You can get to know more about the depth of any document by getting familiar with it and that requires a detailed and thoughtful reading. To do this, before you get into reading the text thoroughly, you must get its general overview. By this we mean that you must first skim your document so that you get the logical flow of the document and its progression. If you know the task of skimming, you can know the task of placing your focus at the right place, especially when the time available with you is very limited. Skimming the text is a technique and here is one technique that could be customised and altered as per your reading style and comfort level:
- Previewing is the task before skimming: you must carefully read the introductory paragraph or the first two paragraphs so that you can predict the direction of the coming up arguments. You must especially focus on the beginning two sentences of each paragraph and as well as the conclusion sentence. In between try to locate the unfamiliar terminology used which does not go well with the theme of the paragraph.
- Once you have previewed the document, the next important thing is to scan it. It is skimming with a more tight focus so that even the smallest of figures and facts do not go unnoticed. When you are writing research papers, it is all the more important to scan the document as you may scan through the articles and books to find specific material you need. When you scan through material, keep a goal in mind so that the remaining extra material in the text does not distract you. Scanning can help you to move ahead in your research project.
You must remember that researchers need to be very meticulous and particular, not just about writing the content but other factors also associated with it. Skimming and scanning the document are also important techniques that all researchers and writers need to acquaint themselves with so that there is synchronisation and coherence in the entire content and not just that there is expertise in writing but also the connectivity in the content is there so that the content is worthy.
Still if you find writing difficult and challenging, do study and read about the various special techniques and methods that can be adopted to improvise the way things can be done.