There are four different kinds of reading: skimming, scanning, extensive, and intensive reading. Skimming is looking over something very quickly, just to get an idea of what the entire piece is about. Scanning is similar to skimming, but the purpose is to find something specific within the reading material. Extensive reading is reading long pieces either for pleasure or information, such as
. novels. Intensive reading is reading shorter pieces, such as articles in a magazine or newspaper.Each type of reading is taught to students during elementary and secondary school. Skimming is one of the most important reading techniques because it allows students to study a piece quickly. They are able to get a general idea of what the article or piece is about, which can prepare them for a discussion in class. Many teachers also have students skim small articles in class and then write brief summaries to show that they picked up the main ideas.Scanning, which helps readers find specific information in the material, is quite similar to skimming. Many teachers dictate reading games where the students compete to find the material on the subject as quickly as possible. To do this, they must scan the pages with the sole purpose of finding the related subject matter. They do not need to read every word, but instead they are looking for key words that relate to the lecture.Enjoying a novel for pleasure or learning is a form of extensive reading. This requires people to read the entire book. This type of reading is used in schools when the whole class is reading one novel and holding discussions on the themes. It is also the type of reading that is done for book reports, where a student must present the plot, resolution and other ideas from the novel. People that have graduated from school tend to use extensive reading to relax with a good book.Intensive reading, which focuses on reading shorter articles, is similar to extensive in that the person is reading all of the material. This type of reading deals with magazine and newspaper articles, recipes and other short pieces of work. More reference links: http://www.learningtolearn.group.shef.ac.uk/read/read_difkind_task.html http://www.billstifler.org/cstcc/4read.pdf
