READING SKILLS

Reading is one of the most essential skills for a student at university. Consider (think
about) the 4 basic ways in which we read.

1. Scanning
2. Previewing / Predicting
3. Skimming
4. Intensive reading

1. Scanning

What is scanning? Scanning is reading very fast, looking for specific information,
e.g. times and dates in a schedule, page numbers in an index, or words in a dictionary.
When we scan, we do not read every single word. This helps us to read as quickly as
possible.

2. Previewing / Predicting

“Pre-” means “before”, so when we preview and predict we are already looking and
thinking about what we will read before we start. We can preview a text by looking at
the title and any pictures or graphs and then we predict, or guess, what we will be
reading about.

3. Skimming

Skimming is perhaps the most useful reading skill for university students to develop.
After we predict what a text might be about, we skim quickly for the main idea. To do
this you should again read the title and look at any diagrams and then quickly read, by
skimming, the first sentence of each paragraph and also most of the last paragraph. The
last paragraph often contains a summary of the whole text!

4. Intensive reading

Intensive reading is the skill you need when you have to read a course textbook carefully
in order to understand the material which may be new to you and / or difficult.