Review: Choosing the Right Reading Mode

Decide how to read any text by matching rate and strategy to your purpose.

This track has given you several reading modes. Skimming gets the gist. Scanning finds a specific fact. Close, slow reading handles dense nonfiction and primary sources. Expressive oral reading brings stories, poems, and speeches to life. The skill that ties them together is choosing the right mode for your purpose, and switching when needed. Consider a research task: you skim five articles to see which fit, scan the best one for a statistic, then read the key section slowly, restating each sentence.

Later you present your findings aloud, marking pauses and stress in your notes. That is four modes in one assignment. Before you read anything, ask two questions: Why am I reading this? How difficult is it for me? The answers tell you your rate and strategy. During reading, keep monitoring: if meaning slips, slow down and use a fix-up strategy. Flexible readers are efficient readers.

• 1Skim for gist, scan for facts, read closely for dense text
• 2Ask why you're reading and how hard the text is
• 3Switch modes during a task as your purpose changes