One of the fundamental skills a college student needs to learn is how to skim. And while many students tell themselves, “I need to skim 100 pages tonight,” some students struggle with actually doing this. The difficulty with skimming is that it can take some people more concentration to skim than it can to read, at least initially. It is a different skill than reading, requiring different strengths.
Goal of Skimming Verses Goal of Reading
The goal of reading is to understand a passage: to get the thesis and the evidence that supports it. This requires a close reading that sees the connection between paragraphs and the ability to talk about the significance of each paragraph.
The goal of skimming, though, is to know what happens throughout a large span of text. For some that’s 50+ pages, for others it’s 30+. To get this knowledge, a person has to be reading with a goal. Perhaps a person needs to find a particular plan, like a foreign policy plan within a president’s political career. Or perhaps one needs to find how a particular character serves as a metaphor within a novel. Or, maybe one just needs a plot summery.
The skimmer then needs to resist the temptation to read the details that do not explain the larger topic being explored in the reading. This may involve skipping over several chapters, or skipping over several sentences. One must distance oneself from the reading – reading with an eye for specific information instead of soaking up the information as it comes. It is like seeing the text as pictures instead of as words.
Tips for Skimming
- Have a watch or clock nearby and give yourself around 2 minutes per page. Once the time is up, go to the next page.
- Always skim with a pen or pencil. Underline, star, circle, and draw lines to connecting thoughts. Map and annotate.
- Use a straight edge to give yourself momentum. Maybe the horizontal edge helps; maybe it helps to use the 90 degree corner in the middle of the lines. Maybe you need to move the corner or straight edge in shapes as you go down the page.
- If you start to slide in concentration, read the last few words on the page and skip to the next page.
- Have water or coffee nearby. Just because it is skimming does not mean it won’t take a long time.
Skimming is a lot harder than it seems. Stay focused during this time, learn what techniques work for you, and remember to skim with a goal in mind.
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