Speed Reading

Powerful Techniques To Increase Your Reading

Speed
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 Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: How we read

Chapter 2: Sub-vocalization

Chapter 3: Skimming

Chapter 4: Reading with a pacer

Chapter 5: Read in blocks

Chapter 6: Using your peripheral vision

Chapter 7: Remembering what you read

Chapter 8: Practice

Conclusion
Introduction

We all read daily, whether it be a newspaper, a book, emails from friends or colleagues, browsing
the web, or papers at work and school. It is a part of our daily lives, yet it is not something we tend to
think about, but rather take for granted. Hence it takes so much of our lives, it is surprising therefore
that few of us think of it as skill to be improved upon.

So what is becoming a better reader? What does it involve? This is what I will explain in this book.
Not only how to become a faster reader, but also how to improve comprehension.

Through this book, I will guide you through the process of becoming a speed reader. Not only will
you learn how to read faster, but also how to become more efficient, and still understand what you are
reading. I will also help you ditch the bad habits we have all picked up over the years.
Chapter 1: How we read

While reading is second nature to most of us, it is actually a complex, cognitive process, which
involves us decoding symbols and to gather meaning. When we read, our eyes move back and
forward in a series of movements, called saccades. This can best be described as, our eyes hopping
across the line of text. This helps us, to take in a lot of information, in a very short space of time.

During this process of scanning the line of text, our eyes will fix on a specific part of the text, and blur
out the remainder of the line of text. This is called the fixation part of reading. As your eyes fix on
specific text, each eye picks out different letters, which the brain processes to form the word. Our
brain assembles all of this information at lightning speed and all on reflex.

The average person reads at between 200 and 250 words of printed text per minute this decreases by
about 25% when reading from a computer screen. There are numerous free tests available on line to
test your reading speed. Try one now and you will have a benchmark reading speed to improve on as
you work through this book. Not only will this help you determine how much you want to improve
your reading speed by, it will, through retesting, track your improvement.

Over time we have all developed bad habits while reading the major ones are:

Sub-vocalisation when we read, we all tend to speak out the words in our own mind.
This obviously decreases the speed at which we can read.

Reading word by word there are two disadvantages to reading text word by word;
firstly, and obviously it slows you down. Secondly, focusing on each individual word
can mean you lose out on the concept of the entire text.

Inefficient eye motion slow readers focus on reading line by line, and lose out on the
eyes ability to scan multiple words at once, and hence read ahead.

Regression we all have a bad habit of rereading text, sometimes this is to confirm
understanding. However, this can lead to a loss of comprehension of the whole text.

Poor concentration external circumstances always affect our concentration, and trying
to read with loud back ground noise, or other distractions, will slow reading down and
also cause regression.

Linear reading we are taught to read words, sentences and paragraphs in order, taking
in everything in sequence. This forces you to concentrate on both core information and
supplementary material equally. Hence wasting precious time taking in unnecessary
information.
Learning to overcome these bad habits will increase the speed at which you can read. Over the course
of the following chapters, I will detail how to conquer these habits, and increase your reading speed.
Chapter 2: Sub-vocalization

Sub-Vocalization, or silent speech, is the speech we hear in our head, when we are reading. Because
our ability to speak is slower than that of reading, this restricts our reading speed.

Evidence suggests that we cannot totally eliminate sub-vocalization, even speed readers will admit to
still doing it. The one thing speed readers do though, is reduce the amount they sub-vocalize, to use it
as a comprehension tool, rather than a reading one.

In everyday life we dont sub-vocalize what we see, and read around us. If you are driving towards a
stop sign, your mind doesnt shout out stop, yet the mind does know how to act on that sign and
approaches the sign appropriately.

Speed reading works best when comprehension of the text is easy. Therefore to start practicing the
techniques of speed reading, and especially reducing sub-vocalization, you are best to read a novel.
When reading a novel, comprehension of every word and sentence is not necessary for understanding,
and detailed retention is not required.

With the novel in hand start reading, slowly, start to increase the speed with which your eyes scan
over the text. You will notice as you do this you stop sub-vocalizing every word, and just pick out the
important words for comprehension. You will notice that over time, your eyes start to slow down,
and you retract into your normal pattern of reading. Retaining this speed takes practice, and here are
some additional tips to help you.

Try eating something while you read, rather than eating your way through the entire biscuit barrel, it
may be best to chew gum. For many people the action of chewing distracts the mind from sub-
vocalizing while they read.

Go back to the novel and start reading a page, while you are reading, keep counting to ten in your
head. While you are reading and counting, try focusing on blocks of words, rather than each
individual word. This will stop you from sub-vocalizing every word, it may initially slow you down,
as your brain deals with comprehending the text, however your reading will slowly speed up as the
brain adapts.

If you find counting isnt for you, then try another activity like humming, singing to yourself, or tapping
out a beat, while you read.

Another distraction tool that aids in the reduction of sub-vocalization is listening to music. Listening
to music not only aids in reducing sub-vocalization but it can also help you concentrate more.
Classical music usually works best as this has no words to distract you and little association with the
past to allow the mind to wander.
Once you are set up with your music and gum, start reading, while counting, do you notice a reduction
in your sub-vocalization? Dont get frustrated if initially you dont see any difference, or you cant
stop sub-vocalization. It will take time and practice to achieve, after all it is a habit you have been
doing all your reading life.

As you practice, slowly, but noticeably, start to increase your reading speed. Dont focus on trying to
eliminate sub-vocalization completely, that wont happen. However, reading at the speed of thought,
rather than the speed of speech, can happen.
Chapter 3: Skimming

Skim reading, means getting the essence of the meaning of text, without reading all the words.
Skimming text, obviously, allows you to read more in less time. To be able to skim text, you need to
know which, are the important parts of the text. In the short term, your overall understanding of the
text is reduced, however, as you learn to skim you will learn to recognise, which bits of the text are
the important parts.

To skim effectively, you need to learn what to read and what to leave out. When you start reading a
document, the first few paragraphs, will tell you what is being discussed, this will help you determine
what is important to read and understand. The final few paragraphs are also important to read, these
paragraphs will generally include a conclusion of what has been covered, and help you to determine
if you have understood the topic.

Generally the first sentence of a paragraph will tell you the topic of that paragraph. From this you can
determine whether the paragraph is worth reading or not. If you are not sure you can quickly scan the
remainder of the paragraph to check if there is any important information contained within it. If not,
move onto the next paragraph.

To determine if you are able to pick up the important paragraphs, try this exercise: Read only the first
sentence of every paragraph on a page. Identify which you think are important and then go back and
read each of these paragraphs. Now go back and read the entire page. Did your initial reading, of just
the important paragraphs, give you all the information you required, to understand what was being
discussed? If not, reread the initial sentences, and try to determine what you missed, that might
highlight why that paragraph was important.

When you skim read, you will never achieve total comprehension of the text. For this reason, there
will always be some documents that should not be skim read, i.e. legal documents. To determine if a
document is suitable for skim reading, try asking yourself these questions:

Do you have a lot to read in a short space of time?

Do you already know something about the subject?

Can any part of it be skipped?

If you answer yes to these questions, then you need to make the decision, if the document is worth
reading or not. If you are not sure, you can quickly scan the document. When you scan, you are looking
for specific facts or pieces of information, to determine its relevance to you. Scanning is covered in
more detail later in this book.

Learning to skim read takes practice, over time you will develop the tools to determine, what needs
reading, and what can be ignored.
Chapter 4: Reading with a pacer

Distractions while we read, are becoming more and more common; a text arriving, the phone ringing,
increased back ground noise. All these things slow you down, when you are trying to concentrate on
reading.

Guiding your finger, underneath the text you are reading, not only increases your reading speed, it
also, improves your ability to concentrate. Your eyes are subconsciously directed, towards the
motion. This focuses them on the specific line you are reading, rather than moving to other parts of the
text. Using a pacer, or pointer, also eliminates regression, by forcing your mind to focus on the
highlighted words.

What you use as a pacer is your individual choice, some people use one finger, some multiple fingers,
and others use a pen or pointing device. Try out different types of pointers, to discover, what works
best for you.

Now you have the ideal pointer, read a page in a book without using it then, read the next page with
the pacer. Which page did you read faster and which do you recall more from? We may be
embarrassed to use our fingers to read, but it works. If you dont want people to see you reading with
your fingers, use a pen, people will think you are taking notes.

For some people, as they increase their speed of reading, and train their eyes to work more
efficiently, a pacer is no longer necessary. This varies from person to person, you will be able to
determine for yourself, over time, if a pacer continues to help.

When you are reading from a computer screen, it is not so easy to use your finger, to guide you across
the page. An alternative is to use the mouse pointer. Guide the pointer across the words as you read
each line, the movement, will draw your eyes to the text you are reading.

This is obviously not possible on hand held devices. For these, you will need to train your eyes to
fixate on specific parts of the text; this is covered in the next chapter.
Chapter 5: Read in blocks

When you read slowly, your eyes focus on each word, as your reading speed begins to increase, you
will notice, that you are no longer focusing on each word, but, you are beginning to take in a number
of words at a time. This is called block reading or, clump reading.

Reading in blocks involves, focusing on multiple words at a time, this allows you to determine the
important words, in the sentence, much faster. Ultimately, with practice, you will be able to
comprehend sentences, without reading every word.

To train yourself to read in blocks, begin with your pointer, and start reading consistently, skipping
the first and last word of each line. Read like this for at least one minute, initially you will probably
comprehend nothing, keep practicing and slowly, as your eyes and brain adapt, it will begin to make
sense.

As you get used to reading like this, start increasing the number of words you skip at the beginning
and end of each line, up to a maximum of three words. Practice reading in this manner, for a minimum
of three minutes, each time. You will, gradually, improve your comprehension. As this happens, you
will realize, you dont need to read every word, to comprehend each sentence.

Once you have attained the ability to read like this, and comprehend the text, carry on practicing
without the pointer. If you feel confident with your ability to read in blocks, try speed reading on your
computer or tablet, using this technique.

Reading effectively in blocks, includes developing your reading skills to include using peripheral
vision. This subject is covered in the next chapter. A combination, of both of these techniques, will
enable you to, practice speed reading on your tablet, where a pacer cant be used.
Chapter 6: Using your peripheral vision

Generally when we read, we use our macular vision, to focus on the individual words. As you start to
read in blocks, you are also starting to use, your peripheral vision. When you focus on a block of text,
your peripheral vision automatically takes in a few surrounding words. Using both macular and
peripheral vision enables you to read with fewer eye fixations, as more words are processed at a
time. This will enable you to read even faster.

There are many words, in a sentence, that do not need to be read to understand the sentence. Being
able to use peripheral vision allows you to filter out these words faster, yet still understand the
sentence. Take the following sentence as an example:

A book is a dream that you hold in your hand

If you look at the middle of the sentence and focus on dream that you hold your peripheral vision
will pick up on the rest of the sentence. Your eyes will pick up the words, book and hand, to allow
you, to make sense of the whole sentence.

To practice using your peripheral vision, pick a paragraph of text, hold the page slightly away from
you, and read the middle block of words, on each line. Start slowly, to allow your peripheral vision,
to pick up the text around it. Can you make sense of the paragraph? If not, read a slightly larger block
of the middle text, increasing it word by word, until you can comprehend the meaning.

It will take practice, to train your peripheral vision, to pick up the important words. As you practice,
try and maintain a constant reading speed, this is a speed exercise designed to condition your
perceptual reflexes.

Another peripheral vision exercise, which will help you identify, the important information within the
text is: Hold the page slightly away from you, and scan the page to see what headings, bullet points
and bold text jump out at you. You can then use this information, when using the skimming technique
you learnt earlier, to jump straight to these parts of the text.
Chapter 7: Remembering what you read
Learning to read faster is not just about the speed at which you read, but also, how much of the
information you have read, you retain. It would be pretty pointless to learn to read faster, if you cant
remember it. With the speed of changes in technology today, we are all being given more information,
to process and remember. Speed reading allows you to get through more of it, now you need to learn
how to remember it.

Part of the ability to remember better, comes with training the brain, to speed read. Challenging the
brain to learn new things, keeps it active and in better condition. Brain training should be an active
part of everyones life.

A large part of the earlier chapters, explaining how to speed read, has been to concentrate and focus.
Without focusing on the reading matter, you will never improve your reading speed. Another major
benefit of focusing on what you read is; that you will remember more of what you have read.

A lot of the techniques, for improving retention when reading, are part of learning to speed read. In
the previous chapter, you learnt to use peripheral vision, to scan a document for the important
information, stored within it. Using this trick will enable you to decide; firstly do you want to read the
document, and secondly, what do you want to learn from it.

If you are reading an important document, you should always scan it before reading it. This will give
you an idea of, what kind of information is included, how it is broken down, which parts are of most
importance to you, and how long it will take you to read it. As part of this process it is useful to
consider, what you specifically want to learn about the subject, and to write down any questions you
have, before you start reading.

Once you have identified what you want to learn you can then start reading, with an active focus, on
those parts of the text, covering your chosen subject. If the document is particularly important, it is
worth while using a pacer, to ensure you read all the relevant information, within each section you
identified, with the initial scan.

You will also find yourself using the block reading technique, to pick out the important words, within
each sentence. This acts as an additional aid, and increases the speed, of your comprehension of the
subject.

When you have finished reading, in your own mind, review the information. How much of what you
read have you remembered? If you cant remember parts, is it because you were distracted, or
because you lost concentration? To be able to speed read effectively, concentration must be focused,
on the subject matter. Sometimes, to truly focus, you will have to switch off everything else around
you, including your mobile phone!

Once you have completed reading, and reviewing the text, go back to the questions you had written
down at the start, and check that you have answered all of them sufficiently. If not was it because the
document didnt cover the question, or because you didnt retain the information?

Testing yourself to recall information from a document you have read is good practice. However fast
a reader you are, if you cant remember what you have read there is little point!
Chapter 8: Practice and other tips

As you have worked through this book, hopefully, you will have noticed your reading speed has
increased. Now that you have completed all the exercises, it is a good time to check your reading
speed, with one of the online tests available. Has it improved? Would you still like to be able to read
faster? Another, more important question to ask your self is; have your retention and comprehension
skills improved?

No-one can become a speed reader in one go, it takes time, and practice to develop the necessary
skills. Over time everyone develops bad habits when reading, and it is all too easy, to fall back into
these habits. Even if you are happy with the speed of your reading, and the things you have already
learnt from this book, you have to keep actively reading, to ensure you practice, and develop the
skills learnt.

A large part of comprehension, of what you are reading, is your knowledge. We all read words
sometimes that, we dont know the meaning of. While we may get the context from the rest of the
sentence, if we dont check the meaning of the actual word we never learn. The great positive of
learning new words is that, your comprehension of text will increase, and with it your speed of
reading.

If I could give you one piece of advice from this book, it would be, re-read it now. You may think,
you have improved your reading skills and speed enough. However, as you have worked your way
through the book, your knowledge, and skills have developed. Going back to the beginning now, with
your improved skill set, you will learn more.

Before you start re-reading, think about what you have learnt, and what, is the most efficient way, to
read the book a second time. Because each chapter covers a very specific part of speed reading, you
may find yourself focusing on the specific chapters, where you feel your skill set still needs
developing.

In addition to reading this book, there are other practice tools available on line, and on hand held
devices. There are apps available, to help you learn block reading, and to help you speed read on
hand held devices, where it is difficult to get an overview of the document or use a pacer. These apps
dont work for everyone, but are worth a try.

Some other tips, to help you develop your reading further, are while fairly obvious, still good to be
reminded of. If you are reading an important document, turn off all distractions, including your
mobile. Make sure that, not only is the environment you are in comfortable, but also that you are
sitting comfortably. Good posture, takes less energy than a poor one, and will help you focus.

Before you start reading an important document, try clearing your mind, of all other thoughts. Spend
one minute before you start reading relaxing, calming down the mind, to make it more receptive to
new information. Dont read for too long; remember, all of our brains have a time limit, on how long
they can concentrate for. As soon as you feel your mind wandering, take a break, you will come back
to the text refreshed, and ready to take in more information.

Dont read mindlessly, if you have lost concentration, or the article is of no interest, you are wasting
your time.
Conclusion

If you have taken my advice, and did re-read this book, you are probably now scanning this chapter,
to learn the salient points covered in this book to try and determine, which are the most important to
you. This means you have already learnt some very important points from this book that you will
continue to use, when reading any important material.

However successful you are, in increasing the speed of your reading, the topics covered in this book
will, help your general reading skills. The most important part, of reading anything, is your
comprehension of it, and learning these new techniques will all help.

To continue to keep your reading skills at their maximum, you should revisit this book regularly.
Every time you read an important document, it is worthwhile reminding yourself, of the main
techniques you have learnt.

Not everyone is able to stop sub-vocalizing, but if you can reduce the amount you do, it will increase
the speed at which you read. If you remember to scan any document first and then skim through to
determine which parts are important, less time will be wasted covering unnecessary text.

Reading with a pacer, is not something many people are keen on doing when in public, but it does
keep your focus on the subject.

Once you have mastered, reading in blocks and using your peripheral vision, they are skills you will
keep using, time and again, to increase the speed with which you can read.

The most important goal in reading anything is, remembering what you have read. Hopefully in this
book, I have helped you to develop the skills to aid this.

Now you have learnt all these skills dont let them waste away. Remember practice is the most
important part of developing any skill.

Happy speed reading!

Special Thanks

Thank you for downloading this book!

Finally, if you enjoyed this content, then Id like to ask you for a favor, would you be kind enough to
leave a review for this book on Amazon? Itd be greatly appreciated!

Thank you and good luck!