Reading Comprehension Skills

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Reading Comprehension Skills

• Skimming and Scanning

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Skimming and scanning are especially valuable
when there is only one item of information that
you need to find from a particular passage.

• Skimming and scanning are very rapid reading
  methods in which you glance at a passage to find
  specific information. These reading methods make
  it easier for you to grasp large amounts of
  material, especially when you're previewing. They
  are also useful when you don't need to know every
  word.

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Skimming is used to quickly gather the most
important information or gist. Its not
essential to understand each word when you are
skimming. Run your eyes over the text, noting
important information. Use skimming to quickly
get up to speed on a current business situation.
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Examples of Skimming

• The Newspaper to quickly get the general news
  of the day
• Magazines to quickly discover which articles
  you would like to read in more detail
• Business and Travel Brochures to quickly get
  informed

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How to Skim?

• Working quickly
• Read the title if there is one.
• Read the introduction or the first paragraph if
  there is one.
• Read the first sentence of every other paragraph.
  
• Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.
• Notice any italicized or boldface words or
  phrases.
• Read the summary or last paragraph if there is
  one.

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Skim and scan this paragraph in 30 seconds

• When you skim and scan, you need to cover
  everything, even titles, subtitles, side
  features, and visuals. That bit of information
  you need may not be tidily packaged in a
  paragraph, so you need to check the entire
  page--not just the main body of the text, there
  are also many visual clues that help you to find
  information. Heads and subheads break up the text
  and identify the content of each part. Where key
  terms are introduced and defined, they appear in
  boldface type. Graphs and charts have titles
  and/or captions that tell you what they are
  about. These clues will help you to find
  information. . . but only if you use them.

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In other words, when you are skimming and
scanning

• Cover everything
• Check entire page
• Notice visual clues
• Notice graphs, charts, titles, captions

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Scanning is a reading technique to be used when
you want to find specific information quickly.
In scanning you have a question in your mind and
you read a passage only to find the answer,
ignoring unrelated information.

• Examples of Scanning
• A google search list on the internet.
• A bus / airplane schedule
• A conference guide
• A graph

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How to scan

• State the specific information you are looking
  for.
• Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and
  what clues you might use to help you locate the
  answer. For example, if you were looking for a
  certain date, you would quickly read the
  paragraph looking only for numbers.
• Use headings and any other aids that will help
  you identify which sections might contain the
  information you are looking for.
• Selectively read and skip through sections of the
  passage.

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Scanning Practice

• Here is some information you are looking for on
  the BC Hydro website.
• Read the questions and then on the next slide ,
  find the answers, as quickly as possible
• 1. Who is handling inquiries?
• 2. What is the after hours media line?
• 3. What is a good example of BC Hydro Clean
  Energy Project?

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Scanning answersRemember its important to
quickly find the information you need. You dont
need to understand every word, or read every
word. Your eyes should quickly scan the document
for the information you seek.
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Conclusion

• Skimming and scanning is used when reading all
  types of documents.
• We skim to get the idea of what a document is
  about and typically skim all documents before we
  actually begin to read.
• As we skim, we
• think about the topic
• think about what we already know about the topic
• start to guess or anticipate the details we are
  going to read about.
• We scan for specific information.
• We work quickly when we skim and scan.

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Source

• http//docs.google.com/viewer?avqcache2odfOnyp
  OhIJteam.zobel.dlsu.edu.ph/sites/students/H4/List
  s/Announcements/Attachments/217/Scanning2520and2
  520Skimming.pptskimandscanppthlenglcapid
  blsrcidADGEESjzgI-367nHF86iewPt9ebyTTDXn87Fxeqlf
  PJqlx0vfaMB5ghrgfZycSVDnx3U7tYp47QbNKoT9cgCqJECtx6
  nBd9Ho65fSkfJ_E_eaDM7Q6COaJs38CZZkvcV-t7ba1qG4EgI
  sigAHIEtbThz42x4EzhLqIYbODSqg_pPC9wSA