IN THIS LESSON

English Language Essentials

Skim a text quickly first to help you plan how you will use it to answer the question and which areas you will focus on more.

Further Details

When you skim a text consider these factors:

who, what, why, where, when, how, and which.

  1. Who is the text written for and what is the purpose/main idea?

  2. What is the structure? (Headings? Paragraphs? Sections?)

  3. Why must you read this text? (Which questions is it relevant to?)

  4. Where is the information you need? 

  5. When will you use the text? (How much time should you spend on it?)

  6. Which sections are most relevant to which questions?

  7. How long is the text (e.g., does it continue over the page?)

English Language Activity

  1. Chose an article to read.

  2. Then write answers to the 6W’s & H questions given above. 

Tip: Annotate the Text

  • Underline or highlight key words and information in the article.

  • Add notes in the margins. 

  • Look up any words you do not understand. 

  • Make note of any words you know you find difficult to spell.

Find Articles Here:

The Onion (mock news stories that are funny but not true). 

https://theconversation.com/uk (articles with academic rigour and journalistic flair). 

Bonus Activity

Find your own choice of text to apply these skills to. You could swap resources with someone else (and compare notes). It could be an article in a newspaper, a section from a book at home, or even a poster. 

Extra activity: apply as many of these skills as you can  to non-written information, e.g., a video or something on the radio.


Knowledge Check/Review

  1. What are the 6W’s and 1H questions (that you can apply to texts)?

  2. What are some ways to annotate a text?