10 Days to Faster Reading Read online

Day 4: Getting Up to Speed

  This chapter is going to be a lot of fun! You will have opportunities to play with your eyes and brain. You will experiment with the many ways of increasing your eye span.

  If you find the method(s) that work best for you and make them part of your reading routine, then you will read more in less time with better comprehension.

  As you learn to widen your eye span and take in more at a glance, initially your brain may have some difficulty with comprehension. To best explain this, think of your eyes as the window to your brain. If your eyes right now only take in one word at a time, then your brain only processes one word at a time. However, as you begin to open your window (your eye span) wider, initially your brain might be overwhelmed by the amount of information it receives. But by repetitively using the new strategies, your brain will adjust to its new window span and catch on beautifully.

  So as you learn about the faster reading tactics, do not become overly concerned with your comprehension — yet. You need to learn to get comfortable with the mechanics of the faster engine before you can take it on the road.

  Stopping on Key Words

  You may have been taught and continue to believe that you must read every word. Anything less is "cheating." This belief stems from your elementary school teachers who taught you, and right- fully so, that you must read every word. Back then you were learning how to read; you needed to process every word because you were learning what words looked like and what they meant. At that time you didn't have enough experience to make educated guesses about their meaning from contextual clues. If you haven't had any reading training since elementary school, reading every word may still be your practice.

  Also, you were left with the impression that if you read every word, you would surely understand its meaning. If you read every word now, does that guarantee comprehension? No. Is it a good use of your time? Definitely not. Thankfully as an adult, you now have a solid foundation of background knowledge of words and their meanings that will enable you to use and benefit from the faster reading strategies.

  The method of stopping your eyes on key words is a powerful reading strategy that can immediately increase your reading speed. It also reduces subvocalization. Key words are generally the bigger, more important words in a sentence. They are usually longer than three letters in length and carry the meaning of the sentence. For example, most people read the following eleven-word sentence word-for-word:

  The task is defined by a series of steps and elements.

  By looking for and stopping your eyes only on the key words, you can still understand the sentence while saving time. Read just the five underlined key words below.

  The task is defined by a series of steps and elements.

  Now look at the six words that are not underlined. How many times have you seen those in your lifetime? Do you see how the underlined words naturally carry the most meaning of the sentence? Think about what would happen to your reading if you could read, or stop your eyes on, five words out of eleven while still understanding what you read. The result? At least a doubling of your reading speed.

  Reading the big, or key, words does not mean you are skipping words. What you are doing is focusing your eyes in one glance/eye stop. In effect, you are expanding your eye span. This is why comprehension is possible.

  When you start to experiment with this technique, know that there are no right or wrong key words. If you have too many, you will waste your time and you will tend to subvocalize more. If you read too few, you may not understand what you read.

  Experiment with Key Words

  Go to my website to print this exercise. Take a pen or pencil and quickly underline the bigger words in the paragraph below. Go for length, not meaning. Do not be surprised if you end up underlining every other word, or maybe even a few in a row. If your eyes stop on a word and you aren't sure whether it is a key word or not, underline it anyway. Just do it quickly.

  Homeopathy is a system of medicine that is based on the principle that "like cures like." That is, if a substance can cause symptoms in a healthy person, then it can stimulate self-healing of similar symptoms in a sick person. The truth of this principle has been verified experimentally and clinically for the last 200 years. The exact mechanism by which homeopathy works is unknown, but 200 years of clinical experience along with research have confirmed homeopathy's effectiveness.

  (used with permission from the National Center for Homeopathy newsletter, Homeopathy Today, Alexandria, Virginia.)

  When you have finished, reread the paragraph, stopping your eyes only on the words you underlined. See if you need to make any changes that would help you better understand the passage. Know that you may naturally stop your eyes on the first word of a sentence, no matter its length or importance. This is because it is an important starting point for the brain and an eye stop worth keeping.

  The sample paragraph about homeopathy contains seventy-eight words, with about forty-five as key words. Count your underlines and see if you are close to this number. As you become more skilled at locating key words, you will notice that you become more proficient at finding not only the longer words but also the ones that have the most meaning. You still may stop your eyes on a word like "if," "and," "but," or "that," but they are not key words. Remember, as long as you are actively seeking out the bigger, more important words, you will read faster while maintaining comprehension.

  Now try reading the key words without underlining on either another page in this book or a piece of material from your read later pile. In the beginning, use underlining only to help you be- come familiar with the technique. You can do it again anytime you want to jump-start your key word reading. However, if you continue to underline, you will reduce your speed and efficiency.

  Exercise: Eye Swing

  You can train your eyes to pick up key words. Learning to "swing" your eyes helps them become more familiar with the efficient eye movements necessary for faster reading. With a little practice, you develop a smooth reading rhythm.

  Begin reading by stopping your eyes on the thick line at the beginning of the first line. Then jump your eyes over the dots to the next thick line. Continue to the end of the paragraph. Do not move your head: Let your eyes do the moving. Try this exercise several times as quickly and as accurately as you can. You can return to this exercise whenever you feel it is necessary.

  Exercise: Discipline Your Eyes

  This exercise was originally published in 1956 in Reading Improvement for Adults by Paul Leedy (McGraw-Hill), and to this day I still use it effectively in my seminars. It is a simple yet incredibly powerful drill for building efficient eye movements.

  On a separate piece of paper, draw a chart with two columns: Date, and Time

  Put today's date under the date column.

  With a clock with a second hand next to you or a stopwatch, time how long it takes to read the exercise. It may take you as long as two minutes or as little as thirty seconds.

  •Read across the lines, not down.

  •Read for comprehension.

  The purpose of this drill is to discipline

  the little muscles that move the eyes from left to right.

  Incorrect habits of reading have frequently caused

  these muscles to behave in an undisciplined

  and inefficient manner. Try to make your eyes march ahead

  in three rhythmic leaps across the line.

  Try to feel the tiny tug on these six

  little muscles that move each eye. You will note

  that some phrases are short others are longer.

  This is done intentionally. The amount

  of line width that various people can see differs

  with the individual. In these exercises try to group

  as one eyeful all the words in the unit;

  look at a point just about midway in each word group.

  At times you will feel as though the field

  of your vision is being stretched. So much
the better!

  At other times the phrase will be too short.

  We shall strive for wider and wider units as we proceed.

  In that way your eyes will grasp more and more

  at a glance. Read this exercise two or three times

  every day for a few days. Try always

  to cut down on the time that it took you

  to read it each preceding time. You will soon get

  the knack of it. Do not let your eyes "skid"

  or "slide" when you look at a phrase.

  Look at it in the middle. Give it a strong,

  fleeting glance. See it all, in one look;

  then be off to see the next and the next,

  and so on to the very end of the exercise.

  And now, how long did it take you

  to read this? Put your time on your time chart.

  Now write your total time in minutes and seconds next to today's date under the time column. At this point, you have read and understood what the exercise described. You now have something extremely valuable you did not have a minute ago. Can you guess what it is? What is one of the most valuable pieces of information you can have as a reader? Background knowledge! Use this knowledge to really help you push yourself on this exercise.

  Now read this exercise again, timing yourself. But this time read for speed, not comprehension. Then track your score on your time chart. On your mark, get set, go!

  When you read it the second time, you may have felt a reading rhythm of three stops and three jumps across the line. Because your eye muscles were stretched out from the first time you did the exercise, the words flowed better to your eyes the second time. If you can identify the intended rhythm of this exercise, then it is easier to re-create it with your own material.

  Your timing goal of the exercise is between fifteen and forty seconds. If you can consistently read this within this time frame, you are well on your way to building efficient eye movements.

  Now that you are familiar with both the Eye Swing and Discipline Your Eyes, which works best for you?

  Reading Thought Groups

  Reading key words is a powerful method for reducing the mental whispering and engaging your brain to actively seek out the more important words in a sentence. Another equally powerful technique is called reading thought groups, also known as phrasing. The Discipline Your Eyes exercise already introduced you to this method.

  Take a look at the following paragraph and review the thought groups. They are separated by slash marks.

  Phrasing/is reading/a group of words/that form a thought./By looking for/these thought groups,/you force your eyes/to move forward faster/while maintaining/good comprehension.

  The first sentence of the above paragraph has eleven words with four thought groups. The second sentence has eighteen words with six thought groups. Learning to grasp a thought during an eye stop is certainly more effective than only grasping a word at a time. Your brain will be actively engaged in finding the words that have related meaning.

  Experiment with Thought Groups

  Take a pen or pencil and quickly find the thought groups in the same paragraph below. Make a slash mark where you think one thought ends and another one begins.

  Homeopathy treats the whole person — physical, mental, emotional — and it treats each person individually. For example, a homeopath treating a cold sufferer does not presume that all colds are alike, but instead asks about the person's unique symptoms such as: Is the person chilly or flushed? Is the nose running or stuffed up? Did the cold come on after stress, anger, or loss of sleep? The homeopath tries to get a complete picture of the person's individual experience of the cold. Then the homeopath chooses a homeopathic medicine that best matches this person's symptom picture.

  (Used by permission from the National Center for Homeopathy newsletter, Homeopathy Today, Alexandria, Virginia.)

  When you have finished, review the paragraph, reading your thought units to see if they make sense. The above paragraph has ninety-five words with about thirty thought units. It doesn't matter how small or large your thought group is — just make sure the words form a thought. Imagine what getting into the habit of reading phrases will do for your ability to read faster. It also ensures comprehension because you are reading thoughts, not just one unrelated word at a time.

  Now try reading thought groups without slash marking on either another page in this book or a piece of material from your read later pile. In the beginning, use slash marking only to help you become familiar with the technique. You can do it again anytime you want to jump-start your phrase reading. However, if you continue to use the slash mark, you will reduce your speed and efficiency.

  Reading Key Phrases

  Some people, like myself, have found that actually combining key words and phrases into a technique I call key phrases is quite powerful. There is no right or wrong way to do it and really no specific way to teach it. It is just an active way for the brain to read what is most important, either a key word or phrase, quickly.

  You can mix the two methods yourself. It may mean reading one sentence using key words and the next using phrases. It may mean reading a key word, then another key word, then a phrase, then another key word, then a phrase in the same sentence. Experimenting through trial and error will help you figure out what works best for you.

  After experimenting with each of these methods, you may intuitively know which one you'd like to keep and use. No matter which you choose, each is an improvement over one word at a time.

  Yellow Flag: Caution, Caution, Caution!

  There are a few things you need to know about these speed techniques:

  Using key words naturally reduces the talking. Reading key words naturally helps you reduce mental whispering. However, reading in phrases, not key phrases, can encourage more talking or individual word reading. So if you are a talker, then key words may be a better method for you.

  Watch column width. If the column width of your reading material is wider than a newspaper column, then you can use key words and/or phrases easily. However, if the column width is about six words per line, such as a newspaper column, you will drive yourself crazy constantly trying to wrap your eyes around to the next line finding the thought groups. Therefore, you may find reading key words more helpful than thought groups on narrow-column material.

  Learn to push the pedal. When you start using these faster reading methods, you want to really push yourself to see how fast you can go. You will learn through trial and error what works best for you.

  Time Trial No. 4

  Time trials in car racing are done prior to the actual race. They are primarily a test of speed. It is one car against the clock. They test a car and driver's ability to perform at various speeds and on different track conditions, such as curves or straightaways, or in rainy or dry weather.

  Up until now, the time trials you have completed included comprehension questions. But as I have explained, the faster reading techniques in this chapter need to be learned on their own before you can even attempt to gauge your understanding. Hence this exercise only tests your reading speed. You will get a preliminary idea of how efficient or effective you might be using these new tools on your engine.

  On the following practice reading, choose either key words, phrases, or key phrases as described in this chapter. Remember not to use your pen to underline or slash-mark anymore. You can add in a hand or card pacer if you like. While reading, be aware of any distracters like daydreaming, regressing, or mental talking.

  1. Using your chosen faster reading method, time yourself for exactly one minute on the following reading. If you finish the text before the minute is up, return to the beginning of the passage and continue until the minute is complete.

  2. Mark the line you are on at the end of the minute. Directions continue after the reading.

  The History of Speed Reading

  By Pam Mullan

  1,211 words

  (Used with permission from Pame
la Mullan, Assistant Professor at Onondaga Community College)

  3. Now count the number of lines you have just read using the numbers in the margin to guide you. If you went back to the beginning, add those lines onto the total number of lines in the article.

  4. Multiply the number of lines you read by 9. 9 is the average number of words per line of this reading. Number of lines read X 9 words per line = Words per Min Important note: You may be uncomfortable with your comprehension. Go to "What, You Don't Understand?" later in this chapter for some reassuring words.

  5. Track your Time Trial score: Go to your Personal Progress Chart and fill in only your Words per Minute and the date you did this exercise. Compare your speed scores to the previous readings.

  Just when you thought you learned all you needed to know about increasing reading speed, here are two more methods to try.