Why do people turn to speed reading? As a student or even someone who reads a lot for their job, it can be a valuable tool that not only improves the speed of your reading, but also your comprehension and retention of the material you are reading. Speed reading will give you more freedom to do other projects and activities that you are working on. You can find courses online or in books or even as a college or community education course. Children learn to read by first learning letters and sounds and then words. The problem is that most people never get beyond reading one word at a time. Speed reading will teach you to read whole blocks of words at one time, so that you can increase your speed and overall comprehension. For those who enjoy reading for pleasure, you don't really need to worry about speed reading. Pleasure reading is a time to take in every word and phrase without worrying about how fast you are reading. In a speed reading course online or in any other form here are some basic principles you might learn: 1. As you are reading, only 40 to 60 percent of the words that you will read are vital to understanding. In speed reading you learn to filter out the unnecessary words and phrases to get down to the "meat" of the text. 2. Many people vocalize as they are reading. This means they say the words either out loud or in their head as they read them. When you are speed reading you learn to stop vocalizing so that you can read faster. 3. As you read, you can improve your retention if you take short notes in the margins and make longer notes at the front of the book. Do not underline more than a few words here and there or it will not be as meaningful. 4. While you are reading, do not let your eyes backtrack or stay on words or phrases for longer than is necessary. This slows down your reading and limits your retention. 5. You can gain a great deal of information and insight by doing a quick overall look through the book or chapter to get a basic idea of the content. Then read it through again using your speed technique. As you gain these skills and tools you will begin to be a more confident reader. |
