How To Skim Through An Academic TextBook In The Right Way

Skimming Through An Academic Book In The Right Way

In order to write a college paper one has to read an academic book. You have to great skimming skills in order to read a 300-page book in a week. If you know what to expect from a book you can easily learn the subject better. You can only do this by skimming the book before digging in.

This is what to do:

• Begin with an objective mind. This way you will likely read, understand, and implement the ideas in the book in your business and life.
• Begin by examining the cover and blurb
• Look through the table of contents
• Have a flick through the index
• Skim through the headings and subheadings and if something, interests you make sure to read more.

Once you familiarize with the ideas of the book you will clearly see how they connect as you read them. Skimming is a good way to grasp a non-fiction book. If you can access a summary of the book, make sure to read it. However, if you cannot just skim through the concepts and create a first impression that way.

Next, read the book and you can speed either read it or read it normally. When reading, make sure to stop and highlight all the important sections and take notes, as you need to. Either you can read from start to finish or you can read the sections that are interesting to you. One of the easiest ways to cut down on reading time is to identify what you do not need to read and skipping past it.

When skimming a book make sure to understand why you are reading it. Different things require different levels of skimming. With some books, you only need to read the table of contents while for others you have to dig deeper. Reasons why you might need to dig deeper:

1. If you need to write an annotated bibliography
2. If you are writing a paper and you want to reference the book
3. If you are writing a paper about the book
4. If you are discussing the book in class

Reading is fun and you should never feel pressured to read every single word of every book in class. Knowing how to skim will save you from very many restless.