"The reading continuum is not related to speed reading skills. Speed reading programs teach one how to rapidly scan words. A person can be a very fast or very slow reader and still use continuum reading concepts. Continuum reading concepts teach one how to pick and choose which words, paragraphs, pages, chapters and sections to be read, and how to read them for information without having to read every word."
Robert Clinton
The introduction to this series is at : Reading On The Run.
[ EO Readers ] : Enjoy the entire Reading series.
The Reading Continuum is :
Scan => Ransack => Browse => Pre-Read => In Depth Read => Study
Note: Scan, Ransack and Browse are all forms of assessment reading. They are ways to systematically and quickly mine a book for information in order to determine whether the book should be read at an evaluative level. Pre-read, In Depth Read and Study are all forms of evaluative reading. Evaluative reading requires time and fewer books should be read at this level.
Time to unpack step one : Scan reading.
Ever notice how authors tend to repeat things that other authors already said? The Da Vinci Code rebuttal books are an excellent example of this. Many worldview books are also like this. The same themes keep getting repeated over and over. Not only that, but did you ever notice how few books are really well written and present their ideas in a logical, structured, and thematic way? The stream of consciousness motif really seems to be the rage these days.
We need a way to solve both of these problems. A way to sift through the parts that have already been said in other books, and find the nuggets of new ideas embedded within a book ... knowing full well that those nuggets probably won't be laid out in the most logical and accessible format.
The solution is scan reading.
"Scan reading is an overview approach to the reading of a book. This involves a careful reading of the table of contents, introductory information, “dust cover” remarks, along with any information on the author which will allow at least a cursory understanding of what the book is about and how it is organized with a view toward determining what further level along the continuum the book should be read."
Reading on the Run, p.6
Time investment: Scan reading should take no more than 2 hours and can take as little as 15 minutes once you become proficient at it.
Your scan is complete when you know who wrote the book, identified their purpose, know how the book is organized, recognize what they are trying to accomplish, identify further assessment reading possibilities (ransacking/browsing), and make a go-no go decision concerning evaluative reading.
It is a good idea to write up the results of your scan read. Writing reinforces your conclusions and gives you a reference point to come back to. I would suggest posting your scan results on your blog and indexing them. If you don't have a blog, do it in a MS Word document and set up a directory for your "book reports".
I am in the process of studying the entire area of technology and worldview at the moment. I would like to become an expert in this area.
I asked my favorite technology / worldview blogger, Macht at Prosthesis, what books he considers seminal in the field. One of the books he mentioned was Neil Postman's Technopoly : the surrender of culture to technology.
I will go check that book out of the Salem library, scan read it, and post the results of my scan on the Dawn Treader.
Thanks for this great series. I look forward to seeing future entries.
I also look forward to seeing your "scan" of Technopoly, though it is definitely a work that you'll want to explore in-depth.
Posted by: Joe Carter | August 25, 2006 at 10:15
It strikes me that for this to be the most beneficial you need to have a clearly defined purpose/goal for what you want to get out of the book. That may seem obvious but I'm a little slow sometimes. :)
Posted by: Brian | August 25, 2006 at 14:43
"It strikes me that for this to be the most beneficial you need to have a clearly defined purpose/goal for what you want to get out of the book."
Brian, you are hitting on something called closed ransacking -- that will appear in a future post.
In general, though, you are right that this approach benefits the serious reader who is reading for a purpose. Since you are going to be teaching on worldview, you probably going to need to read a lot of books on developing the Christian mind. That is your overall purpose. There are a lot of books on that area -- this series should help you set up a plan for how mine through stacks of books and get the nuggets of truth you need.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | August 25, 2006 at 15:24
Is it possible to use this approach when reading a book by, say, Jacques Derrida?
Posted by: | August 27, 2006 at 18:07
"Is it possible to use this approach when reading a book by, say, Jacques Derrida?"
Sure. It is not so much dependent on who the author is as it is on what they are saying.
The idea is that you need to read (at a study level) the "basal" or "seminal" books on a topic. Not all books are considered seminal books. The Reading Continuum gives you the freedom to do some pre-reading to find out if the information contained in a book is worthy of reading at a study level.
We are progammed to try to read every book as if it is worthy of reading at a study level -- and not all books should be read this way.
Many authors repeat what other authors said. Many authors repeat themselves in different books. What you need to do is get to the new information quickly and skip the ideas you already know and not feel guilty about doing that. You will be able to get to more books and learn more that way.
If you are familiar with Derrida's ideas from previous reading, you should not waste your time re-reading the same ideas when you pick up your next Derrida book. Scan it and decide which chapters are worth ransacking, and which are worth ignoring.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | August 29, 2006 at 11:51
Thanks Mr. Clinton, that is helpful. I'm going into my fourth year of university (I guess that would be 'college' in the US of A) this year, and I am going to print off your series on reading so that I can implement it during my studies. I suck at reading (too much time in the wrong places) and would benefit greatly from a refined approach.
I'm grateful that you're taking the time to show and tell us what this is all about (and doing it with books that I already own...like Technopoly :)
Posted by: | August 31, 2006 at 00:14
please send me tips regarding how to read how to scan books and remember them
thank u......
Posted by: vissu | May 10, 2008 at 03:03