16) Skimming and Close Reading

This semester I am taking Writing 150.  My professor is Sister Lori Steadman, and our class is made up of about 20 students. I have really enjoyed our class.  For our final, my classmates and I have to each give a presentation on a subject we learned in Writing 150. 
I chose to present on Skimming and Close Reading because I am one of those readers.  I am the one that always reads a whole page in a wordy textbook and forgets what the chapter is about. I grumpily return to the beginning and read again and again until the idea sinks in.  We examined The Family Proclamation in class using the concepts of skimming and close reading, and I could see how useful it could be in my other classes. 
My Presentation went as follows:

·         I showed the class pieces of pictures that I cut up.  The pictures were of a basketball, a volleyball, and a golf ball. I had them guess what the pieces of the pictures were of.

·         Introduce topic: Skimming and Close Reading

·         Skimming and close reading are important because they save time and help you find the main ideas.

·         I taught the class  my helpful acronym

F ind the main idea (introduction and conclusion)

A nnotate (circle things that stand out to you)

S tay focused (try not to be distracted)

T wo words to summarize each paragraph (looking primarily at the topic sentence and conclusion of each paragraph)

·         I added the idea of relating the three pictures (texts) to each other. Compare and contrast.

·         Conclude: Just as we can determine what the picture is from just a few pieces, we can determine the ideas found in a paper with just a few sentences.  We do not always need to read every word to see the whole picture.

In conclusion, skimming and close reading are helpful to know when reading texts for class or any papers we might be reading in the future because they are processes that save us time and help us to find the main ideas.  Sometimes certain points stand out to us more when we skim and close read. If these points seem interesting or important, we can always go back and read more. Skimming and close reading are adjustable activities and can be flexible according to your preferences and the text. I will continue to develop my skimming and close reading skills that I learned in Writing 150 and use them in my future years in school.