快速阅读技巧 How to scan?

A. What Is Scanning?
  Scanning in reading is a technique for quickly looking through reading matter to locate a particular piece of information—a fact, a date, a name, a statistic. For example, when you find someone's phone number or address, you are scanning. When you check a train schedule, look up a word in the dictionary, or locate a book on a library shelf, you are scanning.

B. How to Scan
1.  Check the Organization.
  Before you begin to scan, check how the article or material is organized. It is the
most important clue to where to begin' looking for information. The organization of
the material is crucial to rapid scanning.                                            
2.  Know Your Purpose.
Keep in mind what you are looking for. Scanning is effective only if you know your specific purpose.
                                                      
3. Anticipate Clue Words.                                        
  Keeping in mind clearly what you are looking for, you should try to anticipate clues that may help you more rapidly locate the answer. For example, if you are scanning to find the distance between two cities, you might expect either digits or numbers written out as words. Besides, a unit of measurement, probably miles or kilometers will appear after the number.

4. Identify Likely Answer Locations.
  Using what you have learned from checking the organization of the material, try to identify likely places where the information you are looking for might appear. For example, use headlines in prose material and alphabetical system in columnar materials.

5. Use a Systematic Pattern.
  Scanning should be organized and systematic. Do not randomly skip around,
searching for clues. Instead, rhythmically sweep your eyes through the material.
The pattern or approach you use will depend on the material. For material printed in narrow six- or seven-word columns, such as newspaper articles, you might move your eyes" straight down the middle, catching the phrases on each half of the line. This is a straight down pattern, often called the arrow pattern.For wider lines of print, a zig-zag or Z pattern might be more effective. That is, your eyes move across lines and entire paragraphs, noticing clue words that indicate the likely location of the answer.

6. Confirm Your Answer.                       
  Once you think you have found the answer you have been looking for, check to make sure if your answer is the correct information. That is, read the sentence or two that contains the- answer, confirming that it is the information you need. Accuracy is just as essential as speed in scanning. The answer must be 100 percent accurate.

C. Scanning Different Types of Materials
  Materials to be scanned can be divided into two broad types; columnar materials and prose materials. Columnar material includes all sorts of information presented in lists, tables, columns, schedules or charts, such as dictionaries, train schedules, and TV listing.Prose material, on the other hand, refers to any information presented in paragraph form and includes materials such as encyclopedia entries, newspapers and magazine articles,
textbooks and pamphlets.

1.  Scanning Columnar Materials

In scanning any Information presented in list form, the most important step is to be come familiar with its organization. First, check the overall organization. Then see if it is divided in any particular way-alphabetically arranged or topically arranged.

The most effective scanning pattern for most columnar materials is the straight down pattern. It is a swift downward, sweep.

2.  Scanning Prose Materials

Prose materials are more difficult to scan than columnar materials. Their
organization is less apparent and the information is less concisely or obviously stated. Therefore, you may rely heavily on identifying clue words and predicting the form of your answer.

 When scanning prose materials, you may apply the zig-zag pattern. Your eyes drift quickly through a passage searching for clue words and phrases that indicate that you may be close to the answer.