Speed Reading - Improve Your Reading Skills

By Magda Santos

Today most universities have courses called Critical Reading.
These courses help students learn to read quickly and
critically. Harvard has a class that has been in existence
since the 1940's. It teaches students how to read fast
with a level of understanding that includes analysis and
evaluation.

These classes are evidence that reading faster does not
have to take away from understanding what we read. Critical
reading techniques help comprehension. They help you
decide the value of what you're reading and focus you on a
purpose for reading the selected material.
___________________________________________________________

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady
purpose-- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

 ~Mary Shelley

___________________________________________________________

Reading critically means paying attention to what you read then
coming to some conclusion about the relevancy of the
material. For example, how does the book or article you plan to
read relate to the questions you have about the subject?

Reading critically, as with most things in life, means knowing
what you want and then going for it. Clarity of purpose,
a good understanding of what you already know and what you need
out of the reading is the key to reading critically. In other
words, if comprehension is understanding what you read, critical
reading is going a step further and deciding on the relevance of
what you're reading.

 Here's and example, I was researching the hemispheres of the
brain for an article I was writing for my website
http://www.speed-read-now.com. I found an interesting
book on the subject I wanted to read. The question I was asking
myself as I read was, "Are the right and left sides of the brain
functioning differently, or is the brain functioning as a
whole?" There was a lot of new research and I wanted to be up on
the new thinking about the brain.

So, when doing research keep a few questions in mind. How
is the text organized? Who is the audience? What does the author
expect me to already know? What is the author's background?
These questions begin to sort out what you need and in what part
of the author's message you will find your answers. These
questions begin to narrow your focus.

With these questions to guide you begin looking over the
book. First stop, the table of content otherwise known as the
book outline. Give it a good going over. Keep thinking about
your goals and how the author can help you understand the
questions you have about the subject. What is the author
covering and what is she not including? Will this book answer my
questions?

The next thing to do is look over the text. Get an idea
of how the book or article is organized. Is the author using a
pyramid format? Are the most important facts in the first
paragraphs followed by details? Or is the good stuff you're
looking for at the end in the summary?

Keep forming questions you need answered to understand the
subject. Ask yourself, "What is the author saying."
Revise your thinking as you gather more information.

Reading speed increases with the critical reading skill
mentioned above. If you know what you're looking for it's easier
to find. Remember 60% of the words we read are structure words.
Structure words are words like and, or, the. Critical reading
skills increase your ability to read fast and teach you to
notice but not concentrate on the structure words. It also helps
to keep you on task and focused on your goal.

The structure words will merely become secondary to the
meaningful text. All three of the major stumbling blocks to
reading; regression, subvocalization, and reading word-for- word
will be minimized by your ability to prepare yourself before you
begin to read. Good speed reading programs teach you how to do
all the above with games and drills.

I also, recommend that you read familiar material until
you begin to speed up. Then move on to more complicated or
unfamiliar text. This way you're not trying to learn new
concepts and vocabulary at the same time you're learning to
speed read.

If you don't want to go it alone, buy a speed reading program
and practice speed reading skills in a systematic and consistent
way. Speed Reading programs give you the added benefit of
helping you increase your comprehension by training your mind to
look for key words and chunk words together.

Summary

 Increasing your comprehension comes from searching out the most
important parts of the text. Comprehension and reading speed can
increase if you devote a few minutes to getting to know what
you want out of your reading, paying attention to the
structure of what you read, and asking yourself questions about
the material. 

Critical reading, comprehension, and speed come from your
ability to read with purpose and focus.