Skim reading
August 26, 2011 3:30 PM Subscribe
Does anyone have any suggestions on skim reading? I am having trouble working out how to do it without reading the whole article. This is for University studies.
Thanks
V
How to Read a Book.
A classic, albeit a somewhat padded one.
posted by Homo economicus at 4:07 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
A classic, albeit a somewhat padded one.
posted by Homo economicus at 4:07 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
By all means skim, but take a 5 minute break every 45 minutes or so, and think about what you´ve been skimming. Reading fast and constantly will result in the famous War & Peace syndrome: "It involves Russia."
posted by Dumsnill at 4:56 PM on August 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by Dumsnill at 4:56 PM on August 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
[self link] How to Read a Book in an Hour
posted by LarryC at 5:55 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by LarryC at 5:55 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Read the introduction and conclusion thoroughly. Go through the rest of the paper reading all the headings and subheadings only. It might help to note them down. Stop and think about the paper - what its structure is, what they claim to conclude, what the methodology is. If you are left with any questions (and you should be), flick through the rest of the paper looking for the answers to those questions. E.g. "Why did they use X methodology instead of Y"? or "Did they control for Z" or in a humanities style paper "What exactly is their definition of P term". Sometimes it might help to skim the bibliography if you know the field well. It will give you an idea of whose theories they are relying on.
posted by lollusc at 6:40 PM on August 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by lollusc at 6:40 PM on August 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
Best answer: If you're just talking about articles/short form, rather than books:
1) Read the abstract, if there is one. This will summarize everything fairly neatly. Then, most importantly, WRITE IT DOWN. Don't copy/paste, either write it down by hand or type it, whichever is better for you. This makes it a lot easier to remember the core attributes of the article as you go through it.
2) Read the introduction.
3) Skim over the rest of the paper, especially graphs and charts. If you see any references to those graphs and charts, read those carefully and try to understand them.
4) Read the conclusion.
5) Wait a while. Depending on your timeline, this can be hours, days, even minutes if you're really cramming. Just do something different in the meantime, whether it's reading another article or chilling out or switching to a different subject. Then, read the ENTIRE article. If you don't have much time/energy/etc, just go through the skimming process again, but I recommend reading the entire article because you'll often find that it's much easier to do after you've done something like this to understand the overall structure.
This shouldn't take more than 15 minutes for most articles (barring step 5, of course), and will help with your understanding a lot.
posted by shabaabk at 9:48 PM on August 26, 2011 [5 favorites]
1) Read the abstract, if there is one. This will summarize everything fairly neatly. Then, most importantly, WRITE IT DOWN. Don't copy/paste, either write it down by hand or type it, whichever is better for you. This makes it a lot easier to remember the core attributes of the article as you go through it.
2) Read the introduction.
3) Skim over the rest of the paper, especially graphs and charts. If you see any references to those graphs and charts, read those carefully and try to understand them.
4) Read the conclusion.
5) Wait a while. Depending on your timeline, this can be hours, days, even minutes if you're really cramming. Just do something different in the meantime, whether it's reading another article or chilling out or switching to a different subject. Then, read the ENTIRE article. If you don't have much time/energy/etc, just go through the skimming process again, but I recommend reading the entire article because you'll often find that it's much easier to do after you've done something like this to understand the overall structure.
This shouldn't take more than 15 minutes for most articles (barring step 5, of course), and will help with your understanding a lot.
posted by shabaabk at 9:48 PM on August 26, 2011 [5 favorites]
There's a difference between primary and secondary sources: if you're doing a literature course, you need to read the whole of whatever primary text you're working on. You don't need to read the introduction, although it's often helpful, but you can't skim read, say, "Middlemarch" and expect to pass your 19th century novel course.
Secondary material, though, you can and should skim, at least until you know what you're going to need to focus on. All the above suggestions are good, but a cheap and dirty way to get the gist of a paper is to read the first sentence of each paragraph. These are usually the topic sentences, and while you won't understand the full implications of the argument, you will grasp the argument itself.
posted by jrochest at 3:27 PM on August 28, 2011
Secondary material, though, you can and should skim, at least until you know what you're going to need to focus on. All the above suggestions are good, but a cheap and dirty way to get the gist of a paper is to read the first sentence of each paragraph. These are usually the topic sentences, and while you won't understand the full implications of the argument, you will grasp the argument itself.
posted by jrochest at 3:27 PM on August 28, 2011
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posted by zeek321 at 3:46 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]