Which term describes the reading strategy used to locate a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything?

Which term describes the reading strategy used to locate a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything?

• A. Scanning
• B. Skimming
• C. Information gap activity
• D. Discourse markers

Answer: (A)

Scanning is the reading technique used to locate a specific fact or piece of information quickly without reading everything. When you scan, you know exactly what you’re looking for—a date, a number, a name—and you move your eyes along the text to find that item, skipping over unrelated words and sentences. You’ll rely on layout cues like headings, bold terms, or numbered lists to guide your search, and you stop as soon as you spot the target. This approach is different from skimming, which is about getting the overall sense or gist of a text rather than finding a particular detail. Discourse markers are linking words that help show how ideas connect, not a search method. So the strategy described is scanning because its purpose is to locate a specific piece of information quickly without reading everything.

Scanning is the reading technique used to locate a specific fact or piece of information quickly without reading everything. When you scan, you know exactly what you’re looking for—a date, a number, a name—and you move your eyes along the text to find that item, skipping over unrelated words and sentences. You’ll rely on layout cues like headings, bold terms, or numbered lists to guide your search, and you stop as soon as you spot the target. This approach is different from skimming, which is about getting the overall sense or gist of a text rather than finding a particular detail. Discourse markers are linking words that help show how ideas connect, not a search method. So the strategy described is scanning because its purpose is to locate a specific piece of information quickly without reading everything.