Skimming and scanning are two techniques that can be used to get the interesting information out of a book in the shortest amount of time.  Here are the definitions of both terms.

Skimming can be defined as the process in which your eye covers certain preselected sections of the reading material in order to get a general outline of overview of the reading material.

Scanning involve using your eyes to find specific “interesting” pieces of information from sections of the book.

So firstly you would use skimming on a book to outline the book, what it’s about, general content and may even note any specific chapters that are especially relevant to your current needs. Then secondly, you would use scanning to find specific information from a section; paragraph or chapter of a book.

Skimming is generally more involved than scanning, and is more similar to previewing. The idea is to get a skeleton impression of the book onto which you can put the meat by scanning.

Let’s say that you had a cookery book and were looking for bread recipes. First you would skim the book looking for anything concerning bread making. You would notice the sections on cookery techniques; flour types; baking information sections and recipe sections.  Then you would located the recipes section directly and look for an interesting recipe, the ingredients required; utensils used; baking times and so forth. Then having located everything you think you need actually read the sections having the “interesting” in our case bread making material.

Try this yourself.  Get a book that you believe has information that you are interested in, and scan the book for it’s structure, noting which sections or chapters may contain information that interests you.  Preview the book first by looking at the table of contents to help you locate those interesting areas.

Scan those interesting sections for any specific information that you need.  Find those major points; interesting facts; specific words phrases or data. Locate that word in a dictionary; telephone number or definition.  Read the first paragraph and last paragraph of a section of a book to get the bare bones of the content of that section. This can be used to make sure the section of the book contains the information that you are seeking.

In advanced skimming, your eye can be trained to take in large areas of print in one go, and comprehension is considerably increased by keeping the mind directed to find the information it wants from the reading material.