Skimming strategies

Skimming involves running your eyes quickly over the text to find out the main ideas contained within it.

It is useful to:

• read the questions first to know what you are looking for

• read the title of the text and any subheadings

• read the first paragraph to see where the article is heading

• read the first line of each subsequent paragraph

• read the last paragraph, which may include a summary and/or conclusion

• see how any diagrams or pictures could relate to the article.

While skimming, you should:

• try to read three or four times faster than normal

• get a good idea of what the article is about without checking new words in the dictionary

• underline key words, e.g. dates, places, figures

• focus on key words like nouns, verbs, adjectives.

Scanning strategies

When you look for someone's name in a telephone directory or look a word up in a dictionary, you don't read every line. You can scan through the text to find the information that you are looking for. For this to be successful, you need to know what you are looking for. That means you should read the question first and identify key words in it to guide you.

It is useful to:

• read the questions so you know what you are looking for

• find the relevant part of the text as quickly as possible

• avoid reading the text line by line

• avoid mouthing the words as you read

• be aware of key words in the distractors that may also occur in the text. They may wrongly make you think you have the right part of the text.

While scanning, you should:

• look for key words in the text — nouns that reflect the questions, and words like problem, solution, idea, goal, improvement, danger

• look for key words that help you interpret the text and the writer's opinion — verbs like must, can, help, ensure, increase, offer, measure, change and adjectives and adverbials like probably, without doubt, definitely, possible, much worse

• think of paraphrases for key words from the question and look for them in the text.

The two strategies — skimming and scanning — work together. If you have skimmed the text effectively, then you will have a better idea of where to find the information you are looking for. You may have underlined an important fact, date, figure or key word. While scanning, you may notice other key words which you can underline.

Five ways to practise skimming and scanning

1 Get into the habit of reading longer texts and articles in English regularly.

2 Pay particular attention to the first and last paragraphs of an article.

3 To get the key ideas of a text, before you read, ask yourself who, where, what, why, when and how? Try to find the answers to those questions as you read through an article.

4 Don't focus on new vocabulary, and don't use a dictionary on your first reading of a text.

5 Don't try to vocalize the text as you read — use your eyes, not your voice.