I'm putting together a workshop on reading skills for nursing majors.

I am shocked, I tell you shocked, to realize that some college students do not critically read their homework--taking notes, turning the sub-headings into questions and answering them, understanding why the reading is assigned and how it connects to the rest of the material in the course, thinking seriously and critically about the quality and usefulness of the material, preparing a list of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation questions for class discussion.

Some people just skim. They read the abstract, the intro, the conclusion, the sub-headings and perhaps a topic sentence or two. And not just as a pre-reading technique for critical reading, which I would highly recommend, but that's it.

Actually, I'm not shocked at all that some people skim. I would, in fact, recommend it for many situations:

A. If you have not given yourself the time to do the reading (want to come to my workshop on organizational skills?), it's better to skim than just read the first two pages. Get the gist of the whole article.

B. If you want to see if an article is relevant or helpful to your research project.

C. If you want to know in general what is going on in your field. I have taken many a professional journal to the bathroom, and no, I did not have a highlighter with me.

D. If you want to be able to back up your dinner table talking points and sound like you have some expertise. I've certainly done that, but I don't recommend you try that with my father-in-law around.

I am shocked that two study resources I recently looked at--a random book on study skills from the library, and a hand-out on reading from a local college--both suggested skimming your college assignments. Here's a direct quote from the hand-out "If you do this kind of preview, you can usually enter into a discussion about the material." Could they just put up a big flashing sign: here's how to fake it?

I think it is vital to read critically in the following situations:

A. When you will be discussing the material in class. I hate feeling like a phony. I want to know I've done my best possible job to understand and digest the material. I want to come in prepared to dig into the specifics. And frankly, I don't want to learn how to fake my way through; I want to learn the material.

B. When you are depending on that information for your credibility. Anything I cite in my paper, I better know.

C. When others are depending on your expertise. If you, as a nurse, are going to tell your patients, research says do X. You better have actually read the research.

I've run this discussion by several friends now, and most of them don't seem as obsessed about critical reading as I am. Either they are smart enough that they can catch the nuances of an article by pretty much skimming, or they are just not as conscientious/plodding when it comes to their learning.

So, I want to know from you, my friends, who I completely grant are not a representative sample of learners in America, do you skim in an academic context, in a professional context, when, and why?