded,he/sheisreadytobeginscanning.Somecluewordsorphrasesassociatedwiththespecificfactswillaidinthescanning.SpeedandAccuracySincethepurposeinscanningistolocateinformationquicklyandaccurately,accuracyandahighrateofspeedisveryessential.Oncefindingtheappropriatesectionofthematerialandhavingcluewordsinmind,thestudentsshouldstriveto。

10、scanasmuchoftheprintedmatteraspossibleintheleastamountoftime,andthegoalshouldbe100percentaccuracy.。