Hi, this is Morag from Academic Skills.
In this short video we're going to apply a
skimming strategy while reading.
First, let's think about why we might use a skimming strategy.
Skimming is useful
when you need to get an overview of a text quickly, for example as a preview to more detailed reading,
if you have a lot of reading to do and not much time, or
when you want to evaluate if a source might be useful for paper you're writing.
It is not appropriate if you need to gain in-depth knowledge of the text.
So, how do you skim read?
First, as with all reading tasks, determine your purpose for reading.
Then focus only on the parts of the text
that contain the main ideas,
such as headings, introductions and conclusions.
Remember you're looking for general information not detail,
so don't read every word.
It can also help to think like the author.
Consider what their aim might have been
and how they might have structured the paper to achieve that aim.
In this video we're going to apply a skimming technique to a paper
to determine if it's going to be useful for our purposes or not,
so the first thing is to determine what our purpose is.
In this case, let's imagine we're writing an essay responding to the question below.
First, we need to consider some criteria to determine the article's usefulness.
We can see that the main topic is peer learning programs
and we need to focus on the benefits, both academic and social,
for mentors and mentees
as well as draw on both individual and group models.
For the paper to be useful
it needs to relate directly to these themes.
As we're writing an academic paper we
also need to check it's credible and recent.
Now we know the criteria we can start skimming.
Let's start by considering the title, author, date and publisher.
This helps us to determine both relevance and credibility.
First, we can see that the title
clearly relates to the topic of benefits of peer learning.
Looking at the authors, we can see that
they're from reputable higher education institutions in Australia,
which lends credibility to the paper
and is a particular relevance given we're also in Australia.
We can see that the article was published in an academic journal
called Studies in Higher Education,
making it both credible and relevant to the topic,
as peer programs often occur in higher education settings.
Importantly for our context this research is current
as it was published recently in 2015.
So far this article appears to be highly relevant and credible,
and therefore useful.
Let's continue skimming to get a better
understanding of the content of the paper.
Abstracts provide an overview of the paper,
including context, aims, method, key findings,
potential applications and sometimes limitations or areas for future study.
First we see the context and previous research findings,
namely that PASS programs positively affect academic grades.
Next, we see that the aim of the study is to extend and build on those results
followed by an explanation of the method,
the major findings,
it benefits all students but more so international students students and lower achieving students
and lastly, potential applications of the study.
Remember, at this point if you feel the paper is not useful stop reading,
but this clearly relates to our topic so we'll keep skimming.
Let's move on to the introduction
as this will outline the aim and the structure of the paper.
This is where thinking like the author can help
as they will have chosen the most logical way of presenting information
moving from background to detail,
and general to specific.
Think about where you usually find the aim and structure in an introduction
as this will help you to find that information quickly.
Pause the video now and skim read to find the aim and structure of this paper.
We can see that the aim and outline are at the end of the introduction,
which is where we normally expect them to be.
Let's jump to the conclusion
as this will summarize the major findings in relation to the aim.
Pause the video now and skim read the conclusion to identify the major findings.
Hopefully from reading the conclusion you noticed
that the paper achieved its aim of extending and confirming previous results.
And the major findings?
Data showed a benefit in grades,
but that was dependent on regular attendance.
Both domestic and international students showed improvements
but international more so.
It improved equity in diverse cohorts. Lower achieving students saw greater benefit.
And it improved confidence which led to improve grades and improved study skills.
The next step is to skim through the rest of the text
looking at headings, subheadings, diagrams, graphs, charts, illustrations and their captions
as this tells us the structure of the paper.
Here are the section headings from this paper.
They provide a framework to help us focus on the main ideas.
As we're looking for a general overview
you might want to skip the detail normally found in the data, method, and results sections
and focus more on the discussion and limitations.
The final step in skimming
would be to read the first and last sentence in each paragraph
which would most likely contain the main points.
Now that we've finished skimming the paper,
we've got a really good overview of the content and the structure.
Having established credibility, we can conclude that
it supports the idea that the peer learning programs
have a positive impact on academic achievement under certain conditions.
This paper would definitely be worth reading in detail.
So, let's sum up.
Skimming strategies are useful
when you need to get an overview of the main idea of a paper.
They involve reading any information that will give you an overview,
including the author, title, date and publisher;
table of contents or index for relevant sections or pages;
the abstract;
introductory paragraphs or chapters;
the conclusion;
chapters, headings and subheadings;
diagrams, graphs, charts, illustrations and their captions;
endnotes, appendices, and list of references;
and the first and last sentence in each paragraph, which most likely contain the main points.