skimming, Scanning and Intensive Reading

                                            Skimming, scanning and intensive reading

Depending on the purpose of their reading, readers choose between either of three modes of reading: skimming, scanning orintensive reading.

Skimming is a mode of fast reading which is used to get a rapid general impression of what a text is about. In this mode of reading, if the text you are reading is a non-fictional text, you may first look at its table of contents, the summary, and subject index. You may next leaf through the text and focus attention on subtitles, headlines, content keywords, or prominent text features (passages printed in bold type, or colour, or with illustrations). Writers often use such features to highlight what they want to say.

If, however, the text which you want to get a first impression of is a fictional text, you may decide to first read the opening scene and the beginning or ending of chapters. Skimming helps you decide if you like a book, its characters and story, its topics and style of writing. It may or may not be followed by some more intensive reading.

Scanning is a mode of fast reading which you use if you start with a predefined set of keywords and want to find out if a given text provides information on them. You leaf through the text and search for passages which contain your keywords. If you hit on pages which contain your keyword or semantically related words, it frequently is useful to note the page numbers for later intensive reading or for making abstracts.

Skimming and scanning are modes of fast reading which can be practised by training in high speed reading. For an understanding of meaning to occur in speed reading, it is necessary to read in ‘chunks’. Estimates are that readers’ eyes must scan about 400 words a minute. High speed reading is mostly sustainable for short bursts only. The mind needs pauses for evaluation and assimilation of information (time to think and digest).

Intensive reading is a mode of reading in which readers focus on a fairly comprehensive understanding of a given text. There is, of course, a difference between reading fictional or non-fictional texts. The first generally allows more freedom of imagination than the second. Note, however, that for both types of reading processes it is true that a reader’s understanding of a text can be divorced from his pre-knowledge, age, and purpose of reading. Each of these factors contribute to the construction of the meaning and may lead to partially different interpretations of the given text. All reading for understanding requires the interaction of two types of cognitive processes, namely top-down processes and bottom-up processes in the construction of meaning.

Top-down processes start from the reader's general knowledge of the world and the given topic. They activate a reader's contextual knowledge which is then used for interpreting the information coming in 'bottom up'. Top-down processes may be triggered by, for example, the title/ topic of a specific text and what the reader knows about that already. This preknowledge creates certain expectations which are then matched, in bottom-up processes, against the information which comes in with each new sentence and paragraph. Understanding thus is the joint product of an anticipation of meaning and its confirmation or refutation by the literal study of the textual document.