A Focus: We receive a lot of sensory information, and our ‘focus’ helps us decide what to pay attention to. This is equally true when we’re driving, shopping and skim reading. We tend to notice information that is relevant. So it’s really helpful to take a few moments and be explicit about your focus before you start to skim read.
Give yourself three minutes to look around the room now and notice all the red items in the room. Once your time is up, turn to the end of this chapter for your next instructions (page 129).
B Scanning: Now turn to pages 24–6, and see how quickly you can find how many hours it takes without sleep before there’s a significant reduction in cognitive performance.
Think about and reflect on your experience (if you’re not a natural reflector, see chapter 3):
• Were you surprised by your time?
• How easy did you find it to ‘scan’ the material without reading for content?
• When you found the figure (18.25 hours) did you read the whole sentence for meaning?
• Did you stop as soon as you found the information, or did you con- tinue to scan?
C Scanning for dates: Now, try scanning this nonsense text below. There are three dates (month and year). See how quickly you can locate them.
Ghst bnretiu tthxucp thref ffghfgh mkiul se wdartvcx os pqqmwk xosle mn m daoo yej dilc dishtenavy hio awia nuct dc, zi jcm- skdiokmcd nj. Th slkd co dksk Nov 1997 sdf mkoi ploi ju mxmxnc. E asi uw sdm. Lpoti thso SHDH bnbi jsbr upi yjpihjy ehst, ohjy nr dsuomh? Mpy s htrsy vpfr.
Nfmspof iio Slitzer Nizel w djka ewpll aqw. Lospd e djdiusd thjid oikjasd nxjzo mwnaq, maksp djdjj wewpqilr. Pod sdn bhfj thjd ejlakjsdn nvifcpidf sadenflkzjxc, ekfjhksdilklwesdf jkdk sa a kdiof wmwopd klwwpef.
iio Slitzer Nizel Nfmspof w djka ewpll aqw. Lospd e thjid oik- jasd mwnaq, maksp djdjj wewpqilr. Pod sdn bhfj thjd ejlakjsdn nvifcpidf, ekfjhksdilklwesdf jkdk sa a kdiof wmwopd. w djka ewpll aqw. Lospd e djdiusd thjid oikjasd nxjzo mwnaq, maksp djdjj wewpqilr. Podfg Feb 2004 sdn bhfj thjd ejlakjsdn nvifcpidf sadenflkzjxc, ekfjhksdilklwesdf jkdk sa a kdiof wmwopd klwwpef. Bndh sioam etho mkji stad jfuic bnwiao shmkru thsoppd hehhweid thklpoi iloi s kk k sldofdu nd iuhe gs. Xnzenuj nej n qwodsi thaos, wnkjo mksiau ensmd. O jduisut njdu asy egwiudh ghajks koodld:
Dfnrmfk mkopfdivo ythjrlef m dnj mskl. Ndkosidsd md as pl dp asmkwed huiuiu. Mosidkosd May 1899, Msdae ea, e as, lpoeouqq bbeuy nu as oi zxm kO
Did you find this easier or harder then the previous example? Why do you think that was so? Usually people find that if the information they are looking for contrasts with most of the information surround- ing it, then it’s quicker and easier to pick out.
You may realise that you’re already an accomplished scanner, and scan for all types of information without thinking about it. If you don’t, it’s easy to practice. Why not try scanning nutrition labels for infor- mation on salt content, or newspaper articles for references to global warming.
When you want to gain a high-level overview of the reading material, try ‘skimming’. This technique is helpful to give you a feel for the overall content. It’s not about collecting in-depth information.
To use your study time effectively, you need to learn how to choose what to read as well as what not to read. Given that you can sometimes ‘skim’ a book in 10–15 minutes, this can save you a lot of time compared to reading every word.
If you’re not already a ‘skilled skimmer’, think of it as a two-step process.
Step 1. Preparation Step 2. Preview
What are you going to focus on? You may use keywords, just as you would for ‘scanning’, but usually when you’re skimming, your focus will be slightly broader. For example, rather than using the author’s name, your focus may be to uncover another perspective around a particular issue, or you may want to see how extensively a particular topic is covered.
Think back to before you began reading this book. Did you skim through it? If you picked it from a bookshelf, did you ‘flick’ through the pages?
With a bit of practice, you can ‘skim’ many books in 10–15 minutes, and you can ‘gut’ a book in less than an hour. ‘Gutting’ usually involves reading the first and last sentences in addition to the list below.
Step 1 Preparation
Step 2 Preview
• foreword • table of contents
• headings and sub-headings
• first and last paragraphs in each chapter • tables and graphics.
As you skim, take a note of any sections you might want to revisit with a more focused approach (see next section).
Yes. Most are 10–20 words! Sometimes I only read the title before deciding whether or not to read the rest of the article. Have you noticed how long
the titles are in scientific research papers?
The best way to gain an in-depth understanding of most written material is to follow the four steps in the ‘Reading Staircase’, shown in figure 6.1 (pages 115 and 116). The first step applies to all the reading techniques, the second step applies to ‘skimming’, and the third and fourth steps are specifically important for focused reading.
The two most important points to take away are: 1 You need to ‘actively process’ the text in some way. 2 You need to read the text several times (Maloney 2003).
Asking lots of questions (see Table 6.2) is probably the most common way to engage in ‘active processing’, but there are other methods. Note that many of the note-taking tips from chapter 8 also apply here! If the text is very dull, try bringing a little humour to it. If you like to visualise, imagine attending a lecture . . . how could the presenter make the key point in a way you would never forget?
Table 6.2 Different types of questions
How can I apply this to x?
Where’s the author going with this?
How do we know this is true?
What are the other possible explanations?
What do we know since this was published?
What is the author going to conclude?
How reliable is the evidence?
What evidence supports the claim?
Where else was this presented?
How would I explain this to x?
Relevance Prediction Challenge Fact
/Opinion
Associate Explain
H
1. Select relevant material and clarify purpose