diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9ced52c..6052941 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,13 +55,16 @@ func main() {
 
 ## ScanFunc
 
-The `ScanFunc` receives a Kinesis Record and returns an `error`
+ScanFunc is the type of the function called for each message read
+from the stream. The record argument contains the original record
+returned from the AWS Kinesis library.
 
 ```go
-type ScanFunc func(*Record) error
+type ScanFunc func(r *Record) error
 ```
 
-Return `nil` to continue scanning, or choose from the custom error types for additional flow control.
+If an error is returned, scanning stops. The sole exception is when the
+function returns the special value SkipCheckpoint.
 
 ```go
 // continue scanning
@@ -70,13 +73,31 @@ return nil
 // continue scanning, skip checkpoint
 return consumer.SkipCheckpoint
 
-// stop scanning, return nil
-return consumer.StopScan
-
 // stop scanning, return error
 return errors.New("my error, exit all scans")
 ```
 
+Use context cancel to signal the scan to exit without error. For example if we wanted to gracefulloy exit the scan on interrupt.
+
+```go
+// trap SIGINT, wait to trigger shutdown
+signals := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
+signal.Notify(signals, os.Interrupt)
+
+// context with cancel
+ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+
+go func() {
+	<-signals
+	cancel() // call cancellation
+}()
+
+err := c.Scan(ctx, func(r *consumer.Record) error {
+	fmt.Println(string(r.Data))
+	return nil // continue scanning
+})
+```
+
 ## Checkpoint
 
 To record the progress of the consumer in the stream we use a checkpoint to store the last sequence number the consumer has read from a particular shard. The boolean value SkipCheckpoint of consumer.ScanError determines if checkpoint will be activated. ScanError is returned by the record processing callback.
diff --git a/consumer.go b/consumer.go
index 01fe841..dd106f4 100644
--- a/consumer.go
+++ b/consumer.go
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ type Consumer struct {
 // returned from the AWS Kinesis library.
 //
 // If an error is returned, scanning stops. The sole exception is when the
-// function returns the special value SkipCheckpoint or StopScan.
+// function returns the special value SkipCheckpoint.
 type ScanFunc func(*Record) error
 
 // SkipCheckpoint is used as a return value from ScanFuncs to indicate that
@@ -75,11 +75,6 @@ type ScanFunc func(*Record) error
 // as an error by any function.
 var SkipCheckpoint = errors.New("skip checkpoint")
 
-// StopScan is used as a return value from ScanFuncs to indicate that
-// the we should stop scanning the current shard. It is not returned
-// as an error by any function.
-var StopScan = errors.New("stop scan")
-
 // Scan launches a goroutine to process each of the shards in the stream. The ScanFunc
 // is passed through to each of the goroutines and called with each message pulled from
 // the stream.
@@ -164,24 +159,26 @@ func (c *Consumer) ScanShard(ctx context.Context, shardID string, fn ScanFunc) e
 				continue
 			}
 
-			// call callback func with each record from response
+			// callback func with each record
 			for _, r := range resp.Records {
-				lastSeqNum = *r.SequenceNumber
-				c.counter.Add("records", 1)
+				select {
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					return nil
+				default:
+					err := fn(r)
 
-				if err := fn(r); err != nil {
-					switch err {
-					case StopScan:
-						return nil
-					case SkipCheckpoint:
-						continue
-					default:
+					if err != nil && err != SkipCheckpoint {
 						return err
 					}
-				}
 
-				if err := c.checkpoint.Set(c.streamName, shardID, *r.SequenceNumber); err != nil {
-					return err
+					if err != SkipCheckpoint {
+						if err := c.checkpoint.Set(c.streamName, shardID, *r.SequenceNumber); err != nil {
+							return err
+						}
+					}
+
+					c.counter.Add("records", 1)
+					lastSeqNum = *r.SequenceNumber
 				}
 			}
 
@@ -221,9 +218,10 @@ func (c *Consumer) getShardIDs(streamName string) ([]string, error) {
 			NextToken: resp.NextToken,
 		}
 	}
+	return ss, nil
 }
 
-func (c *Consumer) getShardIterator(streamName, shardID, lastSeqNum string) (*string, error) {
+func (c *Consumer) getShardIterator(streamName, shardID, seqNum string) (*string, error) {
 	params := &kinesis.GetShardIteratorInput{
 		ShardId:    aws.String(shardID),
 		StreamName: aws.String(streamName),
@@ -236,9 +234,6 @@ func (c *Consumer) getShardIterator(streamName, shardID, lastSeqNum string) (*st
 		params.ShardIteratorType = aws.String(c.initialShardIteratorType)
 	}
 
-	resp, err := c.client.GetShardIterator(params)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-	return resp.ShardIterator, nil
+	res, err := c.client.GetShardIterator(params)
+	return res.ShardIterator, err
 }
diff --git a/consumer_test.go b/consumer_test.go
index 9f23160..d53bca5 100644
--- a/consumer_test.go
+++ b/consumer_test.go
@@ -11,23 +11,24 @@ import (
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/kinesis/kinesisiface"
 )
 
+var records = []*kinesis.Record{
+	{
+		Data:           []byte("firstData"),
+		SequenceNumber: aws.String("firstSeqNum"),
+	},
+	{
+		Data:           []byte("lastData"),
+		SequenceNumber: aws.String("lastSeqNum"),
+	},
+}
+
 func TestNew(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := New("myStreamName"); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("new consumer error: %v", err)
 	}
 }
 
-func TestConsumer_Scan(t *testing.T) {
-	records := []*kinesis.Record{
-		{
-			Data:           []byte("firstData"),
-			SequenceNumber: aws.String("firstSeqNum"),
-		},
-		{
-			Data:           []byte("lastData"),
-			SequenceNumber: aws.String("lastSeqNum"),
-		},
-	}
+func TestScan(t *testing.T) {
 	client := &kinesisClientMock{
 		getShardIteratorMock: func(input *kinesis.GetShardIteratorInput) (*kinesis.GetShardIteratorOutput, error) {
 			return &kinesis.GetShardIteratorOutput{
@@ -75,11 +76,13 @@ func TestConsumer_Scan(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	if resultData != "firstDatalastData" {
-		t.Errorf("callback error expected %s, got %s", "firstDatalastData", resultData)
+		t.Errorf("callback error expected %s, got %s", "FirstLast", resultData)
 	}
+
 	if fnCallCounter != 2 {
 		t.Errorf("the callback function expects %v, got %v", 2, fnCallCounter)
 	}
+
 	if val := ctr.counter; val != 2 {
 		t.Errorf("counter error expected %d, got %d", 2, val)
 	}
@@ -90,7 +93,7 @@ func TestConsumer_Scan(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestConsumer_Scan_NoShardsAvailable(t *testing.T) {
+func TestScan_NoShardsAvailable(t *testing.T) {
 	client := &kinesisClientMock{
 		listShardsMock: func(input *kinesis.ListShardsInput) (*kinesis.ListShardsOutput, error) {
 			return &kinesis.ListShardsOutput{
@@ -114,17 +117,6 @@ func TestConsumer_Scan_NoShardsAvailable(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestScanShard(t *testing.T) {
-	var records = []*kinesis.Record{
-		{
-			Data:           []byte("firstData"),
-			SequenceNumber: aws.String("firstSeqNum"),
-		},
-		{
-			Data:           []byte("lastData"),
-			SequenceNumber: aws.String("lastSeqNum"),
-		},
-	}
-
 	var client = &kinesisClientMock{
 		getShardIteratorMock: func(input *kinesis.GetShardIteratorInput) (*kinesis.GetShardIteratorOutput, error) {
 			return &kinesis.GetShardIteratorOutput{
@@ -182,18 +174,7 @@ func TestScanShard(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestScanShard_StopScan(t *testing.T) {
-	var records = []*kinesis.Record{
-		{
-			Data:           []byte("firstData"),
-			SequenceNumber: aws.String("firstSeqNum"),
-		},
-		{
-			Data:           []byte("lastData"),
-			SequenceNumber: aws.String("lastSeqNum"),
-		},
-	}
-
+func TestScanShard_Cancellation(t *testing.T) {
 	var client = &kinesisClientMock{
 		getShardIteratorMock: func(input *kinesis.GetShardIteratorInput) (*kinesis.GetShardIteratorOutput, error) {
 			return &kinesis.GetShardIteratorOutput{
@@ -208,19 +189,23 @@ func TestScanShard_StopScan(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 	}
 
+	// use cancel func to signal shutdown
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+
+	var res string
+	var fn = func(r *Record) error {
+		res += string(r.Data)
+		cancel() // simulate cancellation while processing first record
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	c, err := New("myStreamName", WithClient(client))
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("new consumer error: %v", err)
 	}
 
-	// callback fn appends record data
-	var res string
-	var fn = func(r *Record) error {
-		res += string(r.Data)
-		return StopScan
-	}
-
-	if err := c.ScanShard(context.Background(), "myShard", fn); err != nil {
+	err = c.ScanShard(ctx, "myShard", fn)
+	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("scan shard error: %v", err)
 	}
 
@@ -250,10 +235,11 @@ func TestScanShard_ShardIsClosed(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	var fn = func(r *Record) error {
-		return StopScan
+		return nil
 	}
 
-	if err := c.ScanShard(context.Background(), "myShard", fn); err != nil {
+	err = c.ScanShard(context.Background(), "myShard", fn)
+	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("scan shard error: %v", err)
 	}
 }