Speed Reading

Hi,
Much water has flown since I came, oops posted, here last. The gap was unwarranted. However I thought of returning seriously and thus here I'm back. That means there are going to be regular posts to be read. So return here at least once a week. There will be something for you.

Today I'm going to talk about speed reading. In this post I'm focusing on five strategies, that too basic, which can be considered as a pre-requisite for achieving speed reading. One word of caution. This strategies are not going to make a watershed change in your reading speed. But if you are patient and persist you can observe a change sooner.

Strategy 1
Do you hear your own voice when you read??? That is a block to speed reading. This you have to unlearn first. The matter is chronic for those who read with lip movement. The principle is simple. This read-aloud determines the speed of your reading. You won't be able to go beyond a particular speed.

Strategy 2
Don't read word by word. Read in phrases or chunk. You've to increase your word-intake limit in order to increase your speed. The number of words you can process at this time can be limited. You can test your present limit by following the simple activity stated below. Take an A4 paper which has standard printed material. Draw an inverted triangle and read the space marked by the triangle. As you notice the number of words increase as you go down. At one point you realize that you can't process more than this. Mark that as your present limit. When you read keep that in mind and read.

Strategy 3
When you read focus on the centre space of your word limit and read. Thereby you avoid the time of reading word after word. It makes use of your eye's lateral vision capability. That is one skill which you have to tap in order to increase your reading speed.

Strategy 4
Use a pointer when you read. This will tell your eyes where to focus on. That will reduce the stain on your eyes. Human eyes, by default, is movement packed. It has to be taught where to focus and that can be done by the help of the pointer.

Strategy 5
Never read horizontally but vertically. In order to practice that start reading a standard newspaper. There you have columns. This principle behind this is to facilitate reading. Make use of that provision. Place your pointer at the centre of the line in a column and read down not side. Your word-in-take limit will help you in carrying the surrounding words along with you.

That's all for the day. Hope you enjoyed.