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I want to start a thread about this. Do you know any techniques that allow us to read much faster and retain a high level of comprehension (90+%)?
I know one, I bought a book yesterday of the Evelyn Wood approach to speed reading: http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Every.../dp/0380715775
One of the first things it explains is that most of us use a type of reading called subvocal linear. The subvocal part refers to how we use our inner voice to "speak" what we are reading, but in our heads or in a low murmur. Linear refers to how we read horizontally, line by line, from left to right.
Now for a technique of speed reading:
The first technique is: Underline the text you are reading with your finger, line by line, from left to right. The rhythmic speed becomes constant by doing so and you must learn to shrug off any temptation to go back and read something you may have missed, as your comprehension of the overall text will falter by doing so. You should check on details you noted to have not absorbed well at the end of your one way progression through your text.
Now that we have the rudimentary technique down, try to increase the speed of your finger underlining the text, line by line. And when you reach the end of a line, lift your finger up by a 1/4 or 1/2 of an inch and retrieve it back to the beginning of the next line.
Try it out, notice how fast your finger can travel across the page and you can still retain everything you just read. You're able to increase the speed of your reading with just this rudimentary method by 2 or 3. You will still stay in the boundaries of subvocal linear, which is called in this book: subsonic, but will nonetheless improve your speed of reading greatly.
I only got this book yesterday and soon I'll be getting more acquainted with the "supersonic" varieties of speed reading, which are markedly different as you cease to use your inner voice to speak out what you read and pretty much get used to the idea of trusting your eyes alone in comprehending what you read. Also, the directional path of your eyes shifts from horizontal, line-by-line pattern to a more vertical approach, which may incorporate diagonal zigzagging patterns.
It seems to be working for me in a book, but the text on a computer screen is not exactly they same, though I'm sure we are capable of tailoring these techniques to be useful in this domain of reading as well.
Some final considerations, speed reading, or even a departure from subvocal linear aren't necessarily ideal for every kind of text, for example, in poetry, where we may find more pleasure in savoring the sound and the rhythm of the words, the stanzas, etc... or in a text written in a language we are not very used to. We may also find the application of speed reading as less useful in a text where the general vocabulary is not what we're used to seeing, and so we have to go about where and when to use these techniques at our own discretion.
I'd like to know if you guys speed read, or if you're trying it out now. I think it's an excellent way to save time and enjoy reading even more, because we can already think at a rate of an estimated 50,000 words per minute, no wonder reading can get boring at 200-300 words per minute.
I know one, I bought a book yesterday of the Evelyn Wood approach to speed reading: http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Every.../dp/0380715775
One of the first things it explains is that most of us use a type of reading called subvocal linear. The subvocal part refers to how we use our inner voice to "speak" what we are reading, but in our heads or in a low murmur. Linear refers to how we read horizontally, line by line, from left to right.
Now for a technique of speed reading:
The first technique is: Underline the text you are reading with your finger, line by line, from left to right. The rhythmic speed becomes constant by doing so and you must learn to shrug off any temptation to go back and read something you may have missed, as your comprehension of the overall text will falter by doing so. You should check on details you noted to have not absorbed well at the end of your one way progression through your text.
Now that we have the rudimentary technique down, try to increase the speed of your finger underlining the text, line by line. And when you reach the end of a line, lift your finger up by a 1/4 or 1/2 of an inch and retrieve it back to the beginning of the next line.
Try it out, notice how fast your finger can travel across the page and you can still retain everything you just read. You're able to increase the speed of your reading with just this rudimentary method by 2 or 3. You will still stay in the boundaries of subvocal linear, which is called in this book: subsonic, but will nonetheless improve your speed of reading greatly.
I only got this book yesterday and soon I'll be getting more acquainted with the "supersonic" varieties of speed reading, which are markedly different as you cease to use your inner voice to speak out what you read and pretty much get used to the idea of trusting your eyes alone in comprehending what you read. Also, the directional path of your eyes shifts from horizontal, line-by-line pattern to a more vertical approach, which may incorporate diagonal zigzagging patterns.
It seems to be working for me in a book, but the text on a computer screen is not exactly they same, though I'm sure we are capable of tailoring these techniques to be useful in this domain of reading as well.
Some final considerations, speed reading, or even a departure from subvocal linear aren't necessarily ideal for every kind of text, for example, in poetry, where we may find more pleasure in savoring the sound and the rhythm of the words, the stanzas, etc... or in a text written in a language we are not very used to. We may also find the application of speed reading as less useful in a text where the general vocabulary is not what we're used to seeing, and so we have to go about where and when to use these techniques at our own discretion.
I'd like to know if you guys speed read, or if you're trying it out now. I think it's an excellent way to save time and enjoy reading even more, because we can already think at a rate of an estimated 50,000 words per minute, no wonder reading can get boring at 200-300 words per minute.