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4 Different Types of Reading Techniques

There are several techniques for taking notes from texts. Skimming allows readers to quickly grasp the main ideas of a text at a high level. Scanning allows readers to quickly find specific information within a text. Intensive reading involves closely reading every word to understand all details. Extensive reading focuses more on fluency than accuracy and is done for pleasure. Critical reading analyzes what a text says and how it says it in order to make inferences and form conclusions. Speed reading techniques like guiding the eyes and adjusting reading speed allow readers to read more quickly without compromising comprehension. Effective note-taking methods include outlining, charting, mapping, and the Cornell Notes system to efficiently record and organize important information from texts.

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301 views3 pages

4 Different Types of Reading Techniques

There are several techniques for taking notes from texts. Skimming allows readers to quickly grasp the main ideas of a text at a high level. Scanning allows readers to quickly find specific information within a text. Intensive reading involves closely reading every word to understand all details. Extensive reading focuses more on fluency than accuracy and is done for pleasure. Critical reading analyzes what a text says and how it says it in order to make inferences and form conclusions. Speed reading techniques like guiding the eyes and adjusting reading speed allow readers to read more quickly without compromising comprehension. Effective note-taking methods include outlining, charting, mapping, and the Cornell Notes system to efficiently record and organize important information from texts.

Uploaded by

Nauman Mashwani
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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4 Different Types Of Reading Techniques

Skimming
Skimming,sometimes referred to as gist reading, means going through the text to grasp the main
idea. Here, the reader doesn’t pronounce each and every word of the text but focuses their
attention on the main theme or the core of the text. Examples of skimming are reading magazines
or newspapers and searching for a name in a telephone directory.

Scanning
Here, the reader quickly scuttles across sentences to get to a particular piece of information.
Scanning involves the technique of rejecting or ignoring irrelevant information from the text to
locate a specific piece of information.

Intensive Reading
Intensive reading is far more time-consuming than skimming and scanning as it needs the
reader’s attention to detail. It involves close reading that aims at the accuracy of comprehension.
Here, the reader has to understand the meaning of each and every word.

Extensive reading
Extensive reading lays more emphasis on fluency and less on accuracy. It usually involves
reading for pleasure and is more of an out-of-classroom activity. It is highly unlikely for readers to
take up the extensive reading of text they do not like.

Skimming is a technique that allows you to quickly read through a text and pick out the main ideas. This is a useful
skill when you need to get an overview of a text or when you’re looking for specific information.
Scanning is a technique that allows you to quickly read through a text and find specific information. This is a useful
skill when you need to find specific information in a text.
Intensive reading is a technique that allows you to read a text slowly and carefully in order to understand all the
details and nuances. This is a useful skill when you need to understand a text in depth.
Extensive reading/Speed reading is a technique that allows you to read a text quickly. This is a useful skill when you
need to read a lot of information in a short amount of time.

Critical reading
Critical reading is the most in-depth and intensive type of reading. As the name suggests, it involves
having a critical eye and essentially holding up a metaphorical magnifying glass to the text you're reading.

It's not about looking for faults and flaws in the text but instead holding the author and their ideas to
account. Can they back up what they're saying? Is there sufficient evidence to prove their point?

To read a text critically, you have to analyse what the text is saying and how it's saying it (such as by
taking a look at the literary devices it uses). From this, you make inferences and use your own judgement
to reach a conclusion - do you agree or disagree with what the text is saying or trying to say?

Critical reading is used to analyse various texts including novels, poems, articles and even what we see
on social media or the television.
6. Speed Reading
Speed reading is a technique that helps you read faster without compromising comprehension or
retention.

Speed reading is very different from skimming and scanning. In skimming, you speed through the text to
get an idea of what it is, and in scanning, you speed through the text just to find something important.

However, in speed reading, you’re not simply running your eyes through texts. Rather, you’re reading
every word, but fast. Importantly, you’re comprehending the text as you speed through.

If you’ve ever felt that there’s so much to read but not enough time, you need to learn speed reading.

There are various steps that you can take to master speed reading. These include:

 Guide your eyes. Run a finger or a pen under the words you are reading. Our eyes tend to fixate on
moving objects. So, if you run a finger or a pen under the words in a text, your eyes will follow.
Do this faster than you’ll normally read, which trains your eyes to move faster and to read faster.

You’ll agree that running a finger or a pen under the words you’re reading will not be “cool” if the reading
material is on a digital device. Iris Reading has a speed reading tool that’ll guide your eyes by flashing
word chunks on your screen at your chosen speed.

 Deadline strategy. Measure how much time it takes you to read a page, then try to beat it. Always
remember that whatever can be measured can be managed. 
Simply set a time of 1 – 5 minutes and see how many lines you can read in the set time. Then, set the
same time again and try to beat it by reading more lines.

 Adjust reading speed. When speed reading, slow down on the first sentence in a paragraph and
increase your speed as you go.
Even automobiles do not come flying out of the garage. Just like a car accelerates until it reaches
maximum speed, so start relatively slow and pace up as you go. 

What is Note-Taking?
Note-taking is, simply, a way of concisely recording important information so that you can recall it
later.

Regardless of how good you think your memory is - you will need to take notes in certain situations to
remind yourself what was said. It is a mistake to think, when going to a meeting or attending a lecture or
some other important talk, that you will remember the details of what has been said - you won’t.  You may
well remember the overall topic of the discussion, even some very specific details, but you won’t
remember everything.

Common Note-taking Methods


Outlining
Outlining in note-taking—not to be confused with outlining as part of the writing process—is
one of the simplest and most common ways to take notes. Points and keywords are written
down in a hierarchical structure, typically in the same chronological order as they were
discussed in the lesson. 
Charting

Charting is a particular type of note-taking that works best when multiple topics are
discussed simultaneously, as with comparisons, or when one topic is dissected into multiple
parts (i.e., pros/cons). 

Essentially, you just divide your page into two or more columns, with each column assigned
to a single topic. Every time a pertinent fact is mentioned for one of the topics, jot down a
note in the corresponding column.

 Mapping

For visual thinkers, it might help to take notes using a mind map, or simply “mapping.” This
note-taking technique utilizes branching graphs—like spider diagrams—to organize
information in a way that’s easy to group and comprehend. 

Cornell Notes system

Popularized by Cornell University professor Walter Pauk, the Cornell Notes system, also
called the Cornell method, aims to make note-taking faster and more efficient by allocating
dedicated space on a page for different types of information. 

Basically, you divide your page into two columns: the recall column (left) accounts for one-
third of your page, and the note column (right) accounts for two-thirds of the same page. In
the recall column, you write the main topics, keywords, or questions, with supporting notes
written directly across in the notes column. 

At the bottom of the page, five to seven lines are reserved for a summary, where after the
lesson or reading you reiterate the main points of the entire class, chapter, etc. 

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