Reading Strategies: Previewing, Predicting, Skimming, and Scanning - indrasentosa.com

1. Pre-reading Activities

Pre-reading activities is an activities performed by readers to anticipate the content of the text before starting to read it. There are two pre-reading activities, namely previewing and predicting. This two pre-reading activities give readers a glimpse into the content of the text without reading the entire text.

a. Previewing

By previewing, we examine, analyze, or observe the important parts of the text before reading. We can find a general information about the text by reading the title, subtitle, looking at the pictures, highlighted words, number of paragraphs, etc. The objective of previewing is to get familiar with the text we are going to read.

b. Predicting

After previewing, we predict what the text is about. We make a prediction and imagine the content of the text, this way makes us get ready to start reading.

2. Skimming

Skimming is a fast reading technique in order to get the main idea of the text quickly. To get the main idea of the text by skimming, we need to read or pay attention to the most important parts of the text, such as title, pictures, first paragraph, first sentences of other paragraphs, and the last paragraph.

Example:

Rendang

Rendang is traditional food originally from West Sumatra, one of the provinces in Indonesia. Lately, this food is not only consumed by West Sumatran people. Rendang has become popular by most Indonesian people. Even, it has spread to the neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines.

Rendang is made with beef simmered in coconut milk and spices such as red chili, ginger, galangal, onion, garlic and others. It is cooked for about seven to eight hours. The long cooking process makes the water content in the coconut milk evaporate and spices change into brown. It tastes kind of sweet, but there is no sugar in it. The texture of beef rendang is soft and tender.

We can use skimming technique to find the main idea of the text. For example, to answer the question: “What is the main idea of paragraph 1?” we can do the following scanning steps:

• Read the first sentences of paragraph 1. Paragraph 1 is talking about the origin of rendang
• Stop reading because we have found the information we need from the first sentence.

3. Scanning

Scanning is a fast reading technique in order to get some specific information in an article, an advertisement, time tables etc. quickly.

The following are the steps in scanning:

1. Identify the sections of the text that we need to read.
2. Define one or more keywords for the information we are looking for.
3. Start scanning the text by moving the eyes quickly over a text.
4. When we catch an important word or phrase, stop reading.
5. When we find information requiring attention, slow down to read relevant section more thoroughly.

Example:

To find specific information from the the exam schedule above, we use scanning technique. For instance, when we need to answer a question “What time does the Chemistry exam end?”, start scanning and find Chemistry in subjects column, then find the time of the exam in the time column. By doing this, we can answer the question quickly: “The Chemistry exam ends at 09:30.” So, we don’t need to read the entire data on the the table.

Written by Indra Sentosa

May 26, 2023

References:

[1] Bisma, L. (2021, December 22). Skimming dan Scanning: Rahasia Membaca dengan Cepat. https://www.ruangguru.com/blog/skimming-dan-scanning-membaca-cepat

[2] Hapsarani, D. (2022). Basic Reading (2nd ed.). : Universitas Terbuka.