Overviewing Text

Acquiring Information
Reading Strategies for Electronic Information

Good readers read strategically. They think about what they know about a topic before they begin to read.

Overviewing: A “Before Reading” Strategy

What is Overviewing? Overviewing is “before reading” previewing of the text using techniques such as skimming and scanning.

Why bother to Overview text?

Overviewing provides the reader with time to look at pictures and read headings and subheadings
Overviewing encourages readers to think about what they know about the topic before they begin reading.
Overviewing gives readers the opportunity to make predictions about what they will read.
Overviewing helps readers preview text length and author’s purpose for writing.
Overviewing allows students to decide where to start reading, what to skip, and what to read carefully

Skimming and Scanning Text
Skim/Scan Lesson for electronic resources

What is skimming?

Skimming is a very rapid inspection of a text. It’s handy to skim text because:

It helps you overview how the text is put together.
It gives you a “first impression” about the author’s topic.
It helps you begin to think about what you know or think about the topic.
When you skim text, you will get a feeling about what is really important to pay attention to as you read.
You also get an idea about how the text is organized, and that will help you understand what will make the reading hard or easy.

What is scanning?

Scanning is a slightly deeper look at a text. During scanning the reader: