10 Days to Faster Reading Read online

  The distance between the reading material and the reader.

  Screen resolution.

  Characters per line.

  Left justification vs. full justification.

  Margin width.

  Posture of the reader.

  Familiarity with the medium.

  System response time.

  These differences may also explain why people prefer to print longer documents from their screen to paper. Price Waterhouse Coopers, an accounting and business firm, recently conducted a study tracking the paper consumption in offices that began using e-mail and found a 40 percent in- crease in paper use. I partially attribute this increase to the reduction of reading speed and the over- all comfort levels when reading from paper as opposed to reading from a computer screen.

  You are going to have to get used to screen reading, however, because the technology is here to stay. According to researcher and on-screen speed reading specialist Pam Mullan, the best way to adapt to reading in the computer age is to rely less on printing done on paper, and practice reading from the screen.

  To help people improve their on-screen reading comfort levels, Mullan suggests changing the font size and style for a positive impact on your screen-reading abilities. For readability, she suggests sans serif fonts such as Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica. Font size should not be smaller than twelve point, and not larger than eighteen point, but Mullan encourages individuals to try different styles and sizes to determine personal preferences.

  Many of the skills already discussed for reading on paper can be applied to screen reading. Strategies such as reading key words, phrases, and key phrases help you increase your speed on screen. Purpose and responsibility apply to screen reading as much (if not more) as they do to paper reading. Pre-viewing is sometimes possible and skimming, scanning, and skipping are always an option.

  One simple application for skipping involves managing your e-mail. For example, rather than opening e-mail that you know is junk mail from reading the subject line, immediately delete it, thus reducing unnecessary reading. Pacers, your hand, or a card, unfortunately are very awkward. See "Tip of the Day" below for an on-screen reading suggestion. As more and more information becomes available electronically rather than on paper, you therefore need to apply as many tips and techniques as possible to improve your computer reading abilities.

  If you didn't know already, READING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS VERY HARD ON THE EYES. SOME PEOPLE USE THEM WHEN THEY TYPE ON A SCREEN OR PAPER. IN THE COMPUTER TEXT WORLD, PEOPLE FEEL AS IF THEY ARE BEING SHOUTED AT WHEN SOMEONE WRITES IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. All capital letters also slows you down. So when you compose text on a computer, use standard upper- and lower case letterers for readability.

  Start Your Engines: Finger Snake

  The finger stake is similar to the Pull Down Center pacer introduced in Day 5. It works best on narrow-columned material. Choose a page in a magazine, newspaper, or this book to experiment with. Make sure to place it on a flat surface, not balanced upright in your hands. Pick the index finger of either hand. Place the finger in the center of the column under the first line of text. First understand the movement by pretending your finger is a snake and you are slithering it down the page. Your finger should move in a constant wide S pattern, starting on the right, then going to- ward the left and back to the right and so on. Do not zigzag your finger on every line, rather move your fingers a few lines down each time you move from one side to the other. Eventually you will be able to see and read more than one line at a time.

  Gauge Your Attitude

  Let's take an attitude check. Mentally fill in the blank of the following statement:

  I am a(n) ________ reader.

  Is your reading attitude changing?

  Pit Stop: Tip of the Day

  There are several computer programs available to help you learn how to develop your eye movements for faster reading on paper and on screen. I recommend AceReader. AceReader software is inexpensive and compatible for both PCs and Macs. After you load the software, you paste in your own text or use any of the two hundred preloaded reading drills and set the speed controls and word display to your choosing. You can download a thirty-day trial version by contacting the manufacturer, StepWare, at www.acereader.com. You can also look at a program called The Reader's Edge from The Literacy Company at www.readfaster.com.

  Many people are afraid to speed-read technical material. Day 9 focuses on how to build back- ground knowledge and vocabulary so technical material is easier to read and comprehend.

  Day 9: Reading on a Technical Track

  Race cars either race on oval tracks or road courses. The oval tracks are easier to race on because the track width accommodates many cars, the distance from corner to corner is predictable, and the driver can safely know when to speed up or slow down.

  Road courses are more challenging to race on because they are not one specific shape, there is not as much room, only one car can go around a corner at a time, and there are more, unpredictable, and sharper corners. A driver then needs to be even more patient and aware of what is going on in the race and to frequently press the brake pedal. Rookies understandably take a longer time learning how to race on a road course than on an oval track due to a lack of experience and fast driving expertise.

  Relating this analogy to reading material, an oval course is that material which is predictable and familiar. More technical material, which has little or no predictability and is unfamiliar, may be compared to a road course.

  What's "Technical"?

  What is meant by "technical" reading material? It depends on the reader. Though I am an efficient reader, sit me down next to a medical researcher reading a technical, detailed pharmaceutical study and the researcher will read faster and comprehend the material much better than I. This is because the researcher's background knowledge in that area, including familiarity with the structure of these studies and their vocabulary, is much broader than mine.

  Think of technical material as material with unfamiliar vocabulary or terminology, numbers or statistics you must know, or completely new information. Examples include a computer manual de- scribing how to operate a new software program, or a report describing the state of the economy, or a feasibility study done on a company's long-term development plan.

  How much of your reading is truly this technical? I venture to guess, depending on your profession and interests, what you have considered technical up until now is not truly technical. Instead it is information you need to spend time studying, learning, and applying, not just getting an idea. Reading anything with the purpose of building a bridge of knowledge from new information to old takes more time and an intentional use of active reading strategies. Any previous experience or knowledge makes the reading less technical.

  Many of my workshop participants tell me they feel uncomfortable reading technical material fast. And rightfully so. When you read truly technical material, you are unfamiliar with its contents and most likely need to learn it for a test, a work-related project, or other important applications. Reading it as quickly as material you are familiar with is unrealistic and, in some cases, unwise.

  You can, however, read and understand technical material more efficiently. This means using active reading strategies to get what you need as quickly as you can. In the end you have a greater understanding of the material in a shorter period of time. Though you do have to read technical material more slowly than with material you understand, there are several strategies you can use to help you read faster, expand your background knowledge and vocabulary, and help avoid the need to read the material several times.

  Fast Tracks: Getting More Background Knowledge

  Individuals who start new jobs, within the same company or in a different organization, sometimes feel as if they are in a foreign land when they read company material. Because they lack back- ground knowledge of the organization's policies, procedures, acronyms, and vocabulary, reading technical material is a challenge on aver
age for the first six months. After that time, the employee gains experience, resulting in background knowledge to make reading more efficient and comfort- able.

  If technical material is considered technical because of a lack of familiarity, then it would make sense to find ways to build background knowledge to make your reading more efficient. Many of the following suggestions will already be familiar to you.

  Pre-view! Once again, pre-viewing (Day 5) to the rescue. Even the most unfamiliar text is less threatening after pre-viewing. Pre-viewing is a great way to get familiar with the lay- out of the text, an overview of the contents, and the author's progression of ideas before you jump in reading from detail to detail.

  Become familiar with unfamiliar terms. Pre-viewing helps you identify any words or acronyms that are unfamiliar to you. If you are reading a textbook, you often find vocabulary words printed in bold, in a margin, or in a list at the beginning or end of a chapter. In business reading, trust that any unfamiliar words will jump out at you when you skim your eyes down through the paragraphs. By taking the time to find out and even write down the meaning of these terms before you read in detail, you have begun to understand the reading's contents and the process of learning these words.

  Look for 5W's and H. Instead of reading from the beginning to end hoping some meaning jumps out at you, take this proactive approach by looking for the answers to the 5W's and H — who, what, when, where, why, and how. Many times, finding the answers to only these questions is sufficient. Also, they help you quickly identify unfamiliar vocabulary terms, pertinent examples, and related ideas.

  Modify a faster reading strategy. Just because the material is technical doesn't mean you should abandon all faster reading strategies and go back to reading word-for-word. You can still use key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer, but at a slower speed. All of these strategies are extremely useful as a means to identify the more important words or phrases, which build comprehension, and to help keep your place in the thick jungle of unfamiliar ideas.

  Re-view. You create long-term memory recall through repetition over time. If your goal is to make the material a part of your long-term memory, your permanent background knowledge, you have to expose yourself to the information many times. Re-viewing is best done a short time after you have pre-viewed and read in detail. Re-viewing follows the same process as pre-viewing except the purpose is not to introduce you to the material but rather to review or solidify what you know. At the same time, you identify information you still don't know. Constant exposure to the material is similar to re-viewing. To practice, try:

  Talking about the material.

  Reading other material related to it.

  Applying the information.

  Sharing it with someone.

  Listening to a tape about it.

  Watching a video or news broadcast about it.

  Taking a class on it.

  If you crammed for school exams, leaving all your studying till the night before, you may have grasped enough to get by on the test but probably forgot most of the material the next week. If you had to use it again in another class or added more information to what you already were exposed to, then you had a better chance of remembering it longer.

  The More Words the Better

  What do you do when you come across a word you don't know? You might immediately go to a dictionary or just skip it. Others use the "walking dictionary" approach of asking someone else if they know what a word means. Some try to figure it out in context, by using contextual clues. Others try to sound the word out to see if it rings a bell to them that way. A select few use the clues provided in parts of words such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots to identify its meaning.

  The more words you know, the easier it is to read faster with good comprehension. When work- shop participants or clients ask me what the youngest age I work with is, I say seventh grade. Prior to seventh grade, students don't have enough known vocabulary words built up in their background knowledge to make reading faster possible. Also, if a person consistently has a comprehension average lower than 70 percent, determined by using a ten-question format similar to the one found in this book, then a lack of vocabulary is suspected.

  I frequently have participants in my programs for whom English is their second language. Their ability to increase their reading speed with the same or better comprehension is completely dependent upon the breadth of their English vocabulary. Also, these participants are happily relieved when they learn how to read key words or thoughts instead of processing English one tedious word at a time.

  Learning anything new takes time, including new words. It easier when you depend on what you already know as a basis for building more vocabulary. Remember brain glue from Day 2. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of each strategy.

  Skipping Words

  Skipping unfamiliar words is sometimes a valuable use of your time. If the word is seemingly unimportant to what you are reading or you get the idea without knowing what a word means, then finding its meaning wastes your time. If, however, you are actively trying to build your vocabulary, then it is a good idea to write the word and its definition down in a special place just for tracking new words.

  Using a Dictionary

  Using a dictionary is a great way to learn new vocabulary if you remember the word and its meaning after just one exposure. I believe the best use of a dictionary is as a confirmation tool to check if what you think the word means is correct. And when all else fails, meaning no other self-directed method works, then of course use the dictionary.

  To make the mechanical process of looking up words in the dictionary more mindful, write the term down with its definition in a separate notebook and review it from time to time. Intentionally find opportunities to use the word(s) in conversations. Repetitive exposure to the terms over time will imprint them in your background knowledge.

  Instead of going to a dictionary, try relying on your brain first. If you can figure the meaning of a word on you own the first time, you can figure it out again without a dictionary.

  All words are made up of prefixes, roots and suffixes. By learning these parts of words, you will be more capable of figuring out word meanings without a dictionary.

  Here are some common prefixes, roots and suffixes. Each is shown with its meaning and an ex- ample. If you do not know what the example means, then you might want to look it up in the dictionary. Note that roots can also start a word because not all words have a prefix.

  There are many books and audiotape programs available for building your vocabulary. Look in your local bookstore or library for possibilities. For example, you might try 10 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, which is part of the same series as this book.

  Turbo Comprehension: The Crossroads of Comprehension

  Having to understand technical material is challenging. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's just like studying for a test when the purpose is to not only understand but also to apply the information. Up until now, you may not have felt confident or competent with technical material because you had little previous experience with the information.

  Remember that your comprehension of any material, including technical, improves when you are able to:

  Select and understand what you need for your purpose and responsibility.

  Retain and recall the appropriate information depending on your purpose and responsibility.

  Connect new information to existing knowledge.

  Understanding material doesn't mean passively memorizing information because you might need it someday. Remember that memorizing only puts the information into short-term memory anyway. It doesn't mean you need to read every word. It means you have to put the active reading strategies into play more than ever.

  Types of Comprehension

  When you say you understood what you read, it means you understood in one of three ways:

  1. Literally

  2. Interpretively

  3. Applied

&nb
sp; Take the statement "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." If you understood this literally, you would think I was so hungry that I was going to eat a real horse. If you interpreted what was said, you would understand that I was just really hungry. And if you applied the meaning, you might ask me if I'd like something to eat.

  Young children generally have only a literal level of understanding. As they grow older and expand their experiences, they come to understand the interpretive and applied levels on their own.

  Another example of these levels relates to a student's learning. When learning a foreign language (or any other discipline), you start with the basics — vocabulary and verb conjunctions. You literally memorize the word and its meaning and respond accordingly on a matching or multiple choice test. Once you learn the fundamental words, you move into sentences and paragraphs and see how the words fit together to form meaning. You are asked to interpret more of the language and take tests with fill-in-the-blank questions or that require short answers. And finally, when you have a stronger command of the language, you are then asked to apply what you know in conversation or on longer essays or papers.

  You can apply technical material when you ask yourself questions such as, "So what does this really mean?" or "How does this affect XYZ?" or "In what way can I use this?" Take your knowledge to its highest level by seeking out possible ways to apply or use the information.

  Time Trial No. 9

  Once again, it's time to test your engine. It should take you five minutes or less. Remember to add pre-viewing into the process.

  On the following practice reading, experiment with some of the information you have learned. Try using key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer. Ensure an appropriate environment for un- interrupted successful reading.