Reading Styles - Scanning

One of the best ways to prepare for an exam, interview, or other similar situation is by reading materials that are related to the particular subject of which the individual needs to prove his or her knowledge. However, each subject is different and each individual learns in a different way, so one person may be able to read and understand a particular subject very easily while another individual might find that subject to be incredibly difficult. As a result, an individual may have to adapt his or her reading style to suit the material that the individual is reading, which may include switching to a style of reading known as scanning. Scanning is a method of reading a particular list, sentence, paragraph, passage, or chapter in which an individual is searching for specific facts related to a particular subject. An individual that is scanning a particular piece of written material is not actually reading the material very carefully, but is instead just searching the material for a particular piece of information very quickly. The individual, by allowing his or her eyes to scan over the material, or in other words rapidly move back and forth over the material, can search for specific words that might be related to the information that the individual is attempting to find.

For example, if an individual is having difficulty answering a particular question included on a handout, that individual may want to scan related material to find the answer. The individual may not know the answer to the question, but the individual knows the topic covered in the question and can therefore search for information specifically related to that topic. The individual could read an entire chapter related to that subject, but it would be much faster and much more productive for the individual to read over the material very quickly and find anything that relates specifically to that particular question on the handout rather than reading everything word for word. It is extremely important to note, however, that scanning is only useful if the individual knows exactly what he or she is looking for in a particular piece of material. This is because scanning is not an effective way of studying all of the information covered in a particular passage as it is only a method of finding specific information, so an individual that scans without knowing specifically what he or she is looking for will usually miss key information.