Reading Skills 1.2

Page 1

The Process of Scanning

The world around us is filled with words in print. They appear on billboards, on television screens, on websites, on subway posters, and on signs posted along interstate highways. We glimpse brightly colored titles and captions on magazines as we pass the corner newsstand. Standing on our front porch in our robe and slippers, we look down at the Sunday newspaper and we scan the headlines. Going online to our favorite national news site, we scan the list of top stories while we wait for our coffee to finish brewing. Scanning is a way to get the information you’re looking for without reading every word.

The process of scanning involves running your eyes quickly over lines of print, looking for specific information.

A passage is a part of an article or a portion of a book. A passage can be a sentence, a few sentences, or one or more paragraphs.

There are more printed words around us than anyone could ever read. We seldom have the time to read every word in a printed ad or every paragraph in an article. That’s when the process of scanning comes in handy. When you scan the front page of a newspaper, you often check the headlines. You’re looking for words that catch your attention. You don’t have to read every word. If you know what information you’re looking for, scanning is like searching for clues.

For example, let’s say you’re in the market for a used car. Scanning the classified section of the newspaper, you look for the make of car you like and a price you can afford. Let’s say you’re looking for a used American-made sedan for $13,500 or less. You want it to be easy to maintain and dependable. To give you an idea of how to look for clues in the classifieds, check out the ads in the figure below.

Which one of these ads best fits the car you’re looking for?

To see if there are any cars you would be interested in, you might first scan through the ads and look at the prices, eliminating those that are out of your price range. Or you may decide to quickly scan the ads and eliminate all foreign cars. Whatever method you choose, you’ll be scanning—not reading every word—to find what you’re looking for.

Scanning for Specific Information

Now take some time to practice scanning. Read the questions listed below. Then, scan—don’t read—the paragraphs in the figure below to find the answers to the questions.

Use these paragraphs to practice your scanning skills.

True or False? Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War.

Who was defeated at Gettysburg?

What did President Lincoln dedicate at Gettysburg?

How well did you do in answering the questions? Here are the answers so you can check yourself:

True

Robert E. Lee and his forces were defeated at Gettysburg.

President Lincoln dedicated a cemetery at Gettysburg.

When you scanned the paragraphs about Gettysburg, you probably found that some words stood out. Words like Gettysburg, Civil War, and Lincoln are more likely to get your attention than other words. That’s because they begin with capital letters since they’re proper nouns.

In addition to capital letters, numbers also stand out in paragraphs. Look again at the paragraphs in the figure above. Did you notice how the date July 3, 1863, stood out in the first paragraph? Remember that, and when you have to scan material for a particular date (or any other number), you can concentrate on scanning the material for numbers.

The term proper nouns refers to the names of specific persons, places, and things. Some examples are Ohio, Elvis Presley, and Dead Sea. Proper nouns are usually capitalized.

Let’s try a scanning exercise. Before reading the paragraphs in the box below, study these questions:

Who is the article about?

What is the criticism of the person’s films?

What does this person do in the film business?

Try to answer these three questions without reading the entire article.

Use this exercise to help you practice the skill of scanning.

How did you do? Chances are you learned who the article was about in the very first sentence: Ron Howard has heard the criticism. The second sentence explains this criticism: His films are too commercial. It may have taken you longer to learn what Ron Howard does in the film business—unless you already knew. If you didn’t know, you would have had to scan down to the last sentence of the second paragraph to learn that Ron Howard is a director. Does that mean you would have had to read every word in the article? No. A lot of the article lists the names of some of Ron Howard’s most popular movies. You can get this information from scanning the material.

Tips on Taking Tests

Taking tests is just part of education, and using scanning and predicting skills can actually improve your test-taking skills. Since many tests are based on multiple-choice questions, we’ll use these as an example. A multiple-choice test item gives you several different choices; you’re supposed to select the correct one. To answer this type of question, you may have to read a few passages in a text. For example, find the answer to the following question by scanning the two paragraphs in the figure below.

Use these paragraphs to practice your test-taking skills.

What do we inhale into our lungs that cells need to live?

a. Carbon dioxide

b. Nutrients

c. Oxygen

d. Waste air

The answer is c: oxygen. You can answer this question by scanning the passage. You can look for the words inhale and lungs. For that matter, you can look for words that begin with l or i. Often, you can answer a question like this, even if you aren’t exactly sure what the words carbon dioxide and nutrients actually mean.

Here’s another question based on the same paragraphs:

The most complex organ in the human body is the

a. lungs.

b. heart.

c. intestines.

d. brain.

The answer is d: brain. Once again, you can pick up on that answer by scanning for—or remembering—the word complex.

Page 2

For years, women’s professional golf was all but ignored. Women’s tournaments received very little attention in the sports pages, but all that is changing. Golfers like Michelle Wie are becoming almost as well-known as Jordan Spieth. The ESPN television channel covers major women’s tournaments. Most impressive of all, the winnings on the women’s tour are getting downright hefty. Top money for the recent Founders Cup in Phoenix, Arizona,was $225,000.

Who is Michelle Wie?

What does the word hefty refer to?

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Loudon and Augusta counties beginning at 7:00 P.M., EST, Friday, December 12, through 3:00 A.M., EST, Sunday, December 14. Snowfall of between 4 and 8 inches is predicted. School closings will be announced on Channel 10 through the evening.

How much snow is the storm likely to produce?

What do you think EST stands for?

KEY POINTS

Scanning is a way to get the information you’re looking for without reading every word.

The process of scanning involves running your eyes quickly over lines of print, looking for specific information.

Numbers and words that are capitalized usually stand out in a paragraph or passage.

Scanning a passage can often be helpful during a test.