Reading Strategies
SKIMMING AND SCANNING
There are different styles of reading for different situations. The technique you choose will
depend on the purpose for reading. For example, you might be reading for enjoyment,
information, or to complete a task. If you are exploring or reviewing, you might skim a
document. If you're searching for information, you might scan for a particular word.
When reading large volumes of information, skimming and scanning may be more practical than
detailed reading. For example, you might be searching for specific information, looking for clues,
or reviewing information.
Skimming is used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text. When you read the newspaper,
you're probably not reading it word-by-word, instead you're scanning the text. Skimming is done
at a speed three to four times faster than normal reading. People often skim when they have lots
of material to read in a limited amount of time. Use skimming when you want to see if an article
may be of interest in your research.
There are many strategies that can be used when skimming. Some people read the first and last
paragraphs using headings, summarizes and other organizers as they move down the page or
screen. You might read the title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. Consider reading the
first sentence of each paragraph. This technique is useful when you're seeking specific
information rather than reading for comprehension. Skimming works well to find dates, names,
and places. It might be used to review graphs, tables, and charts.
Scanning is a technique you often use when looking up a word in the telephone book or
dictionary. You search for key words or ideas. In most cases, you know what you're looking
for, so you're concentrating on finding a particular answer. Scanning involves moving your eyes
quickly down the page seeking specific words and phrases. Scanning is also used when you first
find a resource to determine whether it will answer your questions. Once you've scanned the
document, you might go back and skim it.
When scanning, look for the author's use of organizers such as numbers, letters, steps, or the
words, first, second, or next. Look for words that are bold faced, italics, or in a different font
size, style, or color. Sometimes the author will put key ideas in the margin.
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Reading Strategies
Pre-Reading Strategies
...to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed
Annaeus Lucius Seneca Roman, 4 BCE - 65 AD
What you bring to the printed page will affect how you understand what you read,
and may be what is most important in understanding what you read. Organize yourself before
you read!
Strategies to activate your prior knowledge:
Brainstorming:
Examine the title of the selection you are about to read
List all the information that comes to mind about this title
Use these pieces of information to recall and understand the material
Use this knowledge to reframe or reorder what you know, or to note what you disagree with, for
further research
Group discussions:
Group discussions in and out of class will help you to discover what you bring to your reading,
what your fellow students bring, as well as shared experiences
If you find they have new background information, ask for more information from them
Concept or mind mapping:
This is a type of brainstorming where you place the title/subject as the main idea,
then develop a "mind map" around it. It can be effective either in a group or by yourself.
Pre-questions:
Often chapters in texts provide organizing questions.
You can also write out a series of questions you expect to be answered when reading:
Examples:
Definition
What is....?
Where does ... fit?
What group does ... belong to?
Characteristics
How would I describe...?
What does ... look like?
What are its parts?
Examples
What is a good example of ...?
What are similar examples that share
attributes but differ in some way?
Experience
What experience have I had with ....?
What can I imagine about ...?
Visual Aids:
Pictures and other visual material can activate your prior knowledge.
Use the Internet to search for pictures related to your title/topic to give you visual images of what
you are about to read.
Advance Organizers:
Relate new reading material to something you already know, to your background or experiences.
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Reading Strategies
The KWL Reading Method
KWL is intended to be an exercise that can guide you in reading and understanding a
text. You can adapt it to working alone, but discussions definitely help.
It is composed of only three stages that reflect a worksheet of three columns with the
three letters
what we Know
what we Want to
know
and what we
Learned
K stands for Know
This first stage may surprise you:
Think first about, then list, what you know about the topic.
This advanced organizer provides you with a background to the new material, building a
scaffold to support it.
Think of it as a pre-reading inventory.




Brainstorm!
Before looking at the text, think of keywords, terms, or phrases about the topic,
either in your class or a study group.
Record these in the K column of your chart until you cannot think of more.
Engage your group in a discussion about what you wrote in the K column.
Organize the entries into general categories.
W stands for Will or Want
The second stage is to list a series of questions of what you want to know more of the
subject, based upon what you listed in K.



Preview the text’s table of contents, headings, pictures, charts etc.
Discuss what you want to learn
List some thoughts on what you want, or expect to learn, generally or specifically.
Think in terms of what you will learn, or what do you want to learn about this.
Turn all sentences into questions before writing them down.
They will help you focus your attention during reading.
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Reading Strategies

List the questions by importance.
L stands for Learned
The final stage is to answer your questions, as well as to list what new information you
have learned. Either while reading or after you have finished.



List out what you learn as you read, either by section, or after the whole work,
whichever is comfortable for you.
Check it against the W column, what you wanted to learn.
Create symbols to indicate main ideas, surprising ideas, questionable ideas, and
those you don’t understand!
Expand this exercise beyond K W L:
Add an H!
Stands for HOW you can learn more.


Pose new questions about the topic.
How can I learn more or answer questions not answered in my worksheet?
These include other sources of information, including: organizations, experts,
tutors, websites, librarians, etc.
What’s missing?
Another strategy is to answer the questions that form the basis of good journalism:
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How (5 W's and an H)
Who are the main characters?
What does the author say happened?
Where did the action occur?
When did it happen or what is the span of time?
Why did this happen?
How did it happen?
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
Kipling, Rudyard. (1902). The Elephant's Child. In The Kipling Society. Retrieved August
14, 2007, from http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_serving.htm.Source:
http://www.studygs.net/texred3.htm
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Reading Strategies
SQ3R
Increasing Your Retention of Written Information
SQ3R is a useful technique for fully absorbing written information. It helps you to create
a good mental framework of a subject, into which you can fit facts correctly. It helps you
to set study goals. It also prompts you to use the review techniques that will help to fix
information in your mind. By using SQ3R to actively read a document, you can get the
maximum benefit from your reading time.
How to Use the Tool:
The acronym SQ3R stands for the five sequential techniques you should use to read a
book:

Survey:
Survey the document: scan the contents, introduction, chapter introductions and
chapter summaries to pick up a shallow overview of the text. Form an opinion of
whether it will be of any help. If it does not give you the information you want,
discard it.

Question:
Make a note of any questions on the subject that come to mind, or particularly
interest you following your survey. Perhaps scan the document again to see if any
stand out. These questions can be considered almost as study goals understanding the answers can help you to structure the information in your own
mind.

Read:
Now read the document. Read through useful sections in detail, taking care to
understand all the points that are relevant. In the case of some texts this reading
may be very slow. This will particularly be the case if there is a lot of dense and
complicated information. While you are reading, it can help to take notes in
Concept Map/Mind Map format.

Recall:
Once you have read appropriate sections of the document, run through it in your
mind several times. Isolate the core facts or the essential processes behind the
subject, and then see how other information fits around them.

Review:
Once you have run through the exercise of recalling the information, you can
move on to the stage of reviewing it. This review can be by rereading the
document, by expanding your notes, or by discussing the material with
colleagues. A particularly effective method of reviewing information is to have to
teach it to someone else!
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Reading Strategies
Key Points:
SQ3R is a useful technique for extracting the maximum amount of benefit from your
reading time. It helps you to organize the structure of a subject in your mind. It also helps
you to set study goals and to separate important information from irrelevant data.
SQ3R is a five-stage active reading technique. The stages are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Survey
Question
Read
Recall
Review
If you use SQ3R, you will significantly improve the quality of your study time.
Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_02.htm
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Reading Strategies
Speed Reading
Radically Increasing Your Reading Speed
Speed Reading can help you to read and understand written information much more quickly. This
makes it an essential skill in any environment where you have to master large volumes of
information quickly, as is the norm in fast-moving professional environments. What's more, it's a
key technique to learn if you suffer from "information overload", because it helps you to become
much more discriminating about the information that you consume.
The Key Insight
The most important trick about speed reading is to know what information you want from a
document before you start reading it. If you only want an outline of the issue that the document
discusses, then you can skim the document quickly and extract only the essential facts. If you
need to understand the real detail of the document, then you need to read it slowly enough to gain
the full understanding you need. You will get the greatest time savings from speed reading by
learning to skim excessively detailed documents, although the techniques you'll learn will help
you improve the speed of all the reading you do.
Technical Issues
Even when you know how to ignore irrelevant detail, there are other technical improvements you
can make to your reading style which will increase your reading speed.
Most people learn to read the way young children read – either letter-by-letter, or word-by-word.
As an adult, this is probably not the way you read now: Just think about how your eye muscles
are moving as you read this. You will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of
words, then moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on. You are reading blocks of
words at a time, not individual words one-by-one. You may also notice that you do not always go
from one block to the next: sometimes you may move back to a previous block if you are unsure
about something.
A skilled reader will read many words in each block. He or she will only dwell on each block for
an instant, and will then move on. Only rarely will the reader's eyes skip back to a previous block
of words. This reduces the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do. It also increases the
volume of information that can be assimilated in a given period of time.
A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small blocks of words.
He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text, and confusing his or her
overall understanding of the subject. This irregular eye movement makes reading tiring. Poor
readers tend to dislike reading, and they may find it harder to concentrate, and understand written
information.
How to Use Tool:
Speed reading aims to improve reading skills by:
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Reading Strategies



Increasing the number of words read in each block.
Reducing the length of time spent reading each block.
And reducing the number of times your eyes skip back to a previous sentence.
These are explained below:

Increasing the number of words in each block:
This needs a conscious effort. Try to expand the number of words that you read at a time:
With practice, you'll find you read faster. You may also find that you can increase the
number of words in each block by holding the text a little further from your eyes. The
more words you can read in each block, the faster you will read!

Reducing fixation time:
The minimum length of time needed to read each block is probably only a quarter of a
second. By pushing yourself to reduce the time you take, you will get better at picking up
information quickly. Again, this is a matter of practice and confidence.

Reducing skip-back:
To reduce the number of times that your eyes skip back to a previous sentence, run a
pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes
will follow the tip of your pointer, smoothing the flow of your reading. The speed at
which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move
the pointer.
You will be able to increase your reading speed a certain amount on your own by applying these
speed reading techniques.
What you don't get out of self-study is the use of specialist reading machines and the confidence
gained from successful speed-reading – this is where a good one-day course can revolutionize
your reading skills.
Key points:
By speed reading you can read information more quickly. You may also get a better
understanding of it, as you will hold more of it in short term memory.
To improve the speed of your reading, read more words in each block and reduce the length of
time spent reading each block. Use a pointer to smooth the way your eyes move and reduce skipback.
Source: http://www.mindtools.com/speedrd.htm
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