ASSIGNMENT

 

INFORMATION GATHERING

 

v SKIMMING

v SCANNING

v EXTENSIVE&

v INTENSIVE READING

v SQ4R

 

 

 

 

By

   Nehla  Jawahar

 

 

CONTENTS

 

·     Introduction

·     Skimming

·     Scanning

·     Intensive reading

·     Extensive reading

·     SQ4R

·     Conclusion

·     Bibliography

·     Webliography

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Information gathering is a key part of feasibility analysis. Information gathering is therefore the process of gathering information about the present system. We must know what information to gather, where to find it, how to collect it and ultimately how to process the collected information.

 

Information gathering is both an art and science. It is an art because the person who collects the information needs to be sensitive and must have an understanding of what to collect and what to focus on, the channels where the source of information can be gathered.

 

It is a science because it requires proper methodology and the use of specific tools in order to be effective. Nonetheless there is always a chance that can find oneself drowned in an ocean of information, not knowing which specific information to collect, where to collect and how to collect it.

 

 

 

 

 

SKIMMING

         

Skimming is an activity in which the reader glances through a text material to catch a general idea or gist of it without attending to details. It is one of the tools you can use to read more in less time. With skimming your overall understanding is reduced because you don’t read everything. You read only what is important to your purpose. Skimming takes place while reading and allows you to look far details in addition to the main ideas.

         

          Let us say you are doing research on a long chapter or a website. By reading the first two paragraphs in details, you will get a good idea of what information will be discussed. Once you know where the reading is headed, you can begin to read only the first sentence of each paragraph. Also called topic sentences, they give you the main idea of a paragraph greatly interests you, and then you may want to skim more.

 

          At the end of each topic sentence, your eyes should drop down through the rest of the paragraph, looking for important paragraph, looking for important pieces of information, such as, names, dates or events. Continue to read only topic sentences, dropping down through the rest of the paragraphs, until you are near end.

         

          Since the last two paragraphs may contain a conclusion or summary, you should stop skimming there and read in detail. Remember that your overall comprehension will be lower than if you read in detail. If while skimming you are skimming correctly.

 

          Skimming is done at a fast speed with less than normal comprehension; you should not skim all the time. There are many times, however, when skimming is useful.

 

          Suppose you taking a presentation skills class and have to deliver an oral report in few days about the first computers ever made. You locate six books and four newspapers articles about this topic. Because you must be ready soon, you do not have time to read each word, but you need a large quantity of solid information.

 

          Skimming will help you to locate the information quickly while making sure you use your time wisely. It will also increase the amount of usable material you obtain for your research.

 

SCANNING

 

                   Scanning is another useful tool for speeding up your reading. Unlike skimming, when scanning, you only look for a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything. You can scan when you look for your friend’s phone number in a telephone book, and for the sports scores in the newspaper.

                   For scanning to be successful, you need to understand how your material is structured as well as comprehended what you read so you can locate the  specific information you need. Scanning also allows you to find details and other information in a hurry.

                   Establishing your purpose, locating the appropriate material, and knowing how the information is structured before you start scanning is essential.

                   The material you scan is typically arranged in the following ways: alphabetically, chronologically, non- alphabetically by category or textually.

                   Alphabetically information is arranged in order from A to Z, while chronological information is arranged in time or numerical order.

                   Information can be also be arranged in non- alphabetical order, such as a television listening or by category, listening of like items such as an auto parts catalog. Sometimes information is located within the written paragraphs of text, also known as a textual sense, as in an encyclopedia entry.

                   Learning to use your hands while is very helpful in locating specific information. Your peripheral vision can also help you scan effectively. When your hand moves down a list of names, you see not only the name your finger is pointing to, but also the names above and below. Let your eyes work for you when searching for information. Keep the concept of key words in mind while scanning. Your purpose will determine the key words.

                   Suppose you are looking for the time a train leaves from NewYork City for Washington D. C. The key words to keep in mind are “from NewYork City” and “to Washington D.C”. If you are looking for the cost of a computer printer with the code number Px-710, the key word to locate in a list of many printers is “Px-710”.

                   You can scan when your aim is to find specific pieces of information. If you were doing the research for an oral presentation, you could scan the index of books, websites and reference materials. You would discover whether they contain any information you want and the pages where the information can be found.

                   In the past you probably scanned without knowing you were doing it. Now with the information provided in this section, you can use scanning more intentionally and frequently.

                    The more you practice the more effective scanning will become. Finally the most important benefit of scanning is its ability to help you become a more flexible reader. Scanning adds another high gear to your reading.

 

INTENSIVE READING

      Intensive learning occurs when the learner is focused on the language rather than the text. For example, the learner may be answering comprehension questions, learning new vocabulary, studying the grammar and expressions in the text, translating the passage (sometimes called careful reading), or other tasks that involve the student in looking inside the text intensively. Most often all the students read the same short text that the teacher decided.

                    The advantage of intensive reading is that it focuses the learner on certain aspects of the language. However, intensive reading usually done with difficult texts with many unknown words that require the learner to use a dictionary. This means the reading is slow and that there are few opportunities for the learner to learn to read smoothly, because she has to stop every few seconds to work on something she cannot understand. This slows or prevents the development of fluent eye movements that are so necessary to improve one’s reading skill.

                    Intensive is the most typical taught method of teaching reading. Unfortunately some teachers only know this method and believe that by teaching the vocabulary and grammar that is all the learner needs. This is not so, she also needs practice in reading and to be trained in developing reading skills.

Intensive reading strategies;

§  Pre-reading prediction activities.

§  Reading for gist or ‘skimming’ for main ideas.

§  Reading for specific information or ‘scanning’.

§  Ask your students to try out the techniques presented in the ‘reading tips’ from the ‘skills in mind’ sections of their English in Mind workbook with reading assignments in history or other school subjects, and then to report back on this ‘transfer of skills’ and ‘cross curriculum’ approach worked.

§  Remember to be flexible and change the ways you present an intensive reading text.

 

 

 

 

EXTENSIVE READING

 

          Extensive reading is a type of reading as much as possible, for your own pleasure at a difficulty level at which you can read smoothly and quickly without looking up words or translating to English as you go.

                   In other words, instead of spending a half hour decoding a tiny part of one book (also known as intensive reading) you read many simpler books that are at or slightly below the level at which you read fluently. This lets you get used to reading more complex sentences with ease, reinforces the words you already know and helps you learn new words from context.

 

Regarding extensive reading, there are certain principles:

 

o   Do not look up words in the dictionary.

o   Skip over parts you do not understand.

o   If you are not enjoying one book, toss it aside and get another.

Extensive reading has been used and advocated in language learning since at least 19^th century in the first language, many connections have been made between reading and vocabulary size, as well as other academic skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SQ4R

 

1. Survey the chapter

 

ü Read the introducing material carefully.

ü Read the headings and subheadings.

ü Look at the visual materials such as charts, groups or pictures.

ü Read marginal materials.

ü Skim over terminology or information in special print.

ü Read the end of chapter materials, including any conclusion, summary or chapter review questions.

2. Write Questions

 

Formulate a question for each heading or subheading in the chapter using the following words:

Which?

Where?

When?

What?

Why?

How?

Who?

3. Read Carefully and Thoroughly

 

ü Read one paragraph at a time.

ü Read slowly enough so that you can concentrate and comprehend each paragraph.

4. Record Information

 

     After reading each paragraph, take note of the important information you will need to study, memorize, learn and use. This allows you to have a reduced or condensed form of the information you are expected to know.

     Notes also allow you to be actively involved in the learning process. Writing information offers another way for you to hold information in working memory and encodes it for your long term memory.

ü Index Note Cards

ü Highlighting

ü Cornell Notes

ü Formal Outlines

ü Visual Mappings

ü Hierarchies

ü Comparison Charts

ü Two or Three Column Notes

ü Annotations

ü Marginal Notes

5. Recite

 

          Before moving on to the next paragraph, recite the information written in your notes by speaking out loud and in complete sentences. Reciting helps encode the information for memory and creates important retrieval cues. Repeat the read-record-recite cycle for each paragraph in the entire chapter.

6. Review

 

          Once the surveying, questioning, reading, recording and reciting steps are completed, you may proceed to the review step. The suggested actions below will help you review the chapter.

ü Answer any questions at the end of the chapter.

ü Answer the questions that you wrote in the question step.

ü Study and recite from the notes that you look in the record step.

ü Write a summary of the information in the chapter.

ü Personalize the information by asking yourself additional question steps.

1.    How can this information be used?

2.    How does the lecture from this class fit in with this information?

3.    Why is this important to learn?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

Purpose of reading	Example	Reading strategy	Name of the strategy
§  Reading to get specific items of information.               §  Reading for an overall understanding of the text.           §  Reading for total information           §  Reading for pleasure	Looking up some specific information in a dictionary, encyclopedia, a product manual, a brochure or other reference resources.         Reading a story, newspaper, a film review, a description, etc.           Reading your textbooks for study purpose, reading an article on a topic of importance for you.       Reading novels, magazines, short stories, etc.	You do not read the content from cover to cover. Instead you go to the specific page on which there is information, quickly run through and locate the specific items of information.     You read fast, often skipping words, sentences, sometimes even paragraphs that are not important and try and get an overall understanding of the text.   You read the text slowly, word by word and sentence by sentence because your aim is total or near total comprehension.     Since you are reading for pleasure, you may read the text selectively without being bothered by unfamiliar.	Scanning                   Skimming               Intensive reading           Extensive reading

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

§  Anderson, Marilyn. Pramod K. Nayar and Madhucchanda Sen (2008). Critical Thinking, Academic Writing and Presentation skills. Pearson Education, United States.

 

§  Sivarajan, K. T.V Ramakrishnan and K. Mridula (2012). Methodology of Teaching and Pedagogic Analysis- English Language Education. Calicut University, Calicut.

 

 

WEBLIOGRAPHY

§  http://www. how to learn. Com/2013/02/ skimming-and scanning/

§  http://www.extensive reading.net/

www.fastol.com/~rekwitz/sq4r