Cherry picking can be a cheesy thing when you are talking about basketball. But when it comes to reading, it can become a time saver.
The next stage in the Reading Continuum is known as Ransacking. It is also a form of evaluative reading. Ransacking a book is a valuable way to uncover cherry picking opportunities in your reading discipline.
Clinton defines ransacking as :
Ransack reading refers to the technique of looking through a book in order to see what it says concerning a specific topic of interest or combing through a book on relatively familiar material to see if it has any new ideas not known to you.
This is especially useful if you are already familiar with a certain topic. Cash in on that familiarity and just read selectively. Look for the new ideas.
There are two forms of ransacking. Open ransacking and closed ransacking.
Open Ransacking refers to rapid reading to see if there is some new idea or new slant on an idea concerning some specific area of interest.
Closed Ransacking refers to rapid reading to compare or contrast what is said with some already known idea or ideas in mind.
Dr. Clinton lays out the six possible results from ransacking a book.
When you have ransacked a book you will have:
1. Noted a new idea on a pre-selected topic of interest to you,
2. Noted a contrasting or differing idea on some pre-selected topic of interest to you,
3. Determined that the book has nothing to add to your preselected topic of interest,
4. Gained something worth noting which is of interest to you on any topic,
5. Determined that nothing of interest to you can be gained from the book,
6. Made a tentative decision concerning pre-read, in-depth read or study (e.g. will do now, will do in future, not necessary to do, decide after ransacking or browsing).
The reading continuum is a series of decision points. To get to a ransack decision, you have to pass the scan step. But now you face a new decision : open or closed ransack.
A decision to "open ransack" means you don't really know what you will discover in a given area, but you are on a mission to identify if a new idea is buried in the pages of the book. A decision to "close ransack" indicates you already have an idea of what you are looking for. Your mission is to see what the author has to contribute on this particular idea and compare it to what others have said.
One of the best kinds of books for ransacking are books with collections of essays. I have one such book on my shelf by C.S. Lewis called . It is a collection of C.S. Lewis essays covering apologetics and theology. Much can be gained from this book without reading it cover to cover. In fact, the book would lose some punch if it were read cover to cover.
The outcome of a ransack can be to put down the book and move on. Or, it may be to drill deeper but only in one section of the book ( known as Browse reading ). Or, it may be to go ahead and engage the entire book in more depth : either as a pre-read, in depth read, or study.
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