This is the first module for my students, in all classes. Even juniors and seniors have told me that they wished they’d learned and tried these out at the beginning of their college careers.
ABOUT SKIMMING As you learn to use any skimming strategy, course assignments will help you assess how successful any strategy is for you, or if you need to refine how you use a strategy that feels good to you but might not be getting you the needed results. You may also find that some subjects need a different skimming styles, or simply don’t’ skim well for you at all. This is a trial-and-error process through which you will create your own best skimming strategies.
- Swarthmore Skimming Strategies
- LifeHacker: Systematically Skim Books To Learn Better (Klosowski, July 23, 2013
- Accordion Style Skimming (Dr. Joel Gereboff)
- Review the structure of the article, chapter, or book. Scan for headings or spaces between paragraphs that indicate introductions or conclusions. You have an overall jist of the author’s direction and organization.
- Review any assignment for this reading that helps you target necessary information.
- Read the introduction and conclusion of the article, chapter, or book. These sections do not always have a header labeled this way; but usually include the first 1-6 paragraphs of each text. You may need to skim first sentences of these paragraphs to determine where the introduction ends and where the conclusion starts.
- Read the beginning and end of each section of the article or chapter of the book.
- For articles or chapters, you may be done. Identify any sections that are especially relevant to your research or assignment OR that you are very confused about. Read these all these sections.
- For books, going chapter by chapter, read the beginnings and ends of each subsection in chapter. Pause between each chapter to reflect on the overarching argument or main points of the chapter. It may be helpful at this point to make some notes on what you understand from that chapter. When you have skimmed each chapter, identify any sections that are especially relevant to your research or assignment OR that you are very confused about. Deep read these sections or chapters.