Scanning and skimming are two reading techniques used to quickly extract specific information from a text.

1. Scanning

Scanning is a reading technique where you look for specific information or a particular detail in a text without reading the entire content.

Example 1:

Imagine you're looking through a phone book to find someone's phone number. You ignore most of the text and just scan for the person's name to get their contact information.

Example 2:

When you read a research paper, you might scan the text to find a specific date, term, or result, like looking for the year a study was published or a particular section.

2. Skimming

Skimming is a reading technique where you quickly go through the entire text to get a general idea or overview of the content, rather than focusing on specific details.

Example 1:

You are reading a news article quickly to understand the main points or headlines, rather than focusing on every sentence. You skim to grasp the general idea of what happened.

Example 2:

When reviewing a book for an exam, you might skim each chapter to get a sense of the key topics and themes without reading each word carefully.

In short:

Scanning = Finding specific information quickly.

Skimming = Getting the general idea of the content quickly.