Speed Reading: Part II

This post follows the previous post on speed reading and will elaborate further on the topic.

How to prepare for speed reading?

Nothing in our life comes easy. To achieve something we must really want it. There are three main factors involved in improving reading speed.

a. The desire to improve.
b. The willingness to try new techniques.
c. The motivation to practice.

How to read faster?

Reading speed can be improved by following the tips below.

a. Often, very slow reading is related to uncorrected eye defects. Before embarking on a speed reading program, make sure that any correctable eye defects you may have are taken care of.

b. A lot of us try to read out what we are reading and are not comfortable while reading silently. However, by reading silently we can increase our reading speed by up to 2 to 3 times.

c. The average student reading at 250 words per minute regresses or rereads about 20 times per page. Rereading words and phrases is a habit which will slow your reading speed down to a snail's pace.

d. Try to develop a wider eye span and read a bigger block of word at a time. Written material is less meaningful if read word by word and more when read in phrases or units.

How to optimize your Speed Reading?

Poor results are inevitable if the reader attempts to use the same rate for all types of material and for all reading purposes. He must learn to adjust his rate to his purpose in reading and to the difficulty of the material. The effective reader adjusts his rate; the ineffective reader always uses the same.

Rate may be adjusted overall for an entire article, or internally for parts of an article. Reading rate should also vary according to your reading purpose. To understand information, for example, skim or scan at a rapid rate. To determine the value of material or to read for enjoyment, read rapidly or slowly according to your feeling. To read analytically, read at a moderate pace to permit you to interrelate ideas.

The nature and difficulty of the material also calls for adjustments in rate. Obviously, level of difficulty depends greatly on the particular reader's knowledge. While Einstein's theories may be extremely difficult for most laymen, they would be very simple and clear to a professor of physics. Hence, the layman and the physics professor will read the same material at different rates. Generally, difficult material will entail a slower rate; simpler material will permit a faster rate.

Increase Speed When:

a. Unfamiliar terminology. Try to understand it in context at that point; otherwise, read on and return to it later.

b. Difficult sentence and paragraph structure. Slow down enough to enable you to untangle them and get accurate context for the passage.

c. Unfamiliar or abstract concepts. Look for applications or examples of your own as well as studying those of the writer. Take enough time to get them clearly in mind.

d. Detailed, technical material. This includes complicated directions, statements of difficult principles, and materials on which you have scant background.

e. Material on which you want detailed retention.

Decrease Speed When:

a. Simple material with few ideas which are new to you. Move rapidly over the familiar ones; spend most of your time on the unfamiliar ideas.

b. Unnecessary examples and illustrations. Since these are included to clarify ideas, move over them rapidly when they are not needed.

c. Detailed explanation and idea elaboration which you do not need.

d. Broad, generalized ideas and ideas which are restatements of previous ones. These can be readily grasped, even with scan techniques.