Skimming and scanning for gist
Arabic · Key Stage 3 · The School
Two different speeds, two different jobs
SKIMMING means reading fast, without stopping on unfamiliar words, to get the general topic and shape of a text — what is this about, broadly? SCANNING means moving your eyes fast over a text looking for one specific thing — a date, a name, a number — while ignoring everything else around it.
When to skim
Skim when you need to decide whether a text is even relevant to what you want, or before reading it closely, to build a rough map of what is coming. Do not stop for individual words while skimming — that turns skimming back into slow, careful reading, and defeats the whole point of doing it.
When to scan
Scan when you already know exactly what you are looking for — a particular date, a name, a single fact — inside a longer text. Move your eyes quickly down the page, letting almost everything blur past, and stop only when something matching what you want appears.
A short article: عُقِدَ المُؤْتَمَرُ الدَّوْلِيُّ لِلطَّاقَةِ فِي القَاهِرَةِ يَوْمَ الِاثْنَيْنِ، وَحَضَرَهُ مُمَثِّلُونَ مِنْ خَمْسَ عَشْرَةَ دَوْلَةً. تَحَدَّثَ الرَّئِيسُ عَنْ أَهَمِّيَّةِ الطَّاقَةِ الشَّمْسِيَّةِ لِلْمُسْتَقْبَلِ. ("The international energy conference was held in Cairo on Monday, attended by representatives from fifteen countries. The president spoke about the importance of solar energy for the future.") SKIM first: this is broadly about an international conference on energy — enough to decide whether to read on. SCAN next, looking specifically for a number: your eyes catch خَمْسَ عَشْرَةَ (fifteen) quickly, giving you the number of countries without reading every surrounding word. Two different questions — "what is this roughly about?" and "how many countries attended?" — answered by two different reading speeds, on the very same text.