Everyday English 2

2 Skimming, scanning and detailed reading

Figure 3 Skim, scan or read?
View long description

It can be difficult to read and digest lots of important information in a short time, but skimming and scanning can help.

  • Skimming involves reading the headings and subheadings of a text to get the main idea or ‘gist’ of the text. This can be useful when trying to decide whether to read it.

  • Scanning involves looking through the text to find keywords and phrases that are important or interesting.

Imagine you are looking at the magazine shelf in a supermarket. You may skim the titles of the magazines to find one you like and then scan the articles to find specific words or pieces of information.

OpenLearn - Everyday English 2
ou logoCreative Commons non-commercial share alike icon Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.