Skimming and Scanning: New ways of reading material
I love reading books be it textbooks, magazines, encyclopedias, articles, you name it and i will have browsed through it. I am an information consumer and most of my books are usually of self help which will help me to improve the quality of my life. So there is a sense of urgency for me to read this books. No doubt there is a different satisfaction to read a book while relaxing and taking a sip of coffee but I want to cover as many ideas as quickly as possible giving me more time to implement this ideas. If that strikes to you and you can relate with it, then this article is for you!
As you might have known traditional reading, in which you start from a word from left and got o the right word by word till you reach the end and repeat it for the next line is hardly a way which can overcome this situation.
This brings me to the techniques of Skimming and Scanning. This are great techniques which I rely on everyday. Both of this techniques are interdependent and its maximum effects can be obtained with using the combination of them both. It is especially helpful to students and analysts but nevertheless can be used by anybody who loves to read.
Now I will not bore you with the definition of Skimming and Scanning which can be found on wikipedia but I will tell you a gist of it and important of all how to effectively use it.
Skimming is a method of taking a quick view of the material to get the main ideas and the general overview of the content.
Scanning is a method in which the person rapidly covers a great deal of material in order to locate a specific fact or piece of information.
Skimming is a method of taking a quick view of the material to get the main ideas and the general overview of the content.
Scanning is a method in which the person rapidly covers a great deal of material in order to locate a specific fact or piece of information.
If you are more interested to know about it, then just click here.
There is a certain to go about in order to use this methods to there maximum extents. I initially though to write them in a paragraph form but realised that writing in steps would be much easier to understand and would help you exchange steps in whichever order suits you the most. The words skimming and scanning are not used instead I directly described it using simple language
So without further ado lets directly jump to it!
- First just quick look the material and go through it briefly. This includes reading the contents page, looking at any illustrations and diagrams if any, giving focus to sentences written in bold and italics, and reading the starting and the ending sentence of paragraph also helps.
- Now as you gotten an idea of what the content is all about, now its time to take it all in. This can be accomplished by rereading the main points, creating an outline structure of what you just read just like a mind map and finally reflecting on the material.
- Now as you have you have structured the whole information and know your way in and out of it, the time has come to completely digest it and find it tricky points and loop holes. This includes explaining the information to somebody, having a debate about it, consulting other sources whether it is correct and how aligned it is and if possible to gain first hand experience of it.
This is the method I use daily and it has never let me down. Sounds like a lot work in the first attempt and as you do this over and over it just becomes a habit which is done on its own. Remember practice makes you perfect!
Do you have any techniques and experiences that might help reading a more efficient and more better? Please feel free to write them in the comments section below!