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When reading a document, it is important to know the reasons why you are reading it. Are you reading to gain specific knowledge of certain details? Or are you reading to gain an overall grasp of a subject? Knowing your purpose will determine the approach you choose to follow.

Different reasons for reading include:

1 To get an overall idea of the text – this is known as skim-reading or gist-reading.

2 To gain a lot of detailed understanding of information in the text – this is known as intensive reading.

case study Depak was given the brief to research the background of moving into a new market for mobile phones. He quickly found the best websites and navigated to the appropriate pages, where he found summaries of the new market and was able to take notes and present them to his meeting.

“A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others”

Abraham Lincoln, US President 1861–1865

3 To find a specific piece of information – this is known as scan reading.

4 To understand the writer’s purpose in the text. Because the writer’s purpose may be implicit rather than explicit, this is known as reading to infer.

We use different reading techniques at different times. For example, to look at a job advertisement to see if we might apply for the job, we will gist-read to gain a general understanding of whether we want to take things further. In looking at a website for a phone number of a company, we will scan-read the company’s homepage to locate the ‘Contact us’ page and then find the phone number. If we have to conduct research in writing a background paper on a new product, then we will have to undertake intensive reading of texts and articles to gain a lot of detailed information.

Know your purpose in reading; that will determine the approach you follow.