RAPID READING

RAPID READING

Do you often:

1.    Hear every word in your head even when you read  silently

2.    Read everything the same way, at the same speed (i.e. , slowly & steadily)

3.    Read an article or story so slowly that by the time you reach the end, you can’t remember the beginning

4.    Avoid subjects which require too much outside reading

5.    You own several books you have never had time to finish

If you checked one or more of these symptoms, you need to learn how to read rapidly. But, you are also a compulsive reader. You are still reading everything slowly, correctly, orally just as you did in school.  But, as you progress you are required to read more & more in limited time. Also, now your reading tasks vary. Hence, now you are required to read quickly, rapidly & correctly.

Hence, you have to change your reading style. You have to read rapidly.

The old word-for-word method is especially inefficient for the mass of general reading.  The question is why do we read so inefficiently?  First, that is how we learned to read. Second, now it is a comfortable habit. Third because we are afraid we will miss something or loose comprehension if we miss few words.

These old habits slow us down considerably.  The proven fact is that when reading matter is easy to understand & if we read slowly, our comprehension actually drops down. This happens because we miss the flow of the argument of the author.  Secondly, our mind starts wandering, if we don’t feed it information at the optimum speed that is we lose concentration. Many studies have shown that average readers can double his reading speed without losing comprehension. We may actually increase their comprehension just by increasing our reading speed because we concentrate more at higher speeds.  

 EASY WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR READING SPEED

1.    Make sure that your material (the what) is fairly easy for you. Know something about the subject matter & that you have no major problem with the vocabulary, style or ideas. However, don’t expect to read complex scientific tasks rapidly with full comprehension the first time.

2.    Make sure that your reading (the why) is appropriate for the reading speed. Do you need to memorize the contents of the material? Discuss it in detail? Savor the style? Are you aiming for 100% understanding of the new difficult principle as in a text book? If so don’t expect a fast once through reading to be sufficient. Your purpose of reading will decide the reading style,

3.    Don’t force yourself to read at high speeds in the beginning especially if you have been a habitual slow reader. Instead as you become fluent at reading easy material rapidly, you will begin to read rapidly automatically.

Given below are few tips to help you in your change your reading habits:

TIP 1:                                                                                                                                  Approach rapid reading with a relaxed confident mind-set. First forget any 100% compulsion you may have built over the years. Leave the slow rates (100-300 words) to talking & reading aloud. Your eyes can see the words at 800 wpm & your mind can operate at thousands of words per minute. So feed yourself words at more challenging rate of 400-800 wpm.

TIP 2:                                                                                                                                              Trust your sense of closure. All adult readers know enough about English words, sentence pattern & common logic to understand most of the content of the page even if they don’t clearly see all the words. Function words-those which are not essential to understand literal comprehension- may be easily omitted. Key words however are important for comprehension). Depending upon how concise a writer’s style is we can easily omit 25 to 50 % of the words of prose without losing any basic literal comprehension.

TIP 3:                                                                                                                                                Use your eyes efficiently. A slow reader tends to fixate (focus) on every single word across the line. Yet the average eye span on the printed page is about 1^1/2 inches in diameter. Can you identify most of the words within the circle without moving your eyes off from a point? Two popular speed reading techniques will help you to increase your visual efficiency.

      I.    Use soft focus as you read. Don’t peer tensely at the words as you read. Relax your eyes & face muscles. Let your peripheral vision do more of the work. Look slightly above the line & let your eyes float down the page. Try to read the lines & not each word.

    II.    Use shortened margins. That is; do not fixate on first & last word of each line. Rather fixate about half an inch from each margin, let your peripheral vision pick up the words to the side.

Both the techniques take time & practice but are highly effective to increase reading speed. However please note that the best eye span & soft scan in the world, by themselves, cannot make any one a good or fast reader. This is so as 99% of the reading takes place in the mind; not in the eyes. As you concentrate on the ideas on the page rather than on each word, & as you increase your rate in easy material, your brain will become more alert & active. You will soon forget what your eyes are doing.

TIP 4:                                                                                                                                                      Use all the essential reading skills. This means that you must first preview skim your material for main ideas & overall structure. Since previewing helps with basic comprehension, scanning & study reading, it is absolutely necessary in rapid reading. You will never increase your speed if you do not begin with map of the territory. Besides previewing, remember the other essential skills. You will need to pay attention to important transitions & other signals & notice organizational patterns- all keys to writer’s path. Even when we read rapidly, our goal is to grasp the writer’s message as accurately as possible.                                                                                                                                          

TIP 5:                                                                                                                                                       Use time pressure. Be confident that your brain can handle print faster than you can talk or read. To rapid read, you should be physically relaxed but mentally active. Most people find that some stress, some pressure helps them to concentrate on their reading. In fact skilled readers are not comfortable & passive. In rapid reading as in scanning you must be aware about the passage of time.  Hence, time yourself.

One way to tried & trusted   way to apply time pressure is to chart your reading. Select an easy book and make sure your purpose is enjoyment. Keeping an objective record is important (a list, chart or a graph) since we seldom know how fast we are reading.                                                                                                                                           

TIP 6:                                                                                                                                        Use a crutch, until you can read without one.

·         Use your finger or pencil as a pacing device. You can move your finger rapidly from left to right under each line.

·         Use an index card as a portable shutter. The shutter prevents you from regressing to previous line of print. Also as you use your hand & arm to move the card down the page, you are physically more focused on reading. Do not forget to use soft focus & shortened margin as you read.

A good slogan to keep in mind:                                                                                         Read the ideas on the page & not the words.