Reading Styles - Skimming

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 skimming. Skimming is a method of reading a particular passage, chapter, or other large collection of sentences in order to determine the main idea of a particular piece of written material. An individual that is skimming a particular piece of written material is not actually reading the material very carefully, but is instead just searching for the main idea of each paragraph. The individual, by identifying the sentence in each paragraph that identifies the main idea of the paragraph and ignoring all of the other sentences in the paragraph that support the main idea, can get a quick idea of what the material is trying to say without reading all of the material.

For example, if an individual is attempting to identify the main idea of a long chapter in order to determine if that chapter is related to what the individual is studying, he or she may need to skim the chapter. The individual may not be able to identify what the chapter covers from the chapter's title alone, but the individual should be able to identify the topic that the chapter is covering by quickly identifying the main idea of each passage in the chapter. The individual could read the entire chapter, but this can be extremely time-consuming and impractical if the individual is not sure if that chapter is related to what he or she is studying. It is also important to note, however, that skimming is not an effective way of studying material if the individual is not already familiar with that material. This is because the individual is only searching for the main idea of each paragraph or passage and the individual may miss key details that help explain the material.