Background THE “WHITE” STRATEGY

When skimming, we search for clues to what a text is about, without focusing on details. One way of skimming a text is to look for WHITE:

You look for: You ask yourself:

Whole text impression

Headings

What text type is this? Does it look like a textbook text, poem, article or something else? What makes you think this?

What do the heading and subheadings tell you about the text? What keywords can you discover there?

Illustrations What information can you find in the pictures, graphs or other types of illustrations? What do the captions say?

Topic sentences What do the topic sentences (see p. 58) tell you about the topic? Extract some key information from these.

Ending What do the final sentences tell you about the content of the text?

Below is what a student noted down after using the WHITE strategy on the text “Fake News: Don’t Be Fooled!” (p. 222):

Whole text impression

Looks like a factual text about the topic “fake news” (length, pictures, tasks, sub-headings, etc.).

Headings “Fake News: Don’t Be Fooled!” The title gives us the topic “fake news” and includes a direct appeal to the reader. This suggests that the text will give advice on how to avoid being fooled by fake news.

Subheadings:

Going viral / Fake news = big business / Social media and fake news / Fake news in a complicated world / Challenge to democracy / The consequences of fake news

Illustrations and their captions

Topic sentences:

Key information extracted from the first five paragraphs

- the photos in the text and their captions are typical photos you see in news articles, with captions that give more information

- there is a cartoon as well as statistics – a quick look reveals that both concern fake news

- “fake news” = false news that looks or sounds true

- some fake news stories are partly true, others completely false

- not always bad intentions behind fake news

- stories going viral: spreading like a virus

- people spread fake news without knowing that they are doing it

- Facebook: accused of not working hard enough to remove fake news stories

These sentences reveal that the text will cover the topic of fake news from different angles, starting with a definition of the term itself.

Ending Fake news is here to stay. It is our responsibility to check whether information is true and reliable before passing it on.

This conclusion places a personal responsibility on each of us to make good use of the information and advice the text has given us.

a Individually, skim the text on pp. 166 –170 and fill in a WHITE table (see p. 164).

b In pairs or small groups, compare what you have found out about the text. Then agree on answers to the following questions:

– What do you think this text is about? Why do you think so?

– What do you think you will learn from reading this text?