Skimming Scanninn

Reading Strategies to Save Time
Active readers use reading strategies to help save time and cover a lot of ground.
Your purpose for reading should determine which strategy or strategies to use.
1. Previewing the text to get an overview
What is it? Previewing a text means that you get an idea of what it is about without
actually reading the main body of the text.
When to use it: to help you decide whether a book or journal is useful for your
purpose; to get a general sense of the article structure, to help you locate relevant
information; to help you to identify the sections of the text you may need to read
and the sections you can omit.
To preview, start by reading:

 the title and author details
 the abstract (if there is one)
 then read only the parts that ‘jump out’; that is: main headings and sub
headings, chapter summaries, any highlighted text
 examine any illustrations, graphs, tables or diagrams and their captions, as
these usually summarise the content of large slabs of text
 the first sentence in each paragraph
2. Skimming
What is it? Skimming involves running your eye very quickly over large chunks of
text. It is different from previewing because skimming involves the paragraph text.
Skimming allows you to pick up some of the main ideas without paying attention to
detail. It is a fast process. A single chapter should take only a few minutes.
When to use it: to quickly locate relevant sections from a large quantity of written
material. It is especially useful when there are few headings or graphic elements to
gain an overview of a text. Skimming adds further information to an overview.
How to skim?
1. Read the first paragraph attentively to get an idea of what will be discussed
in the text.
2. Read the first (and sometimes the second) sentence of each paragraph -
they give the main idea of the paragraph.

3. After you have read the first sentences, your eyes should drop down to the
end of the paragraph, looking for important pieces of information, such as
dates and names.
4. Read the last paragraph attentively as it may contain the summary.
3. Scanning
What is it? Scanning is sweeping your eyes (like radar) over part of a text to find
specific pieces of information.
When to use it: to quickly locate specific information from a large quantity of
written material.
To scan text:
 after gaining an overview and skimming, identify the section(s) of the text
that you probably need to read.
 start scanning the text by allowing your eyes (or finger) to move quickly over
a page.
 as soon as your eye catches an important word or phrase, stop reading.
 when you locate information requiring attention, you then slow down to read
the relevant section more thoroughly.
 scanning and skimming are no substitutes for thorough reading and should
only be used to locate material quickly.
How to scan?
1. Underline the important information while reading the text (dates, numbers,
names etc.)
2. When you read the question, identify the key word and scan the text for it.
This way you’ll find the answer more quickly.

Are electric cars really eco-friendly?
Electric-car drivers are saving the planet, right? Their vehicles produce none of the
pollutants that dinosaur-burning, fossil-fuel-powered machines do. That is the
standard view, and governments around the world provide incentives to encourage
the uptake of this new technology.
That is why a Tesla owner got a rude shock when he went to import his vehicle into
Singapore - the first person to do so. The Tesla Model S is a 100% electric vehicle.
It does not have an exhaust to emit from. So what happened?
Instead of an expected rebate of around S$15,000 (US$10,800) he received a fine

of the same amount for being a gross polluter. The company commented the
incident, "The Model S that our customer imported into Singapore left our factory
only two years ago with energy consumption rated at 181 Wh/km. This qualifies as
the cleanest possible category of car in Singapore and entitles the owner to an
incentive rather than a fine."
The Singapore authorities calculated the ‘carbon cost’ of generating the electricity
that will be used to charge the car. This is the elephant in the trunk of electric
vehicles. Where and how the power is produced is not often considered, but
perhaps it should be. Let’s move the elephant up to the passenger seat and
address it directly.
The authorities in Singapore apparently found the Tesla in question consumes 444
watt-hours of electricity per km (Wh/km) in tests. Without wanting to get too maths-
heavy, the number of 444Wh/km does seem high. And as we still need power
stations to produce such amount electric energy, the environmental impact is not
so small as it seemed to be.
But what about the bigger picture - should we be factoring in the emissions of
power stations when working out how green an electric car is? The logical answer
is yes. Emissions shifted elsewhere are still emissions, and CO2 impacts the global
atmosphere wherever it is released.
First of all, let's practise skimming. When reading a text for the first time, you
should skim over it to grasp the main idea. In this example, read the highlighted
text and quickly look over the rest of the text (you have about 1-2 minutes):
1. What is the aim of this text?
A. To discourage people from visiting Singapore
B. To prove that electric cars are less eco-friendly than fossil-fuel-powered
machines
C. To show that we need to count the emissions of power stations to see how
green an electric car is.
This question can be answered immediately after you skimmed over the text.
Here, you’re required to understand only the main idea of the passage.
2. When the owner of the electric car went to Singapore, he received
A. a rebate of around US$10,800
B. a fine of around US$10,800
C. a fine of around US$15,000
3. To prove that electric car was a gross polluter, the authorities in
Singapore calculated the ...................... of generating the electricity to
charge the car.

Skimming and scanning Assignment
Look at this text and then answer the next ten questions:

Skimming Scanninn

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Reading Strategies to Save Time

1. Previewing the text to get an overview

To preview, start by reading:

they give the main idea of the paragraph.

end of the paragraph, looking for important pieces of information, such as

dates and names.

4. Read the last paragraph attentively as it may contain the summary.

This way you’ll find the answer more quickly.

Instead of an expected rebate of around S$15,000 (US$10,800) he received a fine

1. What is the aim of this text?

A. To discourage people from visiting Singapore

B. To prove that electric cars are less eco-friendly than fossil-fuel-powered

green an electric car is.

2. When the owner of the electric car went to Singapore, he received

A. a rebate of around US$10,800

B. a fine of around US$10,800

C. a fine of around US$15,000

3. To prove that electric car was a gross polluter, the authorities in

Singapore calculated the ...................... of generating the electricity to

charge the car.

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