Learning Skills
How do I scan for specific information?
- Again, take a page from your text book or an article you have to read.
- Choose a word or a fact you want to find in the text. For example, you might want to find a definition of a word, the name of a theory or anything else you need to know. Sometimes your lecturer will give you specific pre-reading questions you'll have to answer.
- Read the text as quickly as possible until you find that word or bit of information you are looking for.
- Mark it on the page.
- Keep reading to check if it appears again. If it does, mark it again. At this point read only this information. Later on, you might have to read the paragraphs that come before and after in some detail to understand the context of the information. That again depends on your purpose.
Scanning is a useful strategy if you are trying to find out if an article contains specific information you need for an essay or report, for example. Usually it is not necessary to read the whole article in detail.