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Tips on Speed Reading
by Karen Ellen
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Overview
According to ReadingSoft.com, the average reader reads about 200 words per minute and comprehends roughly 60 percent, but speed readers can take in 1,000 words or more with 85 percent comprehension. Because people learn in different ways, there's no definitive method for speed reading, but there are free, easy easy ways to make yourself read faster and better.
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Getting Started
To give comprehension a head start, take time for an overview of what you'll be reading. Reading teacher Magda Santos at Speed-Reading-Techniques.com suggests scanning the table of contents, looking for unfamiliar words in the glossary and learning them before you start reading and skimming the chapter titles and sub-headings.
Dennis Doyle, director of the Learning Resource Center and associate professor of English at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Calif., contends that because motion draws the eye, creating motion on the page makes the eyes move faster. Sit up straight and place your reading material on a table or in your less dominant hand. Use your dominant hand to create the motion.
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Hand
To keep your eyes moving down the page, place your right hand on it and slowly pull it straight down while your eyes follow as fast as they can until you read the bottom. Do this only once on each page.
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Card
Use an index card or a piece of paper to cover the words above where you're reading. Move it slowly down the page, with your eyes racing to scan the lines before you cover them. This is supposed to keep you from re-reading and forces you to gain speed.
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Sweep
Pretend you're brushing something off the page with your fingertips, or trying to read Braille, sweeping across from left to right under the line you're reading, working your way down the page.
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Hop
Hold your fingers in the sweep position, but bounce them left and right in two spots on each line. Your eyes should catch groups of a few words as you go.
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Zig-Zag
Run your hand from left to right diagonally down about three lines of text, then go back to the left margin and do it again, all the way down the page. Following your hand, your eye should pick out main points.
After practicing all these techniques, one or two will probably feel most comfortable. The key to success is to practice a lot and keep pushing yourself until speed reading becomes second nature.
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Tips
Learning to speed read won't help if you aren't already a proficient reader with a decent vocabulary. Reading faster will just reduce your comprehension.
Not all text is meant for speed reading. Technical material might require you to slow down for adequate comprehension.
