Speed Reading

Speed Reading helps you to read and understand text more quickly. It is an essential skill in any environment where you have to master large volumes of information quickly, as is the norm in fast-moving professional environments.

The Key Insight

The most important trick about speed reading is to know what information you want from a document before you start reading it: if you only want an outline of the issue that the document discusses, then you can skim the document very quickly and extract only the essential facts. If you need to understand the real detail of the document, then you need to read it slowly enough to fully understand it.

You will get the greatest time savings from speed-reading by learning to skim excessively detailed documents.

Technical Issues

Even when you know how to ignore irrelevant detail, there are other technical improvements you can make to your reading style, which will increase your reading speed.

Most people learn to read the way young children read – either letter-by-letter, or word-by-word. For most adults, this is probably not the case – think about how your eye muscles are moving now. You will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of words, then moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on. You are reading blocks of words at a time, not individual words one-by-one. You may also notice that you do not always go from one block to the next: sometimes you may move back to a previous block if you are unsure about something.

A skilled reader will read many words in each block. He or she will only dwell on each block for an instant, and will then move on. Only rarely will the reader's eyes skip back to a previous block of words. This reduces the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do. It also increases the volume of information that can be examined in a period of time.

A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small blocks of words. He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text and overall understanding of the subject. This irregular eye movement will make reading tiring. Poor readers tend to dislike reading, and may find it harder to concentrate and understand written information.

Speed-reading aims to improve reading skills by:

• Increasing the number of words read in each block
• Reducing the length of time spent reading each block, and
• Reducing the number of times your eyes skip back to a previous sentence.

These are explained below:

Increasing the number of words in each block: This needs a conscious effort. Try to expand the number of words that you read at a time. Practice will help you to read faster. You may also find that you can increase the number of words read by holding the text a little further from your eyes. The more words you can read in each block, the faster you will read!

Reducing Fixation Time: The minimum length of time needed to read each block is probably only a quarter of a second. By pushing yourself to reduce the time you take, you will get better at picking up information quickly. Again, this is a matter of practice and confidence.

Reducing Skip-Back: To reduce the number of times that your eyes skip back to a previous sentence, run a pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, smoothing the flow of your reading. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer.

You will be able to increase your reading speed a certain amount on your own by applying speed reading techniques. What you don't get out of self-study is the use of specialist reading machines and the confidence gained from successful speedreading – this is where a good one-day course can revolutionize your reading skills.

Key Points

By speed reading you can read information more quickly. You may also get a better understanding of it as you will hold more of it in short term memory.

To improve the speed of your reading, read more words in each block and reduce the length of time spent reading each block. Use a pointer to smooth the way your eyes move and reduce skip-back.

Speed Reading Self-Spacing Methods

Speed-reading is not magic nor is it a big expensive mystery. Professional speed reading classes simply teach a handful of easy techniques that help a person focus his or her attention better. The eye is drawn to motion. Speed reading techniques put that motion on the page.

Your starting position is important. You should sit up straight, hold the book down with your left hand, and use your right hand to do the pacing.

You should already be a good reader before you attempt to speed read. Speedreading will not help you if you have problems in comprehension and vocabulary. In fact, it may hurt you to try to rush through stuff that you can't comprehend. You should have the basics down already first.

Before you start speed-reading, you should do a survey of the information first to get a general idea of what you will be covering and of the type of writing.

The Hand

The first method is to simply place your right hand on the page and slowly move it straight down the page, drawing your eyes down as you read. Keep an even, slow motion, as if your right hand has its own mind. Your eyes may not be exactly where your hand is, but this simple motion will help you go faster. Don't start, read a little, stop, read a little, start, and read a little. Keep the movement slow and easy. Only do it once per page. If you are "left-handed" use your left hand as the dominant pacing hand.

The Card

The next technique is to use a card or a folded-up piece of paper above the line of print to block the words after you read them. Draw it down the page slowly and evenly and try to read the passage before you cover the words up. This helps break you of the habit of reading and reading a passage over and over again. It makes you pay more attention the first time. Be sure to push the card down faster than you think you can go. Slide the card down once per page.

The Sweep

Another method is to use your hand to help draw your eyes across the page. Slightly cup your right hand. Keep your fingers together. With a very light and smooth motion, sweep your fingers from left to right, underlining the line with the tip of your tallest finger from about an inch in and an inch out on each line. Use your whole arm to move, balancing on your arm muscle. Imagine that you are dusting off salt from the page.

The Hop

Similar to the "sweep" method is the "hop", but in the "hop" you actually lift your fingers and make two even bounces on each line. Each time you bounce, you are making a fixation, which hopefully catches sets of three or four words. Moving to a "hop" method also makes it easier to keep a steady pace as it is a lot like tapping our fingers on a desk. Balance on your arm muscle; don't just wiggle your wrist.

The Zig-Zag or Loop

The last method is a type of modified scanning technique. In this one you take your hand and cut across the text diagonally about three lines and then slide back to the next line. Now the idea here is not necessarily to see each word, but to scan the entire area, letting your mind pick out the main ideas. I wouldn't recommend this for material that requires very careful reading, but it is a way to help you get the general ideas of easy material.

These methods seem simple and easy, but don't let that fool you. These are very useful methods, which can help a good reader, read faster and better in very little time. But these techniques will not do you any good unless you PRACTICE them. It usually takes about three or four sessions before you get accustomed to a particular technique. As you move along and learn the methods, you may find that one is more suitable for you than the others. Find the one that works for you and use it.