Previewing

Learning Objectives

  • Use previewing as a reading strategy

Previewing

Previewing is a strategy that readers use to recall prior knowledge, set a purpose for reading, and prepare for what’s coming next. Previewing texts before reading helps improve your comprehension and retention of what you read.

Key Takeaway: Previewing

Previewing involves skimming the text before diving in, paying attention to headings, bolded terms, summaries, and other key features. This quick overview gives you a sense of what to expect and highlights important details, making it easier to focus and understand the material when you read it more carefully later.

Think about the word itself in parts. “Pre” is prefix that means “before” and the word “viewing” is to see. You are quite literally thinking about how to see before you read. 

Movie marquee with a message that reads "see you soon."

Figure 1. Think of previewing a text as similar to watching a movie preview.

Think of previewing a text as similar to creating a movie trailer. A successful preview for either a movie or a reading experience will capture what the overall work is going to be about, generally what expectations the audience can have of the experience to come, how the piece is structured, and what kinds of patterns will emerge.

How to Preview

Your approach to previewing may vary depending on the genre:

  • For nonfiction, focus on understanding the subject matter and identifying what you already know and what you want to learn. Skim headings, subheadings, and illustrations (and their captions) to see how the author organizes information. This helps you connect prior knowledge to new content and set goals for your reading.
  • For biographies, look for clues about the person’s life, the historical time period, and possible key events or places. Titles, chapter headings, and introductory notes can provide valuable insights into the focus of the biography.
  • For fiction, identify key elements like characters, setting, and plot. Use the headers, illustrations (and their captions), and any introductory material to make predictions about the story’s conflicts and resolutions.

Scanning and Skimming

Scanning

The technique of scanning is a useful one to use if you want to get an overview of the text you are reading as a whole – its shape, the focus of each section, the topics or key issues that are dealt with, and so on. In order to scan a piece of text you might look for sub-headings or identify key words and phrases which give you clues about its focus. Another useful method is to read the first sentence or two of each paragraph in order to get the gist of the discussion and the way that it progresses.

hand holding a pen over an open book

Figure 2. Identifying sub-headings and key words as you scan a particular text can help you to get an overview of the bigger ideas and themes.

Scanning is also used to find a particular piece of information. Run your eyes over the text looking for the specific piece of information you need. You may run your eyes quickly down the page in a zigzag or winding S pattern. If you are looking for a name, you note capital letters. For a date, you look for numbers. Vocabulary words may be boldfaced or italicized. When you scan for information, you read only what is needed. If you see words or phrases that you don’t understand, don’t worry when scanning. 

Using internet tools such as a search bar or Ctrl + F can be useful when scanning online or digital texts. Some tips for scanning:

  • Scan for titles, headings, and subheadings
  • Scan the first sentence after each heading
  • Scan any supplemental material at the beginning or end of the text, such as chapter outlines, chapter objectives, discussion questions, or vocabulary lists

Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information, or “gist” of a text. Run your eyes over the text, noting important information. Use skimming to quickly get up to speed on the basic content coverage; it’s not essential to understand each word when skimming. As you skim, you could write down the main ideas and develop a chapter outline. Some tips for skimming:

  • Skim the first paragraph or introduction
  • Skim the last paragraph or summary
  • Skim the abstract (if provided)

When you preview, you look for signposts by making a note of graphic aids such as figures, tables, charts, graphs, and images. You can get a lot of information about the reading itself if there are images included. You may also want to note typographical aids such as bold-faced or highlighted words and phrases. Previewing engages your prior experience, and asks you to think about what you already know about this subject matter, or this author, or this publication. Then anticipate what new information might be ahead of you when you return to read this text more closely.

Watch It

This video explains the advantages of previewing a text and how to do it successfully.

You can view the transcript for “How to Preview a Text” here (opens in new window).

 

Try It