ABBY MARKS BEALE
& THE PRINCETON LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
10 Days to FasterReading
Zip Through Books,Magazines, andNewspapers Understand andRemember EverythingYou Read!
SELF- IMPROVEMENT IN ONLY MINUTES A DAY
10 Days to Faster Reading
By Abby Marks Beale (sponsored by The Princeton Language Institute)• Zip through Books, Magazines, Newspapers • Understand and Remember Everything You Read• Self-Improvement in Only Minutes a Day
Printed Version Produced by The Philip Lief Group, Inc.Published by Warner Books, A Time Warner CompanyCopyright 2001, The Philip Lief GroupISBN: 0-446-67667-5E-Book Version Produced by Abby Marks BealeCopyright 2008, Abby Marks Bealewww.RevItUpReading.comebook ISBN: 978-0-9745928-2-4
The clip art included in this ebook is from Microsoft®.comThe ebook was transcribed by Jon Kaufman and page layout by Joni McPherson.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Day 1
Putting the Key in the Ignition . . . . . . . . . 6
Day 2
Rebuilding Your Speed Reading Engine. 15
Day 3
Revving Up Your Concentration. . . . . . . 27
Day 4
Getting Up to Speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Day 5
Reading the Road Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Day 6
Hanging Out the Caution Flag. . . . . . . . . 62
Day 7
Reducing the Pileup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Day 8
Fine-Tuning Your Reading Speed. . . . . . 85
Day 9
Reading on a Technical Track. . . . . . . . . 97
Day 10
The Final Lap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Answer Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116Personal Progress Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Words Per Minute Charts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Timed Reading Exercises Quick Reference
(* The first seven readings listed below are
non-fiction
and contain approximately 400 words with com- prehension questions. The remaining three listed BELOW the line are used for other practice.)
Day 1– All About Reading p. 9-11Day 2– Battling the Worry Bug p. 18-20Day 3– A True Athlete p. 31-33Day 6– It’s All Relative p. 67-69Day 8– Books Join the Electronic Wave p. 92-94Day 9– A Few Words p. 101-103Day 10– April Fools Day p. 110-112Day 4– The History of Speed Reading p. 42-46(for 1 minute timings)
Day 5 – Roadmap exercise – p. 56-58(pre-view of Day 6)
Day 7– The Ties that Bind p. 77-79(fiction reading)
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Introduction
Congratulations! By having this book in your hands, you have taken a very important step in im- proving your reading skills. Since you probably have not had any reading training since elemen-tary school, now you will learn something new about how to read more efficiently and effectively.You may be a busy professional looking to get through your reading workload or master newmaterial more quickly, an interested educator looking for strategies for your students, a homemaker or retiree looking to develop your reading skills, or a student who’d like to know the magic in-volved in faster reading. Whatever the reason, you’ve chosen the right book. By reading this book and using the information daily, you
will
learn all you need to know about how to read faster andimprove your comprehension.But what does “reading this book” mean? Like many other “how-to” books, each chapter buildson the previous one. So I encourage you to read at least the first fivechapters in the order in whichthey are presented to maximize your speed reading potential. After that, you can skip around to theremaining chapters in which you have most interest. This book has these key objectives:
•Help you realize the value of what you may already be doing.
Throughout this book, youwill find many concepts that you are already familiar with yet you may not have known thatthey were good reading strategies. You will be able to identify several positive things thatyou are already doing that no one formally taught you, but rather, due to survival or inge-nuity, you have figured out on your own.
•Introduce you to a wide spectrum of ideas to pick and choose from.
There is no onebest way to read.
But there are many great strategies you can use. This book is
not
intendedas a book of rules but rather as a book of options. This is why you are asked to try the strate-gies, think about the concepts, and eventually decide which will work best for you. The last page of this book is blank. If you print this ebook, use it to write down your “keepers” – themost important or valuable ideas you personally got from this book. If you are reading on-screen, create a separate word document to keep track of your keepers. Doing so keeps youactively looking for what you want and documents your keepers for later review.
•Enhance your level of reading confidence.
For many people, reading is something they do,not something they love. Many readers think they are the slowest readers in the world or feelinadequate in their overall reading abilities. True or not, one thing is certain: If you do notfeel confident in your reading ability or do not get satisfaction when you read, then youwon’t choose to read. When you reach a point where you feel like the time you spend read-ing is worthwhile, because you understand or get what you need from it, then you will chooseto read more often. It is that simple.I also recommend you keep the following materials handy to help you do the exercises in eachchapter:
•
Pencil or pen
•
Highlighter
•
Paper
•
Calculator
•
Watch with a second hand or stopwatch
•
Blank 3x5 white index card or the blank side of a business card
•
Familiar reading material such as favorite magazines or newspapers
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You are a reader who wants to learn how to become skilled at speed reading. A comparable re-lationship exists between car drivers and those who want to learn how to become skilled at race car driving.Therefore, I have used a race car theme, drawing analogies between speed reading and car racing. Be reassured that you do
not
have to be a race car fan to appreciate the connection.Practice is an important aspect of improving your reading speed. Each day has a practice read-ing called a
Time Trial.
Most contain four hundred words, very short in comparison to newspaper or magazine articles, and are followed by a series of ten comprehension statements to answer. Youwill be able to track your progress in your
Words per Minute
Personal Progress Chart
on pages 117 to 118.
The comprehension statements ask you to choose among three possible answers: True
(T)
, False
(F)
, or not discussed
(N)
. All your answers need to come from the information in the reading,
not
from what you may already know.Though this book will show you how to efficiently read anything, most of the information is fo-cused on reading nonfiction such as business books and periodicals or school textbooks. Nonfic-tion readers are always looking for ways to read more in less time. Fiction readers, who enjoyreading stories and novels, have a choice. As a result, you will find that all the Time Trials in this book are nonfiction except for one fiction reading on Day 7.If, after finishing this book, you have lingering questions or concerns or want to share your success with me, please write to me:Abby Marks BealeRev It Up ReadingP.O. Box 4212Wallingford, CT 06492www.RevItUpReading.comEnough said. Have fun at the races!
bby Marks Beale
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Day 1: Putting the Key in the Ignition
Think of this book as a key that enables you to jumpstart your reading abilities andtest-drive a whole new set of skills and techniques. If you are like many, you alreadyfeel confident about having this book in your hand because learning to read faster isa goal you have set many times. Now, by opening this book, you are closer than ever to achievingthat goal.
How Will Increasing My Reading Speed Help Me?
As you sit poised in the driver’s seat, let’s look at the benefits of becoming a faster reader:
•Read more in less time.
You will double or even triple the amount you read in the sameamount of time. At times, you may find that you only have to skim material.
•Improve your concentration.
The faster you read, the more you pay attention and focus onwhat you are doing.
•Understand material with greater depth and accuracy.
As your concentration improves,you will better understand what you read.
•Retain information better.
You can remember information better because you are payingattention, concentrating, and understanding more.
•Enjoy Reading More.
The faster reading strategies in this book help you build confidenceand competence in your reading abilities, so you quickly find you enjoy reading more.There are some more little known benefits of learning to read faster —benefits I have person-ally experienced or participants in my workshops have shared with me. (I know there are morethan these and maybe someday you’ll let me know what they are.)
•
Receive higher test scores on standardized tests
•
Feel more in control of information overload.
•
Surf the Web more efficiently.
•
Find a subtitled movie a little more appealing.
•
Read the informational placards in a museum faster.
•
Read road signs and billboards quicker.
•
Reduce reading stress and guilt.
•
Skim directions on how to assemble, plug in, and/or operate any apparatus, toy, or child plaything you need in a hurry.
•
Scan and compare nutrition labels with greater ease (cut your shopping time).
•
Know how long reading really takes and plan accordingly.
•
Have a sense of what it’s like to be “current”For me, using faster reading skills has greatly benefited my professional life. But the most pow-erful example I can relate is one from my personal life. When my first child was about nine monthsold, he woke up in the middle of the night crying with a barking cough that sounded like a seal. Now,as an experienced parent, I know that this is a medical condition called croup, which constricts theairway, making breathing difficult. Inexperienced as I was then, I was terrified. I called the pedia-trician’s answering service and left an urgent message. While waiting for the return call, I searchedthrough my parenting books to figure out what was wrong and how I could make it better. Within
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minutes, by scanning the indexes, skimming the text, and applying the advice, my son was on hisway to better breathing —and my own breathing began to return to normal as well. This scenariohas played itself out time and again. Each time I am acutely aware of how helpful faster readingskills are.
Work with a Pro at Your Side
To really make a difference in your reading abilities, you must experiment with and apply the ideasin this book. Imagine that you are new to car racing and are being groomed to become a race car driver, a faster reader. Though you may already know how to drive a car, already know how toread, driving a race car is a completely different experience. If you were told to get behind thewheel of a race car and enter a competition right now, your current driving skills and knowledge base would be inadequate. However, imagine you were given ten days to prepare for the race. Inthose ten days you worked with a pro (this book), and discovered through trial and error techniques,tips, and trade secrets from the pros— in short, you’d find what works best for you.So, put yourself in the driver’s seat.
Remember, although you will find some great ideas in thisbook, they will remain just great ideas if you do not turn on the ignition and explore the road-ways of faster reading.
YOU hold the key.
Five Reasons to Get in the Race
There are five reasons you might be stuck in neutral with your reading ability:
Reason #1: Your Attitude
Mentally, quickly fill in the blank of the following statement with the word or words that bestdescribes you:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.When I begin a workshop with this statement, I solicit responses from the participants. Whenasked for their responses, inevitably I hear negative words like “slow,” “lazy” and “non-.” Othersrespond with more positive words like“good”, “avid” or “voracious.” Still others describe their reading level as “poky,” “buried,” or “sleepy.” If you believe you fit into the more negative category of responses, I venture to guess that read-ing is not a very satisfying experience for you. You may daydream a lot or believe you read at asnail’s pace. You may find yourself re-reading sentences or paragraphs frequently because you did-n’t get it the first time, or even after re-reading you still didn’t get it. You may get bored easily anddon’t understand why or how people read for pleasure.I used to feel that way before I learned the secrets of better and faster reading. I procrastinatedon school reading assignments and rarely picked up a book for pleasure. I never understood whyanyone would want to read a newspaper everyday! I admit I wasn’t always the efficient, activereader I am now.Ifyou wrote in a more positive response in the blank, you are someone who naturally choosesto read more and spend more time reading. You find reading to be a satisfying experience and feelyour time is spent wisely when you do read. You may want to increase your reading load at home
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or work but are not sure the best way to achieve that goal. You may just want to do better, andyou’ve come to the right place.I believe that the majority of successful people in the world read widely and are voracious read-ers. Learning and growing through reading helps you to become professionally and personally suc-cessful. Being successful doesn’t necessarily mean making a lot of money, however,it does mean being competent at what you do. If you ask anyone who is prominent in their field to discuss howthey got to where they are right now, I can almost guarantee you that their path to success includeda lot of reading.Throughout this book, I will ask you again to complete the statement “I am a(n) __________ reader.” Hopefully, your responses will become more positive as you begin to feel more confidentabout your reading abilities.
Believe that your past is not predictive of your future.
Reason #2: You Are Only Human
With all the technological advancements available to us, many people feel pressure to keep pace with the amazing speed and efficiency of computers. But, let’s face it, you can’t open the topof your head where your processor— your brain— is, add in a computer chip, and announce youare a Pentium. If you had Pentium abilities,you could read almost at the speed of light while stor-ing information in a massive database. “Oh, I read that article in 1991. I’ll pull it right up.” Sorry,it just isn’t going to happen. But don’t despair— you can take your horse and buggy brain andmake it into a reading race car.
Reason #3: Lack of Reading Training
When
was
the last time you had any training to develop or polish your reading skills? If I wereto venture an educated guess based on close to two decades teaching this topic, I would say onlyabout one in twenty people may have taken an additional course, read a book, or followed an au-diotape course
in its entirety
for faster reading. If you chuckled when you read the last line, you are probably thinking about the book or tape program you bought years ago that is currently sitting ona shelf half listened to or maybe even unopened. The other nineteen people haven’t had any de-velopmental reading training since elementary school.If you mentally calculate your present age and subtract six, the approximate age you probably began reading, you get the number of years you have been building your current reading skills. For some readers, it’s a very long time. I am constantly amazed at how well people learn to adapt to their increased reading workload without any formal training. I have met lawyers, doctors, engineers, fi-nancial planners, and other educated professionals who now after all their years of formal educa-tion want to learn how to read faster. One middle-aged lawyer I met told me he had finally cometo a breaking point managing his reading workload. I asked how he made it through his collegecourses and certification programs without this essential skill. He said he really didn’t know, he justdid what he had to do. He believed that reading took him a long time, though he had not figuredhis reading speed or comprehension, and he found himself rereading information frequently be-cause he didn’t understand it the first time. He decided it was time to do something about his poor attitude and his sluggish reading style. It’s never too late to do something about your creaky read-ing skills.
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Reason #4: Your “To Read” Pile
Everybody hassome sort of a reading pile— magazines, newspapers, mail, printed emails andinternet research, trade journals or other reading material for work, novels and how-to books. Somecall it the “to do” stack. I call it the “to read” stack. I sometimes call it the “
too high
to read” stack.These piles are the visual evidence of the information explosion. Not only do you have an explo-sion of print material but also a massive amount of information available to read on your computer.You look at the pile and either say, “I’m going to save it for ‘sometime’”, or “Oh, forget it. I’m goingto recycle the whole thing. I just don’t have time.”The good news is you don’t need to read it all. You simply need to make a conscious decisionregarding what to read carefully, what to skim, and what to disregard. Throughout this book, I willgive you information on achieving this goal.
Reason #5: Not Having Enough Time
Since most people today juggle a job, kids, carpool, and a myriad of other responsibilities, theydon’t have time to read. They put their reading on a pile labeled “later.” This “later” pile rarely getssmaller because “later” doesn’t come, unless time is made intentionally for it.In this book, you will learn ways to gain control of your reading workload and to eliminate thedismay when you see the ever growing pile of material.So, now you possess an opinion of yourself as a reader. You are human and working with anti-quated skills. You are living in the midst of a burgeoning information tidal wave and you may not be giving reading enough time.What are you going to do?
Instructions for Your First Time Trial
Okay, let’s hit the road. First you need to find out how you read with regard to speedand comprehension. The following exercise takes less than five minutes to complete. Follow thesesimple steps and you will begin to better understand who you are as a reader.
1.Time Yourself
. Have a clock or watch with a second hand next to you or a stopwatch or akitchen timer and time how long it takes to read the passage“All About Reading” on the next page. READ NORMALLY! Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space pro-vided at the end of the reading.
All About Reading
Think back to the time you were taught to read as a child. First, you learnedthe alphabet and how letters formed into syllables. Then, how syllablesformed into words. Finally, you stood beside your desk and readaloud.In oral reading, you were forced to read
word by word
. This habit probably carried over into your silent reading.If you are reading a word ata time silently, then you read no faster than you speak— 150 words per minute.Forming letters into syllables and then syllables into words leads tothenext logical step in reading— forming words into phrases or thought
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units.Words are symbols for communication that impart their fullestmean-ingonly in association with one another.Because you learned to read as a child, you are probably trying tomeet the adult reading challenge with outdated methods from your elemen-tary school days. Psychologists know that you form your strongest habitsduring childhood and reading habits are among these. No wondermostof usare unable to keep up.Ineffective habits are generally characterized by
passive
behaviors,while effective ones require
active
behaviors. By learning to activelyread,you read more in less time, improve your concentration, and understand andremember information better.In the process of reading, your eyes function similarly to a camera.You take a picture of the words you are reading and flash them to yourbrain.Your brain instantly interprets the meaning of the words.Actually, while you are reading this, your eyes are stopping about 95 percent of the time. You are not moving your eyes in a smooth flowbut rather in jerky stops and starts.Obviously, then, if you teach your eyes to take larger, or panoramic, pictures at each stop, they will stop less and get more. Larger pictures meanmore words are flashed to the brain at each stop and your brain has theca- pacity to interpret phrases or even whole sentences.Once you develop a sense of reading rhythm, you can read for longer periods without tiring and get much more meaning per minute. When you improve your reading, you gain a lifetime of benefits suchas being a better conversationalist and a more qualified job applicant. Mostof the knowledge you acquire comes from reading, and
knowledge ispower!
No other skill you possess contributes so richly toward improvingyour earn-ing power, giving you pleasure, and allowing you to lead a fuller life.
Mark your reading time here:_____ (minutes) _____(seconds).
2.Respond to Statements.
Immediately answer the following statements to the best of your ability
WITHOUT looking back
at the reading. That’s cheating!Estimate the number of an-swers you believe are correct and put the number in the blank provided.
Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). ______ 1. The article you have just read was mainly about eye movements. ______ 2. The most important reason for poor reading is no additional instruction since primaryschool. ______ 3.If you are a
word reader
, you are probably reading less than 300 words per minute.
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______ 4.The next logical step in reading is to form words into thought units. ______ 5. Words are symbols of communication that impart their fullest meaning only in thedictionary. ______ 6.Inefficient readers read only when they have to. ______ 7.Keeping up with our reading is difficult because of the information explosion. ______ 8. While you read, your eyes move in a smooth flow. ______ 9. If you learn to read more rhythmically, you will read longer without tiring. ______ 10. Reading faster means reading more at each stop. Now,
estimate
how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten _____.
3.Check your responses
. Turn to the Answer Key on page116. If you haveany incorrect,mark the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where youhad a problem.
4.Figure your comprehension percentage.
Add the total number of correct responses youhave and multiply by 10. For example, if you have 5 correct, your comprehension is 50 per-cent. If you have 8 correct, your comprehension is 80 percent, and if you had ten correct, giveyourself 100 percent. Write your comprehension percent inyour Personal Progress chart on page 117.
5.Figure your Words per Minute.
Look at your reading time and round off the seconds to thenearest 10-second mark. For example, if you read the passage in 2 minutes and 27 seconds,round higher, making your reading time 2 minutes, 30 seconds. If you read the passage in 1minute and 42 seconds, round lower to one minute 40 seconds. Turn to the Words per Minutechart on page 119and find your Words per Minute next to your reading time. Write your
Words per Minute in your Personal Progress chart.
6.Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date you did the ex-ercise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoccupations,strategies used, and so on.This information will help you understand what works and whatdoesn’t when you read. You will use this chart to track your scores over the next ten days.
What Do Your Numbers Mean?
Your numbers reveal who you are as a reader now. The following gives you a quick view of whatyour Words per Minute mean:
If your Words per Minute were between: Then you are probably a:
100 — 200Slow Reader 200 — 300Average Reader 300 — 400Good Reader 400 — 500Above Average Reader
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Slow readers
are considered slow because they read at talking speed. A person speaks on av-erage between 100 and 150 words per minute, so reading in this range makes you a “talker.” Thoughyou may be the quietest person in the world, it has no relationship to your reading.Talkers gener-ally have one of two issues against them: They either move their lips while reading or they men-tally whisper, or subvocalize, every single word they read. They’re basically hearing their ownvoice reading to themselves word-for-word.Have you ever wondered why you sometimes daydream when someone is talking to you or while you are in class? Well, that’s because the person talking to you is speaking an average of 150words per minute and you can think upward of 400 words per minute. That leaves 250 words per minute looking for something to do. So, if you are not mentally engaged in receiving the informa-tion such as listening to a boring teacher or colleague, you will daydream …a lot!Slow readers sometimes fall asleep while reading. Unfortunately, our voices when readingsilently rarely sound like a hyped radio announcer. They are more like a monotone drone.
Average readers
read at about 250 words per minute. This is the average words per minute oth-ers have come up with and I have done my own statistics gathering as well. I kept summary sheetsof the classes I teach, which include beginning and ending statistical averages. The participants aregenerally corporate employees from various levels ranging from administrative and secretarial tomanagerial and executive. The classes were twelve hours long and had an average of fifteen par-ticipants. Using three years’ worth of classes, I took all of the beginning averages, which consistedof two separate readings, and averaged them out. The resulting number was 252 words per minute.Most participants had not had any reading training since elementary school.Average readers mentally whisper what they read but not as much as slow readers. They mayfeel they are slow readers, however. They do think more while reading than a slow reader does.
Good readers
may talk a little while they read, but in general to a much lesser degree thanslow and average readers. They typically don’t decode the words anymore, rather they naturally break sentences up into thought units, or phrases. You will learn more about this on Day Four.
Above average readers
, the few who come to my class without any formal training, are able tofigure out on their own what works and what doesn’t. They usually don’t know strategies by name.However, they are looking to know if what they are doing is right. They are happy to finally havenames to attach to their self-made habits so they can continue reading well or improve without guilt.
Turbo Comprehension: How Does Your Comprehension Rank?
Good comprehension on this type of reading evaluation falls between 70 and 90 percentor seven to nine correct responses out of ten. Ten out of ten, or 100 percent, is excellent compre-hension, but striving for it on a regular basis is difficult; remember, you’re human!You were asked to guess how many answers you thought you had correct out of ten beforechecking your answers. I asked you to do this because I have found that many people’s perceptionsof how many answers they thought they had correct does
not
match reality.Most
underestimate
their abilities, meaning they get more answers correct than they thought. You see, the brain works inmysterious ways. Many times it works subconsciously without your knowing or feeling secure.But miraculously, you get the right answer. If this happened to you,
think about trusting your brainmore
and believing that you really are capable of better comprehension. In time, you will feel moreconfident about your comprehension.
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TEN THINGS Your Elementary School Teacher Told You ANDYour Secondary School Teacher Should Have Told You
NOT
toDo Anymore!
1.You have to read every word.2.You need to sound out every word aloud or in your head.3.Don’t use your hands or fingers to help read.4.You need to completely understand everything you read.5.You need to remember everything you read.6.Go for quantity —the more the better.7.Don’t skim, that’s cheating.8.Don’t write in your books.9.It doesn’t matter what you read as long as you read.10.Speed is not important.By the end of this book, you will understand why these ten so-called rules are fallacies.
Fast Tracks: Adding a Stick Shift to Your Reading
Many readers are uncomfortable using their hands, or a pen, or a white card to read. Put on the brakes, I’m going to show you how to use these tools.This approach is based on the fact that your eyes naturally follow movement. If you are in anoffice talking with someone and a fly is circling in your vicinity, your eyes notice it and momen-tarily follow it. Or, if you are facing a window where people are walking by, your eyes naturallygravitate toward the foot traffic no matter how rivetedyou are by your conversation.Your hand, a pen, or a blank white card, when used to increase your reading speed, are called
pacers
. Think of a pacer as a stick shift.
Pacers force the eyes to move in a directed pattern
down
the page to help you get up to speed.
Pacers function like a pace car in a race. A pace car leads the other cars, or in the case of read-ing, your eyes and brain, to a speed where the race begins. Once the cars reach a certain speed, the pace car exits the speedway, signaling the start of the race. In reading, your pacer ideally does thesame thing: It gets you up to speed, then moves out of the way until you need it again. The pacecar returns to the track, getting cars back up to speed if there is an interruption in the race such asan accident or debris on the track.When you read, an interruption could simply be your mind taking a neutral dip in concentra-tion or a sound like the honking of a car horn or the ringing of a telephone. Pacers are helpful ingetting you dialed in, which in car racing means your car is perfectly set up for a race. Each chapter— or day— of this book introduces you to a new pacer. Be aware they may notall work for you— but it’s important to try them all and choose those that work best for you.
The general rules to follow when using any pacer are:1. Keep your pacer moving
down
, not across the page.2. Do not stop or go back.
Though rules can be broken, the more you can stick to these two, the better you will read.
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Start Your Engines with a White Card
Let’s start with our first pacer— the white card method. You need a blank white 3x5index card or the blank side of a business card. Now, if you have ever read with a card before, youmost likely place it under the line you are reading. Think about this: Why are you blocking whereyour eyes are going and leaving open where you have been? This encourages an inefficient, or pas-sive, habit called
regression
, or going back over material you have already read.So take your white card and place it
on top
of the lines you read, leaving the lane open whereyou are going. Try this while reading a magazine or newspaper or even this book.As you read,move the card down the page at your own pace. Later when you learn other speed techniques, thecard helps you move even faster.If you tried this and you feel really uncomfortable, please don’t get rid of it so fast. Day 2 willhelp you better understand this skill-building process. Know that this discomfort is part of the learn-ing process.
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
Before you take things out of your reading pile, you need to know what you are re-ceiving and where it comes from. Take a piece of paper and keep a record of your reading mate-rial, including newspapers, magazines, professional journals, newsletters, e-mail newsletters, andso on. Since most publications are issued weekly or monthly, keep the list for one month. Hence,this is called the “Reading Tracker Inventory.” Then, rate each piece, assessing its value to you andwhy you should keep it. If you can’t come up with a valid reason, cancel your subscription. The onesyou don’t have time for toss in the recycling bin.Hint: If you have five or more unread back issuesof any one publication, chances are you either don’t have time for it or do not find value in it. Getrid of it! Day 7 will provide you with more tips on reducing the pileup.In Day 2, you will discover the parts of your “reading engine.” You will gain an understandingabout each part and what is involved in the tune-up. Make sure your gas tank is full. Tomorrow isanother day on the roadway to faster reading.
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Day 2: Rebuilding Your Speed ReadingEngine
The engine is the core of a race car. When the engine is set up properly, the car is a solid contender in a race. When it’s not, and the engine blows, the car is prevented from getting to the next level of competition. In reading, your engine is your eyes and brain. Though your hands are helpful, theyare not necessary. (You
can
read a highway road sign without your hands.) Also, your mouth isn’tuseful, since it slows you down. Remember that when you “talk” while you read you limit your-self to around 150 words per minute.In this chapter, you will discover the parts of your reading engine, gain an understanding abouthow they function, and what is involved in tuning up that engine.
Is Your Engine Inefficient or Efficient?
Here is a list of inefficient and efficient reader qualities. Each of these qualities is addressed through-out the book. As you will see, they are opposites of each other.Using a pen or pencil, compare theleft side qualities to those on the right. Then using the first quality listed below as an example,mark the page as follows:
•
If you think you read slowly, make a checkmark next to that quality on the far left.
•
If you think you read fast, make a checkmark next to that quality on the far right.
•
If both qualities seem to describe you, make a checkmark in the center, between bothcolumns.
Inefficient Reader QualitiesEfficient Reader Qualities
Reads slowlyReads rapidlyHas irregular eye movements*Has rhythmic eye movements*Understands poorlyUnderstands wellUses narrow eye span*Uses wide eye span*Reads without a purpose*Reads with a purpose*Reads one word at a timeReads in thought unitsUse one reading rate*Uses varied reading rates*Believes everything readEvaluates everything readHas a limited vocabularyHas a wide vocabularyReads similar kinds of materialsReads varied materialsReads infrequently/dislikes readingReads frequently/enjoys readingHas limited background of generalHas broad background of generalknowledge and experienceknowledge and experience
*The Qualities Most Asked About
Some of the above qualities are self explanatory while others on the list need furtherexplanation.Let’s take a look at the characteristics with asterisks and see what theymean.
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•Irregular vs. rhythmic eye movements.
If you think you read one word at a time, or if youget to the end of a line and frequently miss the beginning of the next line, or if you find your-self re-reading the same line, then you have more irregular than rhythmic eye movements.
•Narrow vs. wide eye span.
You have a narrow eye span ifyou know you read word-for-word. If you don’t read every word or you know you read more than one word at a time, youhave a wider eye span. If you want to learn how to read faster, you will need to see more eachtime your eyes stop, widening your eye span.
•Reading with vs. without a purpose.
Reading with a purpose means knowing why or for what reason you are reading a certain book, magazine, or letter. It is similar to having a goalin mind. For example, when you read a newspaper you may read with the purpose of stay-ing on top of world or local current events. Reading without a purpose means reading withno goal in mind, like going to a department store and saying “I’m just looking.”
•One reading rate vs. varied reading rates.
If you read your favorite magazine at the samespeed you read a school textbook, then you are reading with one reading rate. As an efficientreader you vary your reading rate, or change reading speed, depending on factors such as howmuch you already know about the content or what you need to learn from the reading.
Inefficient Readers: Passive vs. Active
Inefficient readers
are considered passive because they don’t do anything while reading to in-crease speed or comprehension. You may possess some of the inefficient reader qualities becauseyou just haven’t been taught how to be efficient. The educators I have worked with are unaware of what they should be teaching to make students efficient readers. No one taught them how.What, then, is the opposite of passive? Active!
Efficient readers
activate their conscious mind.They’re mindful in their reading and they know how to pull a reading tool out of their hypotheti-cal pocket when needed. It doesn’t mean they quickly read through everything, but they find thematerial mentally engaging and know how to get the most out of it, quickly.
Efficient Readers: Effective vs. Efficient
Please do not confuse effective and efficient, however.
Effective reading
simply means you readwith satisfactory comprehension. For example, a twenty-five page chapter of a textbook can takeyou three hours to read. If you understand it, then you’re reading effectively. If you don’t grasp thecontent, you’re reading it ineffectively.
Efficient reading
means you understand it the first time,read with good comprehension, and
inlesstime
. That same twenty-fivepage chapter read effi-ciently can be read in half the time while still being effective.
The Three Passive Habits for Losing the Reading Race
The most common passive reading habits are mind wandering, regression, and subvocalization.They prevent you from reaching the finish line efficiently.
You cannot get rid of any of them, onlyreduce them
. Becoming aware of them is the first step to improving your chances of winning.
Mind Wandering
Mind wandering
is also known as daydreaming. All readers do it but active readers do it less than passive ones.
Mind wandering while reading is effective if you are mentally applying what you
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are reading to something you already know.
For example, if you took a trip to Italy several yearsago and you’re reading a magazine article about Italian art preservation activities, your mind mostlikely wanders to your trip. You mentally relate what you personally experienced with the infor-mation presented in the article.This is what I call
active
mind wandering
because this is how youlearn. You
build bridges of knowledge from what you know to the new material on the page.
I use a concept called
brain glue
. Everything you have learned and experienced is your brainglue.When you stretch it and stick new information to it, then you are active. If you wallow in itwithout stretching or adding to it, then you are passive.
Passive
mind wandering
is thinking about a million other unrelated tasks or plans, such as re-membering to make a vet appointment, or thinking about an upcoming party, or thinking about ________________. You fill in the blank!Too much passive mind wandering slows you down, prevents you from getting better compre-hension skills, and wastes your time. If you want to edge closer toward the winner’s circle, then youneed to reduce your passive mind wandering.
Regression
Regression
is a flick of your eyes back to a word or words previously read. For example, if you haveever arrived at the bottom of a page wondering what you just read, you are forced to regress to thetop. Many people unconsciously and habitually flick their eyes backward as they read forward onthe same line of text. If you frequently get sleepy while reading, even while sitting upright at adesk or table, chances are your eyes are regressing a lot.As with mind wandering, there is active and passive regression.
Active regression
is inten-tionally going back looking for what you missed. You are reading consciously but you don’t quiteget the author’s meaning.Sometimes, for example, you need to go back after you come across aword you don’t know.You go back with a purpose in mind.
Passive regression
is when you go back and reread words or passages because your mind iswandering or your concentration is off. Many people simply do not trust their brain when reading.This insecurity creates a situation ripe for passive regression. They feel they have to double back while reading to make sure they understand the content. It’s similar to watching a movie. Most timesyou hear everything said but sometimes you miss its meaning or you thought you heard incorrectly.If you are watching at home on your VCR, you take the remote and rewind (regress) to hear it again.If you are in a movie theater, you cannot rewind the film. You have to trust that either you heard cor-rectly or that you’ll figure it out from the rest of the movie’s context (and you usually do).When participants in my classes begin to use the white card method, they become acutely awareof their previous need to reread. This awareness, coupled with the white card method, begins thereduction of passive regression. You can try this, too.
Subvocalization
Subvocalization
means mentally reading word-for-word or physically moving your lips while read-ing. If your beginning reading rate on Day 1 was under two hundred words per minute then you aresubvocalizing. Look at your Personal Progress chart on page
you cannot get rid of this voice, onlyreduce it.
There are some occasions when the talking is active. For example, hearing your voice repeat or say the information to yourself while you are studying or memorizing is active.When you read po-
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etry or dialogue, such as from a play, you need to hear the rhythm and intonation to truly appreciatethese forms of writing. Students tell me— and I agree— that reading the Bible or Shakespeare ischallenging without mentally talking. As far as your brain is concerned, it finds it as challenging astrying to read a foreign language. I also suggest reading the fine print of legal and insurance docu-ments word-for-word unless you are a lawyer or insurance agent who is familiar with the jargon.Though you may have a good reason to subvocalize, remember that it slows you down. Keepthis in mind when you plan your reading time.So, unless you’re reading
Hamlet
or memorizing poetry, the talking is passive and therefore slowsyou down. Many readers believe that when they read something for the first time, they must study or memorize it. I believe this is another remnant of your school days. How can you study or memorizesomething when you don’t even know what it is about? You will learn a powerful technique called
pre-viewing
on Day 5, which will help you discover what the reading is about
before
you begin.
Ten Ways to Reduce the Talking
Talking while reading, either by moving your lips while reading or mentally whisperingevery word, slows you down. Everyone does it, but efficient readers do it less. Here are ten proven strategies to help you reduce the talking:
1.Catch yourself doing it.
Only when you realize you are talking can you do somethingabout it.
2.Read faster!
This is by far the best strategy. The faster you read, the less you can talk word-for-word.
3.Read key words.
This naturally helps you reduce the talking, since you are only speak-ing the key words.
4.Use a pacer.
Each day you will learn a new pacer technique. Whichever one you choosewill help you read faster and reduce the talking.
5.Hush it.
Press your index finger to your lips while you read as if you were telling achild to be quiet. Put your finger to your mouth anytime you feel yourself talking.
6.Mumble.
Try saying something like “1-2-3, 1-2-3” or “la-la-la” to yourself while read-ing silently.
7.Hum.
Hum a tune to yourself while reading silently.
8.Chew gum.
Try chewing three or more pieces at a time. While reading, use a rhythmicchewing motion.
9.Put toothpaste on your lips.
If you move your lips while reading, you will taste thetoothpaste and it will remind you to stop talking.
10.Silence your tongue.
Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth to reduce your talking.
Time Trial No. 2
Okay, buckle your seat belt. It’s time to evaluate your engine. The exercise below takesless than five minutes to complete.The following passage gives you the opportunity to experiment with the white card pacer. Whilereading, be aware of your daydreaming, regressing, or mental talking. Notice whether these habitsare active or passive.
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1.Time yourself.
See how long it takes to read the passage “Battling the Worry Bug” below. Writeyour total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided at the end of the reading.
Battling the Worry Bug
By John D. WhitmanWorrying is good. Worrying to a degree is even healthy. From an evolution-ary point of view, it’s probably the human ability to worry that got us wherewe are today. Since early human beings were generally unable to outrun or outfight larger, faster, sharper-clawed animals, our ability to anticipate dan-ger played a role in our survival as a species.Unfortunately, while times have changed, our instincts haven’t. Themajority of humans have far fewer immediate physical threats or concernsthan their ancestors (how many of you are, at this moment, worried about being eaten by a cave bear?). But according to several studies, the worrylevel of average Americans is increasing. At its most intense, this type of chronic worrying qualifies as an anxiety disorder.Researchers identify this syndrome as GAD, or general anxiety dis-order. Studiessuggest that GAD afflicts about one in twenty adults duringsome point in their lives. Why are some people prone to anxiety while therest of us cruisealong humming “Don’t worry, be happy”? Scientists pointto many factors.Apparently, some of us are born worriers. Researchers at the MedicalCollege ofVirginia estimate that the tendency to worry can be genetically in-herited. Those who aren’t born worriers can develop the tendency duringchildhood, either by an unsettling event or the demands of overprotective parents who give their children the impression that everything is worth wor-rying about.A related factor is an early assignment of responsibility. In one study,almost twothirds of GAD sufferers stated that as children they were givenadult responsibilities, such as caring for younger siblings. They learned thatin order to receive love they had to watch out for every real or imaginedthreat.The upshot of GAD is that worrying becomes a self-fulfilling proph-esy. As the brain worries more, it loses the ability to distinguish real prob-lems from non-problems.How to break the worry cycle?Therapists help worriers developmethods to identify moments when they worry. For example, one patientwore a rubber band on her wrist and snapped it every time she found herself worrying. Raising sufferers’ self-awareness of their mental attitudes helpsthem distinguish between when they worry about real problems, and whenthey are simply worrying for worry’s sake. No therapist will tell you that curing worrywarts is a snap, but such ef-fective therapies give us hope that GAD isn’t something we have to worry about.
➞
Mark your reading time here: _____(minutes)_____ (seconds).
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2.Respond to statements.
Immediately answer the following statements to the best of your ability
WITHOUT lookingback
at the reading. Then, estimate the number of answers you believe are correct and put thenumber in the blank provided.
Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). ______ 1. GAD stands for genetic anxiety disease. ______ 2. Studies suggest about one in twenty people are affected by GAD sometime in their lives. ______ 3. Worrying is a human instinct dating as far back as the caveman days. ______ 4. More women than men worry. ______ 5. Worriers are never born that way. ______ 6. The tendency to worry can develop as a result of giving a child adult responsibili-ties at an early age. ______ 7.The more a person worries, the less the brain can distinguish non-problems from real problems. ______ 8. More and more people are choosing to participate in anxiety research. ______ 9. E-GAD is the term used for extreme worriers. ______ 10. There are effective therapies for GAD sufferers. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten_____ .
3.Check your responses.
. If you have any incorrect, mark the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where you had a problem.
4.Figure your comprehension percentage.
Add the total number of correct responses you haveand multiply by 10.Write your comprehension percentage in your Personal Progress chart on page
.
5.Figure your words per minute.
Look at your reading time and round off the seconds to thenearest 10-second mark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page
.and find your Words per Minute next to your reading time. Write your Words per Minute in your Personal Progresschart.
6.Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date you did the exer-
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cise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoccupations, strate-gies used, and so on.
A Guaranteed Solution for Becoming a Race Contender
One of the best ways to reduce mind wandering, regression, and subvocalization is— to read faster!
By increasing your speed, your brain has less time to daydream
. You are filling it with more words — remember the 150-words-per-minute talker vs. the 400-words-per-minute thinker?— leavingyour brain less time to wander off. Your tendency to regress is reduced. And reading faster natu-rally reduces the mental whispering because you simply cannot read word-for-word when you areincreasing your reading speed.
Fast Tracks: The Process of Retooling the Engine
You will be happy to know that it is possible to take a poor reading engine and replace it with bet-ter parts to make it purr like a kitten. That’s what you’re about to do. You are going to replace some passive habits with active ones.You might have tried to read faster on your own without any formal training. Perhaps because youhad a lot to read in a short period or just because you wanted to try. You probably discovered thatthough you read faster, you missed a lot of the meaning. And at that time you probably said to your-self, “What’s the point? Why read faster if I don’t understand it?”You were actually coming to the part of retooling where people run into trouble. In the processof trying to upgrade your skills, you begin working with a new set of strategies. Ironically,
instead of getting instantly better, you initially get worse.
This is what I call
“unlearning to relearn.”
However, over time, with perseverance and repetition, your skills improve.A perfect analogy is driving an automatic car as opposed to a stick shift. Let’s say that you onlydrive an automatic car. As sometimes happens, your car breaks down. It will take at least a week to repair. You absolutely positively have to get to work for a big meeting. Your neighbor says, “Youcan use my car,” and it’s a stick shift.Now, I know some of you are thinking, “I’d rather carpoolor rent a car, anything to avoid a stick shift,” but just stay with me.You take the keys, get behind the wheel of the car, put the key in the ignition, and all of a suddendriving isn’t the same anymore.For starters, when you turn the key, the car lurches forward andstalls. You don’t know that you have to put your foot on the clutch— a third pedal— in order tostop the car from moving. To make matters worse you also have a stick shift with five numbers andthe letter R staring at you. Putting the car in reverse is now very tricky.Let’s stop here to answer a few questions. Are you a bad driver or just an unskilled operator? Areyou comfortable or uncomfortable? Are you confident or insecure? If you drive the stick shift for several days, do you think you would feel more comfortable? Probably. Would you make better timeon the second day than the first day? Most likely. After a few days might you feel more confidentin your abilities? I can assure you that by the end of the week, you will feel more willing and con-fident to drive while drinking a coffee or making a cell phone call.
In the beginning, relearning a skill you already know is frustrating and challenging. If you stick it out and continue to figureout what works and what doesn’t through trial and error, you will build the skills you are trying to improve.
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What Your Eyes Do When You Read
Find a partner who can help you with this
quick exercise.
Don’t be shy about asking but if no oneis around, you can do it later. One of you will take on the role of the silent reader while the other will be the observer. The reader should face the observer. The reader needs to select anything to read.This book is just fine or grab something from your “read later” pile.The reader then lifts the ma-terial up to just below eye height, so the observer can see the reader’s eyeballs. The reader then readssilently for about thirty seconds while the observer watches the reader’s eye movements. Whenyou’re done, switch roles with your partner.What might you see? A process similar to a typewriter. You see small jerky movements goingacross a line and you might imagine a quiet “ding”— as typewriters used to do before computers — when the reader reaches the end of the line before going on to the beginning of the next line.What you really see is the eyes
stopping and jumping
. Your eyes stop and jump on average
every quarter of a second, or four times per second.
You read, or pick up information,
only
whenyou stop. Each jump takes you from one stop to the next. And what your eyes see in one eye stopis your
eye span.
Remember the narrow vs. wide eyespan discussed earlier? If you want to learnhow to read faster, you need to see more each time your eyes stop, widening your eye span.
What’s On The Side Of Your Road?
You can
widen your eye span
and therefore read faster because of
peripheral vision
. This is your
visual boundary or what you can see on the left and right while looking straight ahead.
Though theouter area of your boundary is blurry, the inner part— the part you see when you stare directly ahead — is focused.There are two quick ways to assess your peripheral vision ability. Both methods require your eyes and your hands.
•Method 1: Finding your peripheral vision breaking point.
Stare at something directly infront of you. Raise your arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height and point your fingertips toward the ceiling. Slowly move your hands and arms apart to the sides
without moving your head or your eyes.
Your hands are
not
in focus but they are visible.When youare at the point where you no longer see your hands while staring straight ahead, since theyare now too far out of your periphery, bring them back in just enough to where you can seethem again. Now, look at how far apart your hands are.This is your peripheral vision abil-ity.
•Method 2:Discovering your eye span.
Choose a letter in the center of a line of text and place a finger on the left and right of it. Stare directly at the letter without moving your eyesor head. Slowly move your fingers apart, exposing more letters and words. Look at howmuch you see while still focusing on the letter.This is your present eye span ability. With practice, you can widen your eye span.
Turbo Comprehension: Start to Widen Your Track
In Day 4, you will learn how to widen your eye span with two specific strategies: read-ing key words and reading phrases. But right now you can get a jump start on learning to widen your eye span.
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The Eye Span Pyramid
Focus carefully on the number at the center of each line.Start with the top number and slowly jump your eyes to stop on the next number down.By focusing hard you will see the numbers or syl-lables at both ends simultaneously.It will be more challenging as you go down. Come back to thisfrom time to time to gauge your peripheral vision ability.4162625744360384169251147615817669481280928 j1r ad2bo be3toko4gr fit5moplo6isfa7tifun8janit9tip
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Phrase Flashing
This exercise is designed to help you develop a quick and accurate perception of phrases asthought groups. It also serves as an introduction to a faster reading technique called
phrasing.
Theobjective of this exercise is to glance at each phrase, completely reading the phrase as a whole.With a blank 3 x 5 index card in your hand, cover the column of phrases with the card. Thenwith a quick flick of your wrist, move the card down to reveal just one phrase and immediately cover it back up again. This exposes the first phrase of the column for an instant. Keep the rest of the col-umn covered. Predict what you believe you saw by saying it aloud or writing it down. If you’re notsure, take a guess. Then check yourself by uncovering the phrase or column. Quickly move downeach column, repeating the procedure for each line. Return to this exercise from time to time to retestyour skill. Keep track of how many phrases you get correct by putting the number at the bottom of each set.
Set 1Set 2
a success storyher purple dressmore and morestrange questionget out of handold acquaintancethe grim reaperforever and ever as they do saynow and againonce and for alllead him to dancethe other onenot my fair share bright and earlyincidentally being in fashiondo the impossiblesix months agothe nurse practitioner notwithstandingmusical revue before and afteras clear as crystalwhat time is it?old as the hills better than everan optical illusionin the meantime bacteriologicalfree information the spare tirefinished productout on strike beyond questionadd to the mixthe spare tirestake to the partyour way of lifetelecommuter Number correct outNumber correct outof twenty:_____.of twenty:_____.The more phrases correct out of twenty, the less help you will need with this technique. How-ever, if you didn’t do well, there are other ways to improve. For example, the next time you are ata light or stuck in traffic look at the license plate in front of you and then quickly look away. Canyou accurately predict what you just saw? Also try this with road signs, billboards, or writing onthe sides of trucks.
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An Important Word About Your Brain
Your eyes act as a window to your brain.
If you have been an untrained, passive reader, your eyes have been open only a crack.In the process of learning to read faster, your eye muscles haveto stretch in order to get more information to your brain in a shorter amount of time. Initially your brain will have a difficult time handling the extra load. You can almost hear it say, “Whoa! Whatare you doing? I’m not used to all this information at once!”Find comfort in the fact that your brain is constantly seeking meaning for everything it regis-ters. It is always looking to comprehend even though at times you may not think so. It takes the braina little time to figure out what your eyes are doing and, before long, your comprehension is back,or even better than before.
Start Your Engines: The Left Side Pull
In Day 1, I described the reasons and uses of “Adding a Stick Shift to Your Reading.” Youmight want to go back to this section to refresh your memory about pacers.
Initially, you may ex- perience some natural discomfort as you adjust to using each pacer but with practice it will becomemore comfortable.
When trying the eye span flashing exercise earlier in this chapter, you might have noticed thatyou were more accurate on the left side than the right. This is because you have learned to read leftto right. The Left Side Pull—today’s new pacer— helps you focus your eyes on the beginning of theline as well as keep your place reading down the text. Choose a page in a magazine, newspaper, or this book to experiment with. With an empty hand, either left or right, point your index finger nextto the left side, or beginning of the line. As you read across a line, slowly but continually move your finger down the left side of the column. As you get more accustomed to using it, try moving it a lit-tle faster.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n)_________________reader.Is your reading attitude changing?
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
If you are like most people, you have no idea how much time you actually spendreading on a daily or a weekly basis. You may know, however, by looking at your piles that you needmore time. To really make use of the information in this book, you need time to read and experi-ment with the new techniques. Otherwise they won’t work for you.It doesn’t mean you have to reada specific amount every day. It doesn’t mean you need to spend hours at a time. You probably readevery day. Think about it. You read your mail. You check your e-mail. You peruse memos, reports,textbooks, newspapers, or magazines.You can use these times to practice without making any extratime to read. Whatever you do, you need to figure out when you can fit in more practice reading.
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Look at your schedule. Decide when you can add a little reading to your day or use your cur-rent reading time to experiment. Be flexible with the time. Just do it!Day 3 will focus on learning how to improve your concentration, which is one of the most im- portant skills to reading quickly with better comprehension.
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Day 3: Revving Up Your Concentration
Concentration is the art of being focused, the ability to pay attention.Unskilled read-ers try hard to concentrate but frequently daydream instead. This is especially truewhen reading nonfiction, or factual material, such as most work materials and textbooks.According to Becky Patterson, author of
Concentration: Strategies for Attaining Focus
, there arefive basic reasons why concentration is important, especially while reading. Concentration helps you:
1.Function more productively in a fast-paced world.
Our lives are busier, our options more plentiful, and our time increasingly more precious. With-out the ability to concentrate, we fall into the trap of trying to balance a dozen things in our mindat the same time or staying so busy that we don’t even notice we are not moving forward.
2.Emulate an important characteristic of successful people.
Successful people have learned to shut out everything and zero in on a single task such as read-ing or running a meeting or making a phone call.
3.Improve the quality of your life.
Think about it: How much of your reading time do you spend thinking about the past and thefuture? Is your present going by unnoticed? Learning to focus on the present is the best way tolive life to the fullest.
4.Accomplish more in less time.
If you focus while you read, you will spend less time than if you spend your time passivelydaydreaming.
5.Tap into a deep reservoir of energy.
When you are really concentrating, you don’t feel hunger, fatigue, or boredom. Instead you arefilled with energy and don’t place limits on yourself.Do you think you are fully concentrating right now? If so, what is enabling you to do so? If not,what is distracting you? How can you develop
more
concentration? The answers to these questionsare the focus of this chapter.
Dialing In to Concentration
A car racing team’s expertise is preparing the car for a race. The process of dialing in means doinga series of activities, not just one, including tuning up the engine, changing the oil, checking the tire pressure, and so on. Lack of focus from anyone on the race team could mean losing the race.In reading, there are many conditions that create concentration. However, there are just as manyor more that derail it. You are ultimately responsible for setting up the appropriate conditions for achieving the highest level of concentration.Let’s learn how to create concentration while reading by becoming aware of what distracts youand taking control over these distractions.
Choosing What to Read
If you have a week’s vacation coming up, you have several things to think about, such as where youwant to go and why, how you are going to get there, and what you want to do.
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Just as you would mentally prepare yourself for your vacation, you also need to prepare your mind for reading. This is the first step for ensuring concentration and reading efficiency. The twomost powerful questions you can ask yourself before you read are:
1. “WHY
am I reading this” and
2. “WHAT
might I need this information for?”Your answers to these questions help you uncover your
purpose
and
responsibility
. Before Iread, I have a mental conversation with every piece of reading material. For example, let’s say thatthe next item on my reading pile is a professional journal. I place it in my hand, look over the cover,and mentally ask, “Why am I reading this?” If I cannot come up with a valid reason, I choose notto read it. If I’m not sure, I open it and quickly scan the Table of Contents. If I see an article I’minterested in, I again ask the question “Why would I read it?” I mentally answer the question. For example, I am reading this “to enhance my knowledge” or “to keep abreast of current world affairs.”You will come up with additional reasons if you remember to ask yourself the
why
question beforeyou read. Once you identify your purpose, then think about your responsibility. “What might I need thisinformation for?” or “What might I use this information for?” For example, I need the information“for a test,” “for a meeting,” “to sell my prospect,” “to help my child do better in school,” and so on.Many of my workshop participants have told me they are so amazed when they take the timeto consciously decide their reading purpose and responsibility. They say that they save a lot of time by reading only what they find useful to them. They also find that their attention is focused, whichhelps with comprehension.
Fast Tracks: Where Do You Read?
Think about the place you most often read. In your mind, visualize how it looks. Take a blank pieceof paper, any size will do, and draw a rough sketch of the location. Include everything in the spacesuch as a computer, TV, chairs, telephone, stereo, doorway, window, garbage can, and so on.When you complete your sketch, place an X in the picture where you usually sit in the room.Then circle or highlight anything in the room that distracts you from reading. Review the list of dis-tracters below and see how many you identify with when you read.
The Top Ten Reading Distracters
Here is a list of the common reading distracters compiled from my workshop participants. Be-coming aware of what steers you off track while reading is another step in ensuring better concen-tration. You may want to place a check mark next to those that apply to you.
1.Other people.
Whether you work in an office or are at home with your kids, you can be surethat other people will distract you. If you get interrupted, you lose your concentration, you for-feit reading time, you lose your place. If you are interrupted regularly, you probably becomestressed and frustrated, making it even more difficult to concentrate on your reading.
2.Telephone.
If you have roommates or teenage kids, the telephone will ring frequently. If youare at work or home alone, constantly having to stop and answer the phone will interrupt your reading time.
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3.E-Mail
. If your computer is programmed to automatically notify you that you have new mes-sages either with music or an instant message, it interrupts and distracts your reading time.
4.Faxes.
The telephone, e-mail and faxes have all become what I call “twitch factors.” It meansthat when your phone rings, or your e-mail dings, or your fax chimes, your brain twitches. For many, this happens frequently throughout the day, making for repetitive twitching. It is onething to be aware of an incoming communication. It is another to stop what you are doing toattend to it.
5.Music.
For many adults, listening to music is not something they generally do when they read,mainly because they find that as they get older, they have less tolerance for noise in their read-ing environment. Teenagers are a different story. They are convinced that they can concentratewhile listening to loud music with words. Music with words, however, is especially distracting because it reduces the number of words the brain can process while reading. It slows you down.
6.Television.
If you are trying to watch TV while reading for school or work, what happens? Doyou focus more on the reading or the television set? Some people read during commercial breaks, allowing maybe eight minutes per half hour to read. Since television is visual and au-ditory, you’re left with no other senses with which to read.
7.Location is too comfortable.
To read for pleasure, where do you like to be? On a comfy couch,in a cozy recliner, or a warm bed? When you read for work or for school, are you in any of these places? Your brain is conditioned to relax on a couch, in a recliner, or in bed and to work at adesk or table. If you are trying to work in a place the brain expects to relax, you spend more timereading less.
8.Not interested in the material.
If your reading material doesn’t grab your attention, your mindwanders to wishing you didn’t have to read that boring piece of material. Unfortunately, there aretimes, especially for work or school, when you must read things that are not of interest to you.
9.Being preoccupied.
It is difficult to read when your brain is full of other goings-on. Just as youcannot squeeze any more data onto an already full computer screen, you cannot add to a full brain.
10.Reading at the wrong time of day.
Everyone can name a time or times of day when concen-tration is easier. Some people are morning people. They are more productive and focused dur-ing the early hours of the day. Some are night owls who concentrate at night, sometimes verylate at night. As important as it is to know what time of day you are most alert, it is also im- portant to know when you are least alert. Adults returning to school find that they end up doingtheir schoolwork late at night after a full day of work and family responsibilities. If this is nottheir ideal time of day to read, they spend more time reading with less understanding. Theymay find it more effective to set their alarm earlier and read before work.
Getting on the Focus Track
For all of the distracters, there are some common sense solutions for getting and staying on track depending on your situation.
1.Squirrel yourself away.
Business people can use an open conference room or an empty officeto get away from other people as well as their own phones and computers. If you have a door to your office or room, close it. Students can go to the library or use an empty classroom to findquiet time. Parents at home could swap time with another parent by scheduling alternating playdates.
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2.Let technology work for you.
Telephone machines and voice mail are meant to take messagesfor you when you are unavailable to take the calls. Decide how often and when you will check your messages. You can program most e-mail software programs to check for messages at des-ignated times. Try starting with three times a day. Putting yourself on a schedule gives you free-dom to concentrate on other tasks.
3.Let others work for you.
To get some uninterrupted quiet time, see if you might be able to swap phone answering duty with a co-worker or housemate so you each get some time. If you are astudent working at home or in your dorm room, tell the other residents to hold your calls andtake messages until a certain time when you think you will be done.
4.Listen to Mozart.
It has been suggested that Mozart’s music or any classical music boosts con-centration and retention while reading and learning. Play it quietly in the background even whenyou work to focus your brain on the tasks at hand. It can also be very relaxing, a feeling manyneed while working. If Mozart is not your style, listen to music without words or with a sooth-ing beat. Some New Age piano or guitar can work well. Just make sure it doesn’t become a dis-tracter.
5.Move to a more appropriate location.
If you want to increase your chances of reading morequickly with better concentration— and ultimately better comprehension and retention— thensit at a desk or table. These are places at which the brain has been conditioned to work.
6.Turn off the TV.
Perhaps you can flip through a popular magazine, not a professional journal,while watching TV, but to read with serious purpose and responsibility, you should reject theTV as a companion to reading.
7.Read at your peak time(s) of day.
If you know you are most productive and focused first thingin the morning, then find a way to incorporate reading at that time. Students can help themselves by not reading at night, but instead going to bed earlier and getting up earlier the next day. Youwill read faster, learn more, and remember what you read better. Adjust your reading scheduleto meet your body’s natural rhythm.
8.Brain Dump.
If you are about to read (or work) and you have a lot on your mind, write downwhat you are thinking about. If you are concerned that you will forget to call someone, make anote about it. If you are thinking about an upcoming event you need to be ready for, write downwhat you need to do. Carry paper and pen with you at all times. You never know when you’llremember something you don’t want to forget. Also trust that your subconscious usually findsa way to solve your problem when you are not focusing on it.
9.Set a time goal.
Give yourself a realistic time limit for reading. By saying you only have a cer-tain amount of time to complete your reading, then you have a better chance of doing it withless daydreaming.
10.Take short breaks.
Contrary to popular thought, you do not need long periods of time to read.You should be able to get through a daily newspaper in as little as five minutes or as long asthirty. Remember,it depends on your purpose and responsibility. However, if you have a lot of reading to do, like college students or business professionals, then you will need to read for longer periods of time new and then.Reading for long periods of time without resting your eyes and brain can cause burnout. If racecar drivers didn’t stop during a race, they would run out of gas and wear out their tires, too. Quick breaks are essential for making it through a race. Race car drivers go into a pit lane for refueling,making adjustments, changing worn tires, and so on. The longer the race, the more breaks theyhave to take. Though it takes time, it is well worth the effort for getting to the finish line efficiently.
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Many drivers pit when a yellow caution flag is waved. This is when the race naturally slowsdown due to an accident or debris on the track. When you read, you could plan a short break for when you naturally feel your concentration waning. Research shows that concentration can last for only an average of twenty minutes while reading, so you might want to take a quick break, aboutfive minutes, every twenty to thirty minutes. Try not to wait longer than an hour for a break. Theshorter the break, the less time you lose and the easier it is to get back up to speed.By implementing some or all of these suggestions, it will take you less time to read more with better comprehension and retention. You will also immediately reduce passive mind wandering.
Turbo Comprehension Challenge: The Ten Minute Trial
When people tell me that they can read efficiently when they watch television, listen toloud music, or eat lunch, I suggest they try the ten-minute trial to test their perception of reality.
•Step 1.
Take some material you have to read. Read it in your usual place under your usualconditions for ten minutes. If you always have a lively radio station on, make sure it is on.If you always eat while you read or have the television on, continue to do so. At the end of ten minutes, write down how many pages you read, what you think you read about withoutlooking back at the pages you read, and what, if anything, your mind wandered to.
•Step 2.
Now make some changes in your reading environment, either physical or mental. Youmight change your music to a classical station, turn off the television, or refrain from eat-ing. Using the same material, try reading again for another ten minutes. Write down howmany pages you read, what you think you read about without looking back at the pages your read, and what, if anything, your mind wandered to.
•Step 3.
Ask yourself, “Which conditions allow me to read more and/or understand more?”Initially you may be distracted from a lack of your distraction. But in the end decide whichconditions have the best chance of helping you increase your reading concentration. Youhave the power to fully concentrate no matter the circumstances.
Time Trial No. 3
Now is a good time to test your engine. The following exercise takes less than five min-utes to complete. Using the ideas presented in “Getting on the Focus Track,” set yourself up in anenvironment most conducive for your concentration.In the following practice reading, you will have the opportunity to experiment with the white card pacer (see Day 1) or Left Side Pull (see Day 2). While reading, be aware of your daydreaming, re-gressing, or mental talking. Continue to notice whether you do these habits actively or passively.
1.Time Yourself.
See how long it takes to read the passage “A True Athlete” below. Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided at the end of the reading.
A True Athlete
By John D. WhitmanOne of the most moving and emotional aspects of sporting events is thechance for an athlete to become, for a moment, superhuman.
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That comment doesn’t refer to weight lifters hefting never-before-achieved weights, or high jumpers clearing bars at new heights. Some of sports’ greatest moments happen regardless of the number of goals or the speedof the winner. They happen when one player meets an impossible challenge.These moments are so incredible, so perfect, that if they were writ-ten into fictional stories no one would believe them.One of the greatest of these athletes is Michael Jordan, the former star of basketball’s Chicago Bulls. Jordan’s career is one long list of highscores, heroic moments, and highlight films. He led his team to six champi-onships in the 1990s.Fans and announcers alike speculated that 1998 would be Jordan’slast season. That year, Jordan carried the Bulls to yet another championshipseries. They faced the Utah Jazz, a team that had beaten them during all reg-ular season games.Following Jordan’s lead, the Bulls took control of the first few gamesof the series. Although they led the series 3-2 at the start of Game 6, momen-tum shifted to the Jazz, thanks to their All-Star power forward Karl Malone.But the Bulls had Jordan, and he did not like to lose. In the final mo-ments of a career full of magical moments, he proceeded to orchestrate a se-ries of moves that would epitomize all his achievements.He scored a lay-up with 37 seconds left that cut the lead to 86-85.Then, as Malone tried to take position near the basket, Jordan snuck aroundhim and stole the ball. Dribbling downcourt, the superstar hesitated for amoment as guard Bryon Russell blocked him. Jordan leaned to his left, thenturned back to his right, faking Russell almost onto his hands and knees.Open for a split second, Jordan shot the ball with 5.2 seconds left. The ballhit nothing but the bottom of the net as it sailed through the basket, placingthe Bulls into the lead. The Bulls won the game, and took their sixth cham- pionship.It seemed like too much to ask: a great player at the end of a great ca-reer, summoning all his skills for one final moment of superhuman effort.But the sports world expects greatness from athletes, and Michael Jordanliterally rose to the occasion.
➞
Mark your reading time here: _____ (minutes) _____ (seconds).
2.Respond to statements.
Immediately answer the following statements to the best of your abil-ity WITHOUT looking back at the reading. Estimate the number of answers you believe are cor-rect and put the number in the blank provided.
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Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). ______ 1. Some of the greatest moments in sports happen when an athlete meets aseeminglyimpossible challenge. ______ 2. Michael Jordan played for the Detroit Bulls. ______ 3. Before joining the Bulls, Michael Jordan played for the Utah Jazz. ______ 4. Michael Jordan led his team to four team championships. ______ 5. Despite Michael Jordan’s strong playing, the Bulls lost the first few games of the1998 championship series. ______ 6. Michael Jordan retired because he wanted to spend more time with his family. ______ 7. In the last championship game, Bryon Russell fouled out as Jordan dribbled downthe court. ______ 8. Michael Jordan is considered a super-athlete because he also playsprofessional baseball. ______ 9. Despite playing on opposing teams, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan are goodfriends. ______ 10.Michael Jordan put superhuman effort into the final moments of the last game of his career. Now, estimate how many of these answers you have correct out of ten_____.
3.Check your responses.
Turn to the Answer Key on page 116.If you have any incorrect, mark
the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where you had a problem.
4.Figure your comprehension percentage.
Add the total number of correct responses you haveand multiply by 10. Write your comprehension percentage in your Personal Progress chart on page 117.
5.Figure your Words per Minute.
Look at your reading time and round off the seconds to thenearest 10-second mark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page 119and find your Words
per Minute next to your reading time. Write your Words per Minute in your Personal Progresschart.
6.Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date you did the exer-cise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoccupations, strate-gies used, and so on.
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Focus with a Pen in Hand
Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about creating concentration while reading,here’s another set of strategies. These we’ll call the Note Making Tools. They are meant to help youmindfully locate and document the most useful material in any reading. They should not always beused because they can waste your time, especially if your purpose doesn’t warrant it or you aren’tgoing to need the information again. The Note Making Tools can be used when you want or need to:1.Refer to the information again, or 2.Quickly locate one piece of information, such as a quote or statistic.
Using a Highlighter Effectively
When it comes to using a highlighter, most people do not use it effectively. They use the highlighter as a coloring tool. They locate a paragraph they want to highlight, which is an active reading process, and proceed to cover each line with their colored highlighter. Then they may notice somewhite space between the lines, and proceed to fill in the color. Finally they see that the color isragged on the edges, so they smooth out the edges, making a colored box out of the highlighted para-graph. This has now become a passive activity.This
coloring activity
is
very distracting
and a
waste of time
. This is because this type of
high-lighting postpones learning
. If you need to learn the information in the paragraph for a test, thenyou would be using highlighting inefficiently. You will eventually
have to reread
the whole para-graph, trying
to decide why you highlighted
it in the
first place!
If you want to highlight efficiently, then
only highlight the key words
. Rarely should you high-light more than a phrase. Key words for highlighting are the words that have the most meaning inthe sentence or paragraph. Now go back to the last paragraph and read only the italicized words for an example of effective highlighting.If you feel you need to highlight an entire paragraph, use margin notes instead (see next sec-tion). The only time you should highlight an entire paragraph is when you have to document aquote. But generally you don’t ever need to highlight a whole sentence or a whole paragraph.
Creating Margin Notes
Creating margin notes is sometimes easier and more efficient than highlighting. Instead of high-lighting, use a pen or pencil and place a vertical line down or a bracket around the margin of a use-ful paragraph. Immediately reread the paragraph and decide what is most important. Then put a fewof your own key words and abbreviations in the margin. For example, if you were to put marginnotes next to the same paragraph highlighted above, the margin notes might read: “3 reasons whyineffective highlighting postpones learning.” If you had to go back over this material for work or school, you would either then pass over the paragraph because you knew the reasons or you wouldquickly review it looking for the three reasons.If you highlighted and made margin notes, youwould spend more time initially creating the notes but spend less time reviewing.
Taking Full Notes
Taking full notes is time-consuming but very valuable for learning unfamiliar material or docu-menting details. Write each heading the writer uses for new topics on the left side margin (prefer-ably three inches wide) of your notepaper and then write details on the right side. What you are
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doing is taking the reading and putting it into your own words in outline form. This works ex-tremely well for nonfiction, factual material.For fiction, taking full notes means creating a system of keeping track of the characters, plot,conflicts, climaxes, resolutions, and so on. Your system can be as simple as using index cards tuckedinto the book jacket or as elaborate as creating a notebook for it.If you are reading for pleasure, even just keeping your own cast of characters and list of eventsis useful, especially if you find yourself reading only a little over a long period of time. Note takingwill reduce your frustration with having to go back to find out who is who and what happened when.If you are reading for school and you need to know many details, including who said what andwhat happened when, it is a good idea to read a chapter and then document what you think the mostimportant characters and events are. In effect, you are predicting what the instructor may ask on a test.
Try This with a Newspaper or Magazine
Find something you have to read – perhaps a newspaper or magazine article. Experiment using ef-fective highlighting, margin notes, or full notes. See which method works best for you. Remember to take notes only if your purpose and responsibility require it. Otherwise, you are probably wast-ing your time.
Start Your Engines: The Right Side Pull
In Day 1, I described the reasons for and uses of “Adding a Stick Shift to Your Reading.”You might want to go back to this section to refresh your memory about pacers. Remember you mayfind that not all the pacers work for you. However, give each a try and stick with the ones that feelmost comfortable.The Right Side Pull, opposite of the Left Side Pull (see Day 2), is a pacer that helps focus your eyes at the end of the line and also helps keep your place reading down the text. Choose a page ina magazine, newspaper, or this book to experiment with. Place your pointed index finger of either hand at the end of the line on the right side of the paragraph. There should be nothing else in your hand. As you read across a line to your finger, slowly but continually move your finger down theright side of the column. As you get more accustomed to this technique, try moving your finger alittle faster.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n) ________________ reader.Is your reading attitude changing?
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
Becoming aware of what distracts you is not usually a one-time event. When youmake a change in your reading environment, you may find another distracter that you didn’t think about. For example, you decide to move to the company cafeteria during off hours to get some
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quiet time. You didn’t know that another department uses the room for group meetings. You nowneed to find another location.Do the best you can to ensure an effective reading environment. But be willing to change whereyou are and also to accept the fact that you are human. This means you will find times when read-ing is just not possible.In Day 4, you will learn about the three speed techniques for your eyes. They will help youwiden your eye span, taking in more words at a glance. Comprehension will be challenged, but byusing these techniques your brain will catch up. Read on!
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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, thenyou 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 havesome 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 oneword 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 thenew 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 en-gine 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 lessis “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 thattime you didn’t have enough experience to make educated guesses about their meaning from con-textual clues. If you haven’t had any reading training since elementary school, reading every wordmay still be your practice.Also, you were left with the impression that if you read every word, you wouldsurely under-stand its meaning. If you read every word now, does that guarantee comprehension? No. Is it agood 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 fromthe faster reading strategies.The method of stopping your eyes on key words is a powerful reading strategy that can imme-diately 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 andcarry the meaning of the sentence. For example, most people read the following eleven-word sen-tence 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 sen-tence 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 inyour lifetime? Do you see how the underlined words naturally carry the most meaning of the sen-
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tence? Think about what would happen to your reading if you could read, or stop your eyes on, fivewords 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 isfocusing your eyes in one glance/eye stop. In effect, you are expanding your eye span. This is whycomprehension is possible.When you start to experiment with this technique, know that there are no right or wrong keywords. 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
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 fewin a row. If your eyes stop on a word and you aren’t sure whether it is a key word or not, underlineit 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 canstimulate self-healing of similar symptoms in a sick person. The truth of this prin-ciple has been verified experimentally and clinically for the last 200 years. The exactmechanism by which homeopathy works is unknown, but 200 years of clinical ex- perience 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 un-derlined. 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 worthkeeping.The sample paragraph about homeopathy contains seventy-eight words, with about forty-fiveas key words. Count your underlines and see if you are close to this number. As you become moreskilled at locating key words, you will notice that you become more proficient at finding not onlythe longer words but also the ones that have the most meaning. You still may stop your eyes on aword like “if,” “and,” “but,” or “that,” but they are not key words. Remember, as long as you areactively seeking out the bigger, more important words, you will read faster while maintaining com- prehension. 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 keyword 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 becomemore familiar with the efficient eye movements necessary for faster reading. With a little practice,you develop a smooth reading rhythm.
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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 notmove your head: Let your eyes do the moving. Try this exercise several times as quickly and as ac-curately as you can. You can return to this exercise whenever you feel it is necessary.
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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 incredi- bly powerful drill for building efficient eye movements.1.On the inside cover of this book, or on a separate piece of paper, make a date and timechart like this one.Date Time2.Put today’s date under the date column.3.With a clock with a second hand next to you or a stopwatch, time how long it takes toread 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.
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The purposeof this drillis to disciplinethe little muscles that move the eyesfrom left to right.Incorrect habitsof readinghave frequently causedthese musclesto behavein an undisciplinedand inefficient manner.Try to makeyour eyes march aheadin threerhythmic leapsacross the line.Try to feel the tiny tugon these sixlittle musclesthat move each eye.You will notethat some phrasesare shortothers are longer.This is doneintentionally.The amountof line widththat various peoplecan see differswith the individual.In these exercisestry to groupas one eyefulall the wordsin the unit;look at a pointjust about midwayin each word group.At timesyou will feelas though the fieldof your visionis being stretched.So much the better!At other timesthe phrase will betoo short.We shall strivefor wider and widerunits as we proceed.In that wayyour eyes will graspmore and moreat a glance. Read this exercise two or three timesevery dayfor a few days.Try alwaysto cut down on the timethat it took youto read iteach preceding time.You will soon getthe knack of it.Do not letyour eyes “skid”or “slide”when you lookat a phrase.Look at itin the middle.Give it a strong,fleeting glance.See it all.in one look;then be offto see the nextand the next,and so onto the very endof the exercise.And now,how longdid it take youto 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 nowhave some-thing 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 thisknowledge to really help you push yourself on this exercise. Now read this exercise again, timing yourself. But this time
read for speed, notcomprehen- sion
. 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
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jumps across the line. Because your eye muscles were stretched out from the first time you did theexercise, the words flowed better to your eyes the second time. If you can identify the intendedrhythm 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 consistentlyread 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 tech-nique is called reading thought groups, also known as phrasing. The Discipline Your Eyes exercisealready introduced you to this method.Take a look at the following paragraph and review the thought groups. They are separated byslash marks.Phrasing/is reading/a group of words/that form a thought./By looking for/these thoughtgroups,/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 sec-ond sentence has eighteen words with six thought groups. Learning to grasp a thought during an eyestop is certainly more effective than only grasping a word at a time. Your brain will be actively en-gaged 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 aslash mark where you think one thought ends and another one begins.Homeopathy treats the whole person— physical, mental, emotional— and it treatseach 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 symptomssuch as: Is the person chilly or flushed? Is the nose running or stuffed up? Did thecold come on after stress, anger, or loss of sleep? The homeopath tries to get a com- plete picture of the person’s individual experience of the cold. Then the homeopathchooses 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 makesense. The above paragraph has ninety-five words with about thirty thought units. It doesn’t mat-ter how small or large your thought group is — just make sure the words form a thought. Imaginewhat getting into the habit of reading phrases will do for your ability to read faster. It also ensurescomprehension 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 phrasereading. However, if you continue to use the slash mark, you will reduce your speed and efficiency.
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Reading Key Phrases
Some people, like myself, have found that actually combining key words and phrases into a tech-nique I call
key phrases
is quite powerful. There is no right or wrong way to do it and really no spe-cific way to teach it. It is just an active way for the brain to read what is most important, either akey word or phrase, quickly.You can mix the two methods yourself. It may mean reading one sentence using key words andthe next using phrases. It may mean reading a key word, then another key word, then a phrase, thenanother key word, then a phrase in the same sentence. Experimenting through trial and error willhelp you figure out what works best for you.After experimenting with each of these methods, you may intuitively know which one you’dlike 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 re-duce mental whispering. However, reading in phrases, not key phrases, can encourage moretalking 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 isabout six words per line, such as a newspaper column, you will drive yourself crazy constantlytrying to wrap your eyes around to the next line finding the thought groups. Therefore, you mayfind 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 toreally push yourself to see how fast you can go. You will learn through trial and error whatworks 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 speedsand 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 Ihave explained, the faster reading techniques in this chapter need to be learned on their own beforeyou can even attempt to gauge your understanding. Hence this exercise only tests your readingspeed. You will get a preliminary idea of how efficient or effective you might be using these newtools on your engine.On the following practice reading, choose either key words, phrases, or key phrases as de-scribed in this chapter. Remember not to use your pen to underline or slash-mark anymore. You canadd in a hand or card pacer if you like. While reading, be aware of any distracters like daydream-ing, regressing, or mental talking.
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1.Using your chosen faster reading method, time yourself for exactly one minute on the fol-lowing 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 Mullan1,211 words
People have been concerned with systematically increasing reading speeds since 1925. This is when the very first for-mal Speed Reading course was conducted at Syracuse Uni-versity in the United States. But at many times in writing5history, literate people have considered how to speed up the reading process. For example, in the mid-1600s, a mannamed Antonio di Marco Magliabechi was reportedly ableto read and comprehend and memorize entire volumes at arapid rate. But while 1925 appears to be the first formal10 presentation of a Speed Reading course, much research inthe area was being conducted before that date.It was a French ophthalmologist, Emile Javal, who un-knowingly laid the foundations of Speed Reading with hiseye-movement experiments in 1878. Javal discovered that15 the eyes move in a series of jumps (saccades) and pauses(fixations), stopping on average three or four times, whilereading a line of text. It is only during those fixations,when the eyes are steady, that word recognition can occur.Prior to Javal’s work, it had been believed that the eyes20 would stop on each letter, or at least each word, while read-ing.His discovery was foundational because it demonstratedthat our field of focus (number of characters that the eyescan recognize per glance) is wider than previously imag-25ined. If our eyes can fixate on a number of words at a time“naturally,” then perhaps we are capable of reading faster than commonly believed. It did not take people long tochallenge the knowledge of the day and ask how reading rates could be improved upon. As early as 1894, articles30were being published in magazines, such as
The Educa-tional Review,
about the advantages and methods of SpeedReading.Coupled with the increased interest and desire to im- prove reading speeds was the mass public education of the35 late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time, literacyrates were rapidly increasing in the United States, which inturn prompted more people to read — for business, learn-ing, and pleasure. These increases not only generated a
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great demand for printed materials, but also prompted re-40 search interest in the area of text legibility.Legibility, for conventional print, denotes how physicalcharacteristics of written text affect factors such as visual fa-tigue, reading speed, and comprehension. While publisherswere interested in the quality and appearance aspects of 45printed materials, reading researches focused on the rela-tionship between physical characteristics of text and its effecton the outcome, visual fatigue, speed, and comprehension.The concept of Speed Reading at that time focused very littleon visual or perceptual elements, but focused more on sheer 50effort on the reader’s part in order to improve.Further advancements in Speed Reading were made byan unlikely group, the United States Air Force. Their discov-eries represent the first large-scale usage and acceptance of Speed Reading as a phenomenon, and stemmed from the 55 life-and-death experiences of their pilots. Tacticians noticedthatsome pilots had difficulty identifying aircraft from long distances. The goal of the tacticians and the United States Air Force was to improve the visual acuity of their pilots. The psychologists and educational specialists working 60on the visual acuity question devised what was later to be-come the icon of early Speed Reading courses, the tachisto-scope. The tachistoscope is a machine designed to flash images at varying rates on a screen. The experiment started with large pictures of aircraft being displayed for partici-65 pants. The images were gradually reduced in size and theflashing rate was increased. They found that, with training,an average person could identify minute images of differ-ent planes when flashed on the screen for only one-five-hundredth of a second.70The results had obvious implications for reading, andthus began the research into the art of reading improve-ment, using the tachistoscope. Using the same methodol-ogy as in the aircraft example, the Air Force soondiscovered that they could flash four words simultaneously75on the screen at rates of one-five-hundredth of a second,with full recognition by the reader.This training demonstrated clearly that, with somework, reading speeds could be increased. Not only couldthey be increased but the improvements were made by im-80proving visual processing. Therefore, the next step was totrain eye movements by means of a variety of pacing tech-niques in an attempt to improve reading.The reading courses that followed used the tachisto-scope to increase reading speeds, and discovered that read-
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85 ers were able to increase their speeds from 200 to 400words per minute using the machine. The drawback to thetachistoscope was that post-course timings showed that,without the machine, speed increases rapidly diminished.Following the tachistoscope discoveries, Harvard Uni-90 versity Business School produced the first film-aidedcourse, designed to widen the reader’s field of focus inorder to increase reading speed. Again, the focus was on vi-sual processing as a means of improvement. Using ma-chines to increase people’s reading speeds was the trend of 95 the 1940s. While it had been clearly established that read-ing speed increases of 100% were possible and had been at-tained, lasting results had yet to be demonstrated.It was not until the late 1950s that a portable, reliable, and “handy” device would be discovered as a tool to promote100reading speed increases. The researcher this time was a mild-mannered school-teacher with a passion for underachieversand reading, named Evelyn Wood. Not only did she revolu-tionize the area of Speed Reading, but she committed her life to the advancement of reading and learning development.105Her revolutionary discovery came about somewhat by accident. She had been committed to understanding why some people were natural speed readers, and was trying toforce herself to read very quickly. While brushing off the pages of the book she had thrown down in despair, she dis-110covered, quite accidentally, that the sweeping motion of her hand across the page caught the attention of her eyes,and helped them move more smoothly across the page.That was the day she discovered the hand as a pacer, andcalled it the Wood Method.115Not only did Mrs. Wood use her hand-pacing method, But she combined it with all of the other knowledge shehad discovered from her research about reading and learn-ing, and she introduced a revolutionary new method of learning, called Reading Dynamics, in 1958.120It made its debut in “Speech 21” at the University of Utah.It was so dramatically effective that students and facultyanxiously stood in line for hours waiting for an open desk.Mrs. Wood introduced Reading Dynamics to the pub-lic in 1959, having piloted the program at the University125 of Utah for a year. She moved to Washington, D.C. andopened the first Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Insti-tute. Soon, her institutes were all over the world. EvelynWood’s name became synonymous with Speed Reading.She sold the business in 1967, but continued to teach. 130Mrs. Wood died in 1995 at the age of 86.
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In viewing the various trends of the history of speedreading, it stands out quite clearly that one method usedconsistently throughout is the training of the eyes to movemore effectively. Whether it is a tachistoscope, a film-aided135approach, or the hand as a natural pacer, this element re-mains today to help increase a reader’s speed.
(Used with permission from Pamela Mullan, Assistant Professor at Onondaga Community College)
3.Now count the number of lines you have just read using the numbers in the margin toguide 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 on page 117and fill inonly your Words per Minute and the date you did this exercise. Compare your speedscores 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.
Fast Tracks: Reading Between the Lines
To help break the overlearned habits of focusing on every or almost every word on a line, youmight find it helpful to practice reading between the lines. You do this by stopping not on the lineof print itself, but on the white space just above each line. It is possible to read words only by look-ing at the top half of letters. Try to figure out what each sentence says below. The first one has thetop half of the letters covered while the second one has the bottom half covered. Which one is eas-ier to predict?Reading the bottom of words is quite challenging. The tops of letters provide shape and form for making predictions.You can practice reading between the lines anytime you read. For example, try reading betweenthe lines with the paragraph below.When you read between the lines, you become aware of a new sensation of freedom from in-dividual words as fixation points. This sensation will be uncomfortable at first but can lead to con-siderable increases of speed.Reading between the lines is a technique perfectly suited for your daily reading. You can alsouse it with key words, phrases, and/or key phrases.
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Indenting
The vertical lines you see are here for a purpose. Another technique, which for some students produces immediatespeed gains, is to shorten each line at both the left and right.That is, if the last fixation you make on each line falls at theextreme right end, there is nothing but a blank margin for your peripheral vision to take in on the right side. Similarly, if your return sweep carries you all the way to the extreme leftofeach new line, there is nothing but a blank margin to the leftof your first fixation. This prevents you from efficiently usingone or both sides of your peripheral vision.Indenting means simply stopping your eyes on the firstline about half an inch inside the left margin and ending itabout a half an inch before the right margin. The lines downthe sides of these paragraphs show approximately where your first and last fixations should fall. As a result, you can elimi-nate a total of one full fixation each line.The first several times you try this technique, you can actu-ally draw similar lines down the sides of the page as remindersto your eyes until you feel comfortable. If you are stoppingyour eyes seven or eight times a line, by cutting down just onestop per line, you can increase your reading speed by morethan 10 percent. Try it!
Turbo Comprehension: What, You Don’t Understand?
At this point in the faster reading process, you may be feeling uncertain about your com- prehension. And rightfully so. Remember the window analogy from the beginning of this chapter?The brain is overwhelmed by all the information you are feeding it.By using these strategies on your reading in the next few days, you will find that your con-scious mind begins to catch on.
Reading faster then becomes a tool to help you get the compre-hension you want.
It is possible that if I had provided comprehension questions for time Trial No. 4, you could havefared better than you thought. This is because the unconscious mind knows the answers even thoughthe conscious mind isn’t aware yet. Good comprehension depends on many factors. If ten peopleread the same thing, you could easily get varying opinions about its meaning. This is because youread with your own filters based on your background knowledge and experiences.So comprehension is made up of what is really said and how you interpret what is said. Any-one who has ever been in a book club knows about the heated discussions that ensue as a result of different minds reading the same book.Some factors that influence good comprehension include:•Knowing why you are reading and what you are reading for (Day 3).•Connecting new information to existing knowledge (Day 5).•Concentrating when you read (day 3).•Being willing to receive more information — not preoccupied (Day 3, Day 5).
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•Knowing where the author is going before you begin (Day 5).•Adjusting your reading speed according to your purpose (Day 8).•Understanding the vocabulary (Day 9).•Evaluating what was really said first, then interpreting it your own way (Day 6).•Reading actively (Days 1-10).
On the Road to Building Proficient Skills
This chapter introduces many reading methods, which I call tools. However, these tools are notskills. Skills are built over time by repetitively using tools.A familiar analogy can be made by comparing reading to golf or tennis. Pretend you are an av-erage golfer or tennis player. If your goal is to improve your game, you must learn the elements of better strokes and practice specific exercises to perfect the skill. Similarly in reading, you mustlearn the elements of efficient and effective reading and practice specific exercises to master theskill. Initially, you are acutely aware of each new movement you make. You may feel less compe-tent than before and wonder if the new moves really work. But as you persist, the intense aware-ness and feelings of awkwardness recede, paving the way for increased confidence and competence.
Another Important Word About Your Brain
Your brain is pre-wired with the neurons needed to learn language. If you watch a child developfrom infancy, you witness his or her speech development. Your brain, though innately able to learnlanguage, is not pre-wired for reading. Reading needs to be taught. You first learn how to decodeletters, then words, until the act of reading becomes automatic or procedural. Learning how to readfaster is like understanding how to decode words in a more efficient way.Pat Wolfe, an educational consultant from Mind Matters, Inc., and a specialist in brain research,says that procedural memory is sometimes called muscle memory. She says that if you use a se-quence repeatedly, eventually it becomes automatic. Eventually the sequence becomes instinctiveas you become more of an expert, leaving the brain with less work to execute the procedure. If youdo it enough times, you instruct the brain to begin the sequence, which in turn triggers your body’smemory of the procedure. In effect, you program your brain through repetition of movement andactivity. Eventually the sequence is automatic, like learning to tie your shoes, driving a stick shiftcar, playing the piano, or riding a bicycle.
Though the faster reading skills can become automatic, your brain must still be active, conscious and mindful to trigger them
. So each time you experimentwith faster reading strategies, the closer you are to becoming the master of the procedure.
Start Your Engines: The Two Finger Pull
The Two Finger Pull is a pacer that uses the index fingers of both hands. They help focusyour eyes primarily on the line you are reading as well as keep your place reading down the lines.Choose a page in a magazine, newspaper, or this book for this exercise. Make sure it is on a flat sur-face, not balanced upright in your hands. Place the index finger of your left hand at the beginning of the line and the index finger of your right hand at the end of the same line. Your fingers are now fram-ing the line of text. There should be nothing else in your hands. As you read, quickly move your eyesfrom the left finger to the right and back again, slowly but continually moving your fingers down the
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left and right side of the column. You can use key words, phrases, or key phrases to help you go faster.As you get more accustomed to the method, try moving your index fingers a little faster.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.Is your reading attitude changing?
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
When starting to use the faster reading methods presented in this chapter, I suggestyou experiment only on reading material that is familiar. Remember initially you are going for speed, so you want to make comprehension as easy as possible. In the first few days of learning howto drive a stick shift car, would you like to drive in San Francisco or Boston? Or would you rather drive on the flat, no-traffic, straight plains of the Midwest where there are no great driving chal-lenges and no surprises? In a short time, though, you would be able to navigate the steep San Fran-cisco hills or the famous traffic circles in Boston. Just get used to the mechanics of the car first.In Day 5, you will learn ways to obtain background knowledge from nonfiction material beforereading it. It will also be a priceless tool for weeding through your read later stack.
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Day 5: Reading the Road Map
Have you ever taken a car trip without directions? Imagine setting out to go some-where you have never been without having the slightest idea of how to get there. Howmight you feel? Perhaps frustrated because you don’t know where you are going, or not confidentthat you will actually reach your destination, or confused about which way to go. Not a fun trip!Do these questions reflect how you sometimes feel after you start reading?Unfortunately this scenario is very close to what unskilled readers do when they read. They ap- proach their reading like a car trip without directions. They find something to read that they knownothing about, jump right in at the first word, and continue reading until the end. They becomefrustrated because they feel obligated to read the entire thing. Remember, your elementary schoolteacher left you with the impression that you had to read it all, or else. These readers feel uncertainthat they are really understanding what they are supposed to or confused because the reading isn’twhat they had expected. It is no wonder that many people do not enjoy reading.One sure way to avoid going into any reading situation completely blind is to first tap into your background knowledge. Remember, your background knowledge consists of the unique things youhave personally learned and experienced. Each piece of your background knowledge can be con-sidered a
clue
to a reading’s meaning.
Clue In Your Brain
Race car drivers prefer tracks they have raced before and dislike new ones. This is consistent withhuman nature — because we like things we are familiar with, or have clues about. We feel morechallenged by the unfamiliar when we are clueless. If drivers are unfamiliar with the track layoutsuch as the sharpness of its curves or where the pit lane is located, they cannot mentally prepare nor focus their minds by visualizing how the race may proceed.Similarly, reading unfamiliar material makes comprehension and focus a challenge. You mightfeel like you are in the middle of a thick forest without any idea how to get out. Gaining familiar-ity with the unfamiliar is achieved by looking for clues, any piece of information that will give youa reassuring feeling that you are in the right place. Clues guide you in making decisions and inter- pretations from what you read. The more clues you have before you start reading, the faster you canread with good comprehension.So you may be wondering how you get background knowledge on a track you have never seen before? Or how do you know if you have any to begin with? The best way is to get a roadmap.
Getting the Map Before You Begin
Savvy drivers know that road maps show you the world. A road map tells you where you are, whereyou have been, and where you are going. It tells you about your surroundings and, sometimes moreimportantly, what’s not around you, like a gas station or rest stop.Securing a road map before any car trip assures a pleasant journey. A pleasant journey couldmean feeling comfortable about where you are going, confident you will make it there in a timelyfashion, and positive you are on the right road. Some people like having a map to plot the quickestway from point A to B. Others use a map to plan a leisurely trip by looking for all the scenic coun-try roads. For any reason, knowing before you begin what you want out of the trip and where the journey can take you is extremely efficient.
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When taking a “reading trip” the way to locate the road map is to use a strategy called
pre-viewing.
Pre-viewing is a conscious, specific technique of looking over a piece of reading material
before
actually reading it
.
It is a deliberate skimming process that provides you with the writer’s out-line so you know the direction of the reading before you begin. As a result you can:•Decide whether the reading is worth your time.•Establish a more specific purpose and responsibility.•Gain valuable background knowledge that helps you read more efficiently and effec-tively.Pre-viewing can be applied to any nonfiction reading, including but not limited to newspaper and magazine articles, chapters in instruction manuals and textbooks, reference guides, newsletters,e-zines, and more. This pre-viewing process
cannot
be applied to fiction, since fiction has a differentinherent structure.While pre-viewing’s primary purpose is to provide you with background knowledge aboutmaterial you have not seen before, the process also serves as:•A replacement for reading everything in detail.•An introduction to any reading.•A review process that reduces rereading.For whichever reason you use it, pre-viewing is a powerful and extremely efficient readingtool.Pre-viewing dispels the commonly held notion that the only way to read is to start from the be-ginning and read to the end. Many people believe that just because something was written and printed that they have to read every word.When you began reading this chapter, did you just start reading all the words from the begin-ning? Or did you look at anything, like skimming through the subheads, before jumping in?Reading directly from beginning to end is not always the most effective or efficient way to readany material. Instead, before you read, quickly look for important clues that help you build back-ground knowledge and establish your reading road map.Do you remember in high school or college when your instructors required you to create an out-line before you started writing a rough draft of an essay or paper? Those who graduated into non-fiction writing or editing careers still follow this sage advice. As a result,
there is an outline inherent in all nonfiction reading material.
Outlines provide the structure and organization of written ideas. Usually they summarize themain points and can be easily located in heads and subheads.Take a look at the following reading road map legends, in symbol form, and the correspondingreading clue location.
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# > > > > § T_ T_ T_ T_ § T_ T_ T_ § T_ T_ T_ < < (???)
The Reading Road Map
Road Map LegendReading Clue Location#
Name of the trip = Title> Where the trip begins = IntroductionParagraphs§ Big cities along the way = SubheadsT Towns along the way = The first sentence of paragraphs- Roadways = Paragraphs< Where the trip ends = Summary or concluding paragraphs(?) Are you sure you made it? = Questions at the end (textbooks only) Keep in mind that not all nonfiction has all these clues but most do. Apply only those that cor-respond to your reading material. Below is an abbreviated version of “The History of Reading”from Day 4 with added subheads to give you an idea how the symbols apply to reading. After youreview the passage, review the explanation for each symbol and think about how you activate your background knowledge when you look for this information.
# The History of Speed Reading>
1. People have been concerned with systematically increasing reading speeds since 1925.This is when the very first formal Speed Reading course was conducted at Syracuse University inthe United States. But at many times in writing history, literate people have considered how tospeed up the process. For example, in the mid-1600s, a man named Antonio di Marco Magliabechiwas reportedly able to read and comprehend and memorize entire volumes at a rapid rate. But while1925 appears to be the first formal presentation of a Speed Reading course, much research in thearea was being conducted before that date.
§A. Foundations of Speed ReadingT
1. It was a French ophthalmologist, Emile Javal, who unknowingly laid the foundationsof Speed Reading with his eye-movement experiments in 1878._ _ _
T
2. His discovery was foundational because it demonstrated that our field of focus (num- ber of characters that the eyes can recognize per glance) is wider than previously imagined._ _ _
T
3. Coupled with the increased interest and desire to improve reading speeds was the mass public education of the late 19
th
and early 20
th
centuries._ _ _
T
4. Legibility, for conventional print, denotes how physical characteristics of written textaffect factors such as visual fatigue, reading speed, and comprehension._ _ _
T
5. Further advancements in Speed reading were made by an unlikely group, the UnitedStates Air Force._ _ _
§B. The Advent of the TachiscopeT
1. The psychologists and educational specialists working on the visual acuity question de-vised what was later to become the icon of early Speed Reading courses, the tachiscope._ _ _
T
2. The results had obvious implications for reading, and thus began the research into thearea of reading improvement, using the tachiscope._ _ _
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T
3. This training demonstrated clearly that, with some work, reading speeds could be in-creased._ _ _
T
4. The reading courses that followed used the tachistoscope to increase reading speeds, and discovered that readers were able to increase their speeds from 200 to400 words per minute using the machine._ _ _
T
5. Following the tachistoscope discoveries, Harvard University Business School pro-duced the first film-aided course, designed to widen the reader’s field of focus in order to increasereading speed._ _ _
§C. Reading Researcher Evelyn WoodT
1. It was not until the late 1950s that a portable, reliable, and “handy” device would bediscovered as a tool to promote reading speed increases._ _ _
T
2. Her revolutionary discovery came about somewhat by accident._ _ _
T
3. Not only did Mrs. Wood use her hand-pacing method, but she combined it with all of the other knowledge she had discovered from her research about reading and learning, and she in-troduced a revolutionary new method of learning, called Reading Dynamics, in 1958._ _ _
T
4. It made its debut in “Speech 21” at the University of Utah._ _ _ T 5. Mrs. Wood introduced Reading Dynamics to the public in 1959, having piloted the program at the University of Utah for a year._ _ _
< II
. In viewing the various trends of the history of speed reading, it stands out quite clearlythat one method used consistently throughout is the training of the eyes to move more effectively.Whether it is a tachistoscope, a film-aided approach, or the hand as a natural pacer, this element re-mains today to help increase a reader’s speed.
# Title
: A nonfiction title gives you a good idea of what the reading will be about. For example:• Leadership for the Knowledge Era• Eating Out in Style• Decorating for the Holidays• Sibling Rivalry: Just a Myth?
> Introductory paragraph(s):
If you remember back at school, every essay had to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. These parts are commonly known as the introduction, the body, and conclusion. The first or first few paragraphs of any article or chapter are the in-troduction. They set you up for where your trip is heading. The introduction may be one paragraph or several. A rule of thumb is to consider your introduction over when you readthe first subhead, if there is one.If you are unsure how much of the introduction to read, begin by reading the first few paragraphs. If you are getting the idea of where the reading is going after the second para-graph, which is very possible, then stop reading and go to either the first subhead or firstsentence of each paragraph.
§Subheads:
Subheads are the big cities on your road map. They are the backbone of a read-ing outline and they give you a strong clue about what may be discussed. Subheads are oftenindicated in boldface and are generally on a line by themselves, often in larger print than therest of the text.
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T The first sentence of a paragraph:
The first sentence of a paragraph gives you the mainidea. In school it was called a topic sentence. This is probably the most important clue fromknowing what details might be covered under each subhead. They are like the main streetsof each city your road map takes you through. If you train yourself to read just the first sen-tences of every paragraph, you will be finding an important structure of the writer’s outline.Once in a while you may find that the first sentence is vague or contains an incompletethought. In that case, read the second sentence to complete the thought.
__Roadways:
Roadways are the remaining part of the paragraph not yet read. When you begin using the pre-viewing process, don’t read entire paragraphs. Being new to the process,you might be afraid you will miss something and draw yourself back into laborious word-for-word reading.
The idea is to only read those words that will give you the most infor-mation in the least amount of time.
It is only after you become comfortable with not readingevery word and confident in the pre-viewing process that you can allow yourself to read se-lected paragraphs in their entirety. The ones you select should be of interest to you as wellas only those that meet your reading purpose or responsibility. You are then effectivelyskimming, not just pre-viewing (see Day 8). <
Concluding or summary paragraphs (also abstracts):
The end of every piece of writing has a summary or conclusion. It tells you something aboutthe reading. It could be the last line of the reading or the last several paragraphs. Much re-search-based writing starts with an abstract, an entire summary of the article, usually justone or two paragraphs. It helps give the reader the background knowledge necessary for un-derstanding the complex concepts presented in the article.(?)
Questions at the end:
This is meant only for those who are reading textbooks withquestions at the end of each chapter. It is effective to review the questions
before
you readthe text because they give you your reading responsibility, or what the author intended youto know. Some people think this is cheating. I call it reading actively, fair and square.When you pre-view a chapter, you can jot down symbols from the road map legend on a sepa-rate piece of paper or in the margins of text. For example, you will recognize that the # symbol isthe title, the > symbol is the introduction, and the T symbol is the first sentence of the paragraph,and so on.There are some other places of interest on your road map worth looking at before you begin ac-tual reading. They include: •Pictures•Tables•Graphs•Charts•Captions•Bold Print•Italicized print•Bulleted points and numbered lists•Length of reading•Margin pullouts (pull quotes)•Separate articles within, sometimes called sidebars or boxes•Unfamiliar vocabulary•Author’s information•Copyright date
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•Footnotes•
Pictures, tables, graphs, charts.
By looking at pictures, tables, graphs and charts you will be able to:1. Get a quick visual clue about what the text is discussing2. Increase your reading speed. Have you ever heard that a picture is worth a thousandwords?•
Captions.
Captions usually describe an illustration or photo. They are usually located un-derneath or directly beside the visual and are helpful in clarifying the image’s meaning andtext.•
Bold and italicized print.
Try to become accustomed to using your eyes and brain to findthese different typestyles. Bold and italicized print tells you:1. When a word or words are important to the text’s meaning.2. When a new vocabulary word is introduced.•
Bulleted points and numbered lists.
If you were pre-viewing this chapter and quickly readthe bulleted points listed before this section, you might have thought, “Okay, I understand.I don’t need to read the detailed descriptions below.” Or you might have thought, “Okay, I’dlike to know why these are so important. I will read the descriptions, or selected ones, belowon more detail.” Bulleted points and numbered lists do the following:1. Communicate a lot of information in a short amount of space.2. Help you choose what you need to read in more detail.•
Length of reading.
By knowing the reading’s length before you begin, you can decide:1. How you want to manage your time by predicting how long it will actually take you.2. Whether the reading topic is worth that much time.3. If you want to save it for when you have more time.4. How you might break a longer reading down into smaller, more manageable sections.•
Margin pullouts (pull quotes).
This is a term use for anything printed outside the text inthe margin. For example, a margin pullout may give you the following:1. Quotes pulled from the reading.2. An explanation of a vocabulary term.•
Separate articles within.
Also known as sidebars or boxes, these can be pre-viewed bylooking at the subheadings and first sentences of paragraphs.•
Unfamiliar vocabulary.
Identifying unfamiliar vocabulary can:1. Help you gain a better understanding of the content before you read for detail.2. Focus your reading purpose to help you decide whether you need to define theterm be-fore you begin to try to figure it out from the context.
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3. Create your own vocabulary list with definitions before you read.•
Author’s information.
Knowing the author’s information before you begin reading can:1. Give you clues about the author’s point of view2.Tell you what experiences have led the author to his or her writing on a particular subject.•
Copyright date.
The copyright date gives you the following: 1. When was the writing written? A computer manual from 1993 is probably not up-to-date.2. A time context to date the information, indicative of the point of view. You can find thecopyright in books near or adjacent to the title page next to the copyright symbol ©.•
Footnotes.
Footnotes or references are usually found only in academic or research-basedwriting. Footnotes do the following:1. Inform you where the material originated.2. Provide more explanation about a specific topic being discussed in the text.By quickly looking for these clues, you can get the gist of most nonfiction material in a shorttime. When you add a faster reading strategy to pre-viewing, such as key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer, you have a supercharged way of getting the most background knowl-edge in the least amount of time.
Time Trial No. 5: Road Map Exercise
This exercise will take you less than eight minutes. You will be
pre-viewing “Day 6: HangingOut the Caution Flag”
for this exercise. You will hopefully find that you will get the gist withoutreading it in detail. Please read the directions before turning to Day 6.1. With a stopwatch or clock with a second hand next to you, get ready to time yourself for
five minutes
.2. Begin your pre-view by quickly reading the chapter title, then the introduction, which isthe first or first few paragraphs. Remember to use your faster reading strategies to assistyou. When you feel you have read enough of the introduction, stop reading in detail.3. Continue reading just the first sentence of the next and subsequent paragraphs.4. As you’re quickly driving along the writer’s road, notice other clues such as illustrations, bulleted points, or bold or italicized print.5. As you read, be aware your purpose is to piece together the outline until the five minutesare up. If you finish before the five minutes are up, round your time to the nearest 10second mark. For example, 3 minutes 17 seconds would be 3 minutes 20 seconds.6. At the end of five minutes, stop your pre-view.
Do not be concerned if you did not get tothe end.
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Comprehension Statements
Without looking back at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). ______ 1. A mindful reader is skeptical. ______ 2. True critical readers only look for the negative things or things they don’t like whenreading. ______ 3. There are five main categories of questions you can mentally ask while reading. ______ 4. The author engages in critical dialogue in this chapter. ______ 5. Critical people make better critical readers. ______ 6. There are more facts than opinions in this world. ______ 7. When an author develops his writing, he may use other words to support his argu-ment. ______ 8. A word can have different meanings depending on how it is used. ______ 9. Reading word-for-word guarantees you will not miss all the small important words. ______ 10. Critical readers are fast readers. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten _____ Get your words per minute by taking your pre-view time and locating your pre-view Words per Minute on page 119. Then write your pre-view words per minute on your Personal Progress chart
on page 117. Realize you did not read every word, which contributes to a faster result. If you com- pare your scores from previous practice readings, you may be pleasantly surprised by how muchfaster you read with little or no loss of comprehension. When you learn to pre-view, you spendyour time looking for the more meaningful material in the reading.Check your answers on page116. Document your comprehension percentage on your Personal
Progress chart on page 117.
Now think about your answers to the following questions:•Did you understand more than you thought?•How many pages did you get through?•Were you able to follow the writer’s outline?•Were you tempted to read every word? If so, what happened?•Did you feel more actively involved in the reading process?
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•Would you go back and read it in more detail now or do you feel you got enough informa-tion at this point?•If you did go back and read it in more detail, how might your reading strategy differ? Wouldit be faster? Would you have better comprehension?It’s likely that this pre-view test drive was not comfortable for you. It’s like putting a whole newswing into your golf or your tennis game. It may feel mechanical and shaky at first. You may beconcerned about your comprehension. In the beginning, this is more of an exercise in eye move-ment than comprehension. If your eyes can locate and read just the key information, then compre-hension will occur.Experiment with pre-viewing on all nonfiction reading material in your reading pile. Remem- ber that pre-viewing can serve not only as a replacement for reading in detail, it can also be an in-troduction or a review. In a short period of time, by experimenting with this pre-view process, youwill find it gets easier and more efficient. You may wonder how you ever read without it.
Fast Tracks: The 40/60 Line
What you find in the pre-view road map is what I consider to be the meat of all nonfiction readingmaterial. These clues give you about 40 percent of the key information. The remaining 60 percentis filler, fluff, or explanation. This means you can choose what portion of the remaining 60 percentto spend your time on. You may only need another 20 percent (40 percent pre-view + 20 percentactual reading = 60 percent), which then means you have saved yourself 40 percent of your read-ing time. You also read actively and got what you needed in less time.There is no exact order in which to pre-view the clues. It makes sense, however, to chronolog-ically follow the subheads and first sentences of paragraphs to better understand the author’s thought process. Let the pre-view clues cue your brain in to what is most important in the reading and, evenmore importantly, to learn what is of most value to you. Remember that mindfulness is the searchfor what’s meaningful to you. In pre-viewing, this choosing encourages mindfulness and makesyou feel more responsible for your outcome. This is a quality of active, mindful readers.
Turbo Comprehension: Is Getting the Gist Enough?
From the pre-view exercise, you might feel you only got the gist of the chapter. Andrightfully so. Your purpose for doing the exercise was to try to locate the pre-view clues. Your re-sponsibility was to do it for three minutes and then answer the ten statements to the best of your ability. You were not asked to recite the chapter in detail or to remember it for a test next week. Youmight, however, be able to talk in general about the chapter’s contents.For much of the reading you have piled up, getting the gist will have to be enough. You do nothave time to get more, unless your purpose or responsibility dictates doing so.
Try Using the 5W’s and H
If following the pre-view outline seems restricting, remember that you need to adapt it and makeit work for you. If you believe that the concept of getting background knowledge is a valuable one,then find the best way for you to get it, given the information in these pages.
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An additional way to ensure comprehension is to pre-view or read looking for the 5Ws’s andH; who, what, when, where, why, and how. You can get the key information by looking for the an-swers to each one of these questions.
Spend Time to Save Time
Many people initially believe that pre-viewing requires a lot of time. Explaining it takes time butdoing it is very quick. As you become more skilled, you can pre-view a two page article in less thana minute or a ten-page chapter in less than five minutes depending on your background knowledgeand purpose.Why take to time to pre-view? Let’s take a thirty-minute time frame. Say you have a ten-pagechapter that would normally take you thirty minutes to read from beginning to end. Now let’s sayyou pre-view the chapter instead, which takes you eight minutes, leaving you twenty-two minutesto read the chapter in detail. With the background knowledge you found in the eight minutes, youshould easily be able to read faster to meet the twenty-two-minute time frame. You actually arelikely to read it in less time than that because you found during your pre-view some sections youdecided you didn’t need to pay much attention to.
Scenario 1 Scenario 2
30 minutes to read from8 minutes to pre-view beginning to end + 22 minutes to read detail= 30 minutesWhich thirty minutes is a better use of your time? Which encourages more active reading and better comprehension, after which you better remember new information? Which might save youtime? The answer to all these questions is Scenario 2. Remember the value of background knowl-edge; it is great for comprehension but also for speed. A tried and true time management principleapplies here:
It takes time to save time.
Students can also use the pre-view process to
review
before an exam. This saves time by avoid-ing mindless rereading and focusing on unfamiliar areas.
Newspapers Vary the Road Map
In general, newspaper articles follow a version of the pre-view outline. However, newspaper jour-nalists generally write in an A-frame or inverted pyramid style. They place the most important in-formation at the beginning and slowly work down into less important details of the event or issuecovered. This is because if there is a late-breaking story or more advertising, editors cut the storyfrom the end, still keeping the most important details up front. So by reading more detail in the be-ginning, you get the meat of the story.Many newspaper articles contain one sentence paragraphs. This makes reading just the firstsentences of paragraphs challenging. You might try reading just the first line, not the complete sen-tence, of the paragraph to see if you want or need to read more.
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Is there Always a Map?
Over the years, I have become an expert pre-viewer. I have also looked at most of the nonfictionmaterial participants bring to my workshops from their reading piles. From this, I would ventureto say that about 98 percent of the material followed an understandable pre-view outline.If you primarily read material that has not gone through an editing process, then you will prob-ably be hard-pressed to find an outline. However, anything that has been published in magazines,e-zines, newspapers, regulation handbooks, computer manuals, and textbooks will all have the pre-view outline.If you write any material for school or work, you can improve your writing’s readability by pre-viewing your own work. See if your main ideas are in the first sentence of your paragraphs. If not, you may have buried them inside the paragraph or not even mentioned them at all. After pre-viewing your own writing, you may wish to edit your work.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.Is your reading attitude changing?
Start Your Engines: Pull Down Center
The pacer Pull Down Center works best on narrower-columned material. Choose a pagein a magazine, newspaper, or material from your read later pile that’s printed in two or morecolumns per page. Make sure to place it on a flat surface, not balanced upright in your hands. Pick either your right or left index finger and place it in the center of the paragraph under the first lineof text. Start reading on the line above your finger. Pull your index finger down the page like awindow shade. Pull it as slowly or as quickly as your eyes read each line from side to side. Try stop- ping your eyes only two to three times per line, seeing more at a glance. Remember to use keywords, phrases, or key phrases to help you speed up. As you get more accustomed to the method,try moving it a little faster.
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
It is no secret that your ability to efficiently read and learn is easier when you arewell rested, relaxed and feeling well. By taking care of yourself and your body’s basic needs, youwill find the information in this book even more effective. Here are a few health reminders:•
Find a way to get enough sleep.
Research says the average adult needs between eight andnine hours of sleep a night. If you routinely get under seven hours, you may be compro-mising your ability to read and learn.•
Add movement into your day.
By moving, you circulate and oxygenate the blood, mak-ing your brain more alert and ready to receive information. Use the stairs instead of the el-evator or escalator, park your car farthest from the store’s entrance, or if you have a dog walk it at least twice a day. If you have always wanted to get into an exercise routine, here’s an-
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other justification for doing so. If you use an exercise bike, prop reading material on a standand read while you move.•
Eat brain food.
If you are reading to learn and remember, eat foods rich with protein suchas cheese or chicken. You can also add vegetables or salad. Avoid sleepy foods such as breads, pretzels, and pasta.•
Reduce stress.
Though some stress is good, too many experience more stress than is healthy.It is hard to read with good comprehension when you and your body are feeling over-whelmed. You may find some relief byprioritizing what’s important to you. To combat thestress bug: Get plenty of sleep, learn deep breathing exercises, and take time to appreciatewhat you have, not what you wish you had.Get to know your own personal sleep requirements, exercise needs, food reactions, and stresslevels. Only you can set your reading machine up for success.You are now halfway through your ten-day trial. Day 6 focuses on an important flag — thecaution flag. There are many ways to interpret what is read, and Day 6 clarifies how to read withcaution.
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Day 6: Hanging Out the Caution Flag
When race car drivers drive, they focus on where they are going and how they aregoing to get there as quickly and safely as possible. This means they are aware of their surroundings, not what’s happening on the other side of the track. The flagman is similar to thedriver’s eyes on the other side of the track. He waves a yellow caution flag telling the driver toslow down because there is an accident, oil, or other debris on the track. Slowly the driver circlesthe track waiting for a flag to tell him it’s okay to continue. This is a valuable opportunity for driv-ers to evaluate how the race is going, rethink their racing strategy, and make any adjustments to their driving when the race starts again.When reading, you not only need to be aware of where you are going but also of what’s hap- pening on the author’s side. Effective reading is an exchange of ideas, not a one-way conversation.You are the one who converts your reading relationship from a monologue, where you are the pas-sive recipient of the author’s words, to a dialogue, where you actively ask questions and look for answers. This is considered critical reading.A mindful, active reader — one who engages in this dialogue — is also categorized as alert, ap- propriately suspicious, and skeptical. Though you can think this way while reading fiction, criticalreading is primarily meant for nonfiction or information reading.
The Mindful Side of Criticism
If your boss said he wants to speak to you and give you criticism about your job performance, youwould probably wonder what you did wrong. However, the word “criticize” means “to consider the
merits and demerits
of and judge accordingly.” Ideally, this means that your boss would talk to youabout your strengths and weaknesses.Being critical means consciously passing judgment, both favorable and unfavorable, on every-thing you see, hear and read. This sometimes is done unconsciously. For example, you go to a newfriend’s house for dinner. The minute you walk up to the door, your critical mind is working over-time. You are unconsciously evaluating everything you experience from the sound of the doorbellto how the meal tastes to the cleanliness of the bathroom. All of your experiences contribute toyour conscious opinion at the end of the evening.When you read, your mind works with the same unconscious procedure. If you can learn tocriticize consciously and mindfully, however, you will greatly improve your background knowledgeand comprehension. How do you accomplish this? By being prepared to look for the pros and consin what you read, according to you, examine and question carefully, and form your own judgmentson the content. Exercising this ability separates the excellent readers from the average ones.Restaurant critics sample foods and write about what they like and don’t like and why. Moviecritics watch movies and use similar criteria. Both share their opinions with their readers based ontheir background knowledge. Does it mean their criticism is correct? No, there is really no correctcriticism just as there is no assurance that you are right in your evaluation of an author’s words. Only
you
determine if your evaluation is correct. You base your evaluation on your own backgroundknowledge just as restaurant and movie critics do.When reading nonfiction, you ultimately want to:•Justify what you already know is accurate.•Learn something new.
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•Distinguish fact from fiction.•Change your mind if you are proven wrong.•Have the author reach a conclusion.Critical reading, then, is founded on your previous understanding of the subject matter and your current understanding of material you are reading.There are several ways to create a conscious, mindful relationship with an author when youread. They include challenging the author, distinguishing facts, and making inferences.
Challenging the Author
There are occasions when you read that you are surprised or confused about something an author says. Perhaps the author has not developed a sound argument or her reasoning seems flawed. Theseare times to use critical and mindful questioning. You may already do this but doing it mindfullymakes your reading more active and engaging.Critical questioning implies that you have a healthy skepticism about the author’s motives for the writing and its contents. It is helpful to decide for yourself whether you agree with an author,and, if you disagree, what your basis is for the criticism. The following list of questions, split intothree main categories, are valuable when engaging in a hypothetical dialogue between you and anauthor.
Questions About the Author
Let’s look at questions directed toward the author.•Does the author have experience on this topic?•Is the writer male or female? Does the gender affect the point of view?•How does the author’s background and experience affect his or her interpretation of thetopic?•What is the author’s motive?•Is the author objective, not influenced by emotions or personal prejudices — or subjective,that is, personal?
Questions About Content
Let’s examine queries about content.•What is the intended audience for this writing?•What is the author
literally
saying in the text?•What is the author really trying to say, or what is he implying? What does he mean?•Is the message clear?•Are the details factual or anecdotal?•Are the arguments and conclusions consistent?
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Questions About Yourself
Now think about you and your background knowledge•Am I familiar with this author’s work? If so, how does this previous experience influenceme?•What do I believe about the piece of reading material?•Does the information match what I know about the topic? What is different?•How does this affect what I need to know or what I can use it for?Ultimately most writers intend to influence your thoughts in some way. If they believe in some-thing, they also want you to believe it. The most objective scientific report, for example, tries to present all the data necessary for you to judge the accuracy of the report’s premise or hypothesis.Then the author hopes that you accept his conclusion based upon the data reported.
Use This Book
For example, if you take this book and have a mental dialogue with me, my goal is that you un-derstand the following information based upon the content I have provided in the book and how itis arranged to reach these conclusions. Let’s take a look at how I respond to the questions from thethree categories.
Responses from the Author
Keep in mind that my responses are solely my opinion and point of view.•Some of my experiences are stated on the “About the Author” page as well as related in personal stories throughout the book.•I am female, although I don’t think my gender greatly affects my point of view on this topic.•My background and experiences learning about and teaching faster reading permit me to beconfident about the veracity and usefulness of information in this book.•My motive for writing this book is to share how simple it is to feel more confident and com- petent while reading.•I am definitely influenced by my personal experiences as a reader and an educator. I hopeto convert many nonreaders into avid readers.
Responses from the Author About Content
See if you agree with my responses regarding the content presented in this book.•The intended audience for this book is anyone who wants to feel better about him- or her-self as a reader and wants to learn how to read more efficiently.•Literally, I am saying that if you first become aware of who you are as a reader, and thenlearn about the many ways you can develop your skills, you can read faster and improve your comprehension.•I am really trying to say that there is no one preferred way to read more quickly but many possible ways.•The only way to know which strategies work for you is to try each one and then decide.
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•The details are mostly anecdotal, sprinkled with relevant facts.•I have tried to make my points relevant, clear, and consistent.
Responses from You
•Now add in information about yourself and your background knowledge.•What do you want to believe?•Does the information match what you know base on your background and experience?What’s different?•Are you getting what you needed to know?•How can you use it?
How to Quickly Prepare for a Business Meeting
Picture this: Your boss tells you that the forty-five-page report you received two weeks ago is goingto be the focus of a meeting in twenty minutes. You knew about the meeting but didn’t know thisreport would be discussed. You haven’t even looked at it. What do you do? Here are a few sug-gestions to help you apply your speed reading skills in a time crunch.•
Pre-view.
Sometimes you may only have enough time to pre-view. But remember you canget at least 40 to 50 percent of the main points using this strategy. The remaining 50 to 60 percent of the document is usually explanation and elaboration. Look for the writer’s out-line, if there is one, and, of course, make sure to get the most salient points by reading theintroduction, first sentences of paragraphs, and conclusion, and by reviewing any graphics.•
Look for key words and key phrases.
If time allows you to read in more detail after your pre-view, then put key words, phrases, or key phrases into play. Using your fingers or thewhite card pacer (remember: top down) will force you out of the tendency to read word-for-word and help speed your work.•
Think critically.
First, understand what the author really said and the conclusions the au-thor came up with. Get the facts by looking for the answers to the 5W’s and H (who, what,when, where, why, and how). Second, quickly come to your own conclusions based on whatyou know about the subject and how it relates to the purpose of the meeting.Many of my workshop participants have told me they have used these strategies and have lookedreally good in their employer’s eyes.
Fast Tracks: Distinguishing Facts
A true dialogue is not one-sided: Just as you have the right to question the writer’s motives, the au-thor has the right to have you question your own motives and examine your own unacknowledged preconceptions.Many people have a hard time identifying facts. In my classes, I do an exercise where I give the participants the definition of the word “fact.” Then I ask them to come up with as many facts as theycan about a toy, one of the props I use while teaching my class. From about twenty-five responses,maybe only two or three end up being true facts. The remaining responses are opinions, inferencesor biases.
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It is a fact that there aren’t nearly as many facts as there are opinions in this world. So when indoubt, it is probably an opinion. It is a natural human tendency to be emotionally committed toyour own view because it’s yours. A strong reaction to an author’s statement, either positive or neg-ative, is a clear sign that a bias or a subjective point of view may be at the root of it. Being awareof your opinions, inferences (see below), and biases represents a comprehension challenge everytime you read.
Making Inferences
Though you may have heard this already, it is worth repeating: Do not believe everything you read!Just because it’s in print doesn’t mean it’s true. Whenever the media run articles on myself or my business, I am thrilled for the exposure but dread the one inevitable misquote or other inconsistencya journalist may write as a result of our interview. A well-meaning newspaper reporter tried to quoteone of the participants in one of my classes. I have changed the participant’s name but the quote isaccurate.“I read word-for-word very slowly. I’d read a sentence two, three, even four times.My comprehension was terrible,” says Ford.That was four weeks ago. Now Ford reads at 260 words per minute and her comprehension level is 80 percent.The reader infers that the progress was good but unfortunately the words per minute and com- prehension level quoted was the participant’s beginning benchmark instead of her ending averageof 580 words per minute with 85 percent comprehension. A big difference.Two or more people can read the same piece of material and each will have a different inter- pretation of its meaning. This is the true difficulty of gauging accurate comprehension. People make
inferences
or settle on what they think are logical conclusions based on what they assume is true,given their own background and experiences.The most intelligent action you can take as a reader is to first read the material and, before in-ferring its meaning, ask yourself, “What did the author
really
say here?” Avoid jumping to imme-diate conclusions. Take a mental step back, look for the stated facts, then make your inference basedon the evidence presented.
Reviewing Your Notes
Students, business professionals, politicians, and teachers are some of the people who may need toquickly review a set of notes they have made before a meeting, class, or presentation. If you know beforehand that you will want to do a speed review of your notes prior to a presentation or test, for example, you can better prepare your notes for easy review. Here’s a two-step process that canmake the task easier.First, go back to “Focus with a Pen in Hand” (Day 3) and review the three useful note-takingstrategies: effectively highlighting key words, creating margin notes, taking full notes. By using anyor all of these, your notes will be easy and fast to review.Second, use various pen colors while making notes. Any color pen will work. For example, usecolored pens to show idea transitions or highlight key words. Use different colors to draw quick pic-tures or graphics to represent the ideas you want to remember. When you review your notes, your eyes will be drawn to the colors and your brain will remember the information better.
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Time Trial No. 6
It’s time to test your engine. It should take you five minutes or less. On the following practice reading, experiment with some of the information you have learned about. Try using keywords, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer. Ensure an appropriate environment for uninterrupted suc-cessful reading.1.
Pre-view the reading first.
Time yourself for a maximum of only thirty seconds, allowingyourself to quickly look at the introduction, the first sentence of the paragraphs, and thequestions you will be answering.2.
Time yourself.
Now see how long it takes to read the passage “It’s All Relative” below.Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided at the end of the reading.
It’s All Relative
By John D. Whitman
In one sense, the twentieth century really began in 1879 in the town of Ulm,Germany. That year witnessed the birth of Albert Einstein, whose work would overturn the world of physics.By 1886, Einstein’s family had moved by Munich, Germany, andEinstein continued his education there. When the family moved to Milan,Italy, in 1894, Einstein elected to remain behind. He tried to enter a schoolfor electrical engineering in Zurich, Switzerland, but failed the entranceexam. Undaunted, Einstein entered a secondary school, where in 1900 hereceived a teaching degree in mathematics and physics.He tried once again to enter a university, but again he was rejected.With the help of a friend, he obtained a job as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzer-land. In that patent office, working in his spare time without close contact toany of the other great minds in physics, Einstein changed the world.By 1905, Einstein had written three papers. Of these, the second wasin many ways the most famous. It became known as the Theory of Relativity.With this paper, Einstein tackled an idea that had nagged at him for years. It had already been proven that light always travels at the same speed.But what happens, Einstein asked, if we chase after a ray of light while weare traveling at the speed of light? We might guess that the light we’re chas-ing would seem to stand still, or at least move more slowly, since we’re goingat the same rate. But Einstein proved that this was incorrect. Even if youcould go that fast, light always seems to be moving away from you at thespeed of light. This notion broke every rule of physics known at the time.This discovery confirmed that many of the laws of physics aren’t setin stone. Instead, Einstein’s discovery seemed to point to the fact that lawsgive different results depending on where the observer is standing or how fasthe is moving. In other words, results are only meaningful relative to your po-sition in space and time. Nothing is fixed. It’s all relative. Einstein submit-ted his paper to the journal
Annals of Physics,
which was edited by MaxPlanck, one of the men whose work Einstein had used to create his own the-
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ory. Reading through the document, Planck realized that, quietly and calmly,Einstein had turned the scientific world on its head.
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Mark your reading time here: __________ (Minutes) __________(seconds).3.Respond to statements. Immediately answer the following statements to thebest of your ability WITHOUT looking backat the reading. Estimate the number of answers you be-lieve are correct and put the number in the blank provided.
Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed(N). ______ 1. Albert Einstein is best remembered for his work with physics. ______ 2. Einstein was born in Germany. ______ 3. Einstein was able to get into any school he wanted. ______ 4. Einstein received a degree in teaching. ______ 5. When Einstein worked in the patent office, he learned a lot from other scientists. ______ 6. Einstein married three times. ______ 7. Einstein’s most famous work is his Theory of Relativity paper. ______ 8. Einstein set many laws of physics into stone. ______ 9. Einstein’s theory of comparativity states that a body in motion perceives light dif-ferently than a body at rest. ______ 10. Max Planck was a close relative of Albert Einstein. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten _____ .4.
Check your responses.
Turn to the Answer Key on page 116. If you have any incorrect,
mark the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where youhad a problem.5.
Figure your comprehension percentage.
Add the total number of correct responses youhave and multiply by 10. Write your comprehension percentage in your Personal Progresschart on page 117.
6.
Figure your words per minute.
Look at your reading time and round off the seconds to thenearest 10-second mark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page 119and find your
Words per Minute next to your reading time. Write your Words per Minute in your PersonalProgress chart.
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7.
Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart on page 117and makesure you’ve recorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date youdid the exercise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoc-cupations, strategies used, and so on.
How to Read Challenging Newspaper Articles
Many slow or bored readers tend to skip over the more challenging newspaper articles such as op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, or lengthy features that are newsworthy or of interest but not as pressing as the front page news. Readers sometimes need more time for these pieces either becauseof length or the readers may lack background knowledge about the topic. One example is the
NewYork Times Sunday Magazine,
which typically does not include subheads or natural breaks in itslengthy articles.
Op-ed Pieces and Letters to the Editor
Op-ed (opinion-editorials) pieces are written by newspaper columnists or specialists in a par-ticular field. They present a point of view on a subject generally meant to persuade the reader tothink about their position on an issue. Letters to the editor are written by the general public. You cantry to pre-view both types of articles but you may find it challenging. Many times they are writtenin the first person (using “I”), making it less reportorial and more in the style of a personal opinion.The writing styles vary and are not edited the same way features or breaking-news stories are.Read the first few lines to get a feel for the writer’s position, then skim your eyes down the textlooking for content-related key words. Use the speed techniques of key words, phrases, key phrases,or pacers to speed your eyes down the text. Try to gauge the author’s emotions and what his pointof view is. For example, letters to the editor about charter schools will probably have a certain per-spective depending on whether the letter writer is a school principal or a parent.
Lengthy Articles
Lengthy newspaper articles may appear intimidating, especially if you just want to get the meatof the story. Unless you are making a presentation or writing a report about what you read, how-ever, you can get away with not reading the whole article word-for-word. Reading the introduction,the first sentence of each paragraph, and the conclusion provides you with significant content with-out all the description and filler information. Then select which paragraphs you want to read intheir entirety and which paragraphs you want to skip altogether. Remember to use key words, phrases, key phrases, and pacers to move your eyes along.
Reading Articles Full of Jargon
I would venture to guess that if you own a computer, you have bought and attempted to read a com- puter magazine. After all, you want to understand how the computer works and how to maximizeits use. You may have discovered that computer magazine writers typically do not write for thenovice user but rather the information technology specialist or computer expert. No matter howhard you try, your comprehension of the articles is limited because of all the jargon, especiallyacronyms like HTML and JPEG.
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A similar situation arises in the health field. Although there is much health information in mag-azines, journals, and on the Web, interested or curious non-medical professionals have a hard timeunderstanding the text. What is a reader to do? Go to medical school?First, understand that you are not unintelligent, rather, you just lack the necessary backgroundknowledge. You can’t be an expert in everything. Fortunately, one great way to get backgroundknowledge (without going to school) is to be persistent and trudge through material, knowing youmay only understand 10 to 20 percent. You will probably find the repetition of ideas and conceptsover time increases your comprehension. If you see an idea or theory discussed enough in differ-ent contexts, it may start to click. If you are not comfortable with only 10 to 20 percent compre-hension, then try these strategies:1.
Pre-view.
I’ll say it once again — pre-view! This is a great way to gain preliminary back-ground knowledge. Once you have background knowledge, then you can read in more de-tail with greater understanding.2.
Look at different sources.
If you go to
The New England Journal of Medicine
to read abouta diabetes study without much medical or content knowledge, you will not learn a lot or enjoy your reading. Instead, locate material on diabetes that is written for the general pub-lic, by the American Diabetes Association, for instance. After a while, you can graduate tothose more challenging trade journals in the topic area you’re interested in.3.
Keep a jargon notebook.
If you really want to become well versed in a particular subject,then keeping track of the jargon will give you a personal dictionary for study, review andreference. In the notebook, write down acronyms and new words on the left margin of your paper. Then try to determine their meaning (either from the content or a dictionary) andwrite it next to the term. (Acronyms and jargon are usually defined the first time they areused in a reader-friendly article.)4.
Use speed techniques.
Once you find information on your level, use your speed techniquesto quickly help you get what you want without wasting valuable time.
Turbo Comprehension: Nine Guidelines for Critical Reading
From the nine guidelines below, choose several or all of them you want to remember andwrite them down. Tape the paper on a desktop where you read or post it on a wall nearby. By re-minding yourself of these guidelines, you increase your comprehension and understanding of theauthor’s message while becoming a more critical reader.1.Be open-minded about new ideas.2.Don’t argue about things you know nothing about.3.Know when you need more information.4.Be aware that people have different ideas about the meanings of words.5.Know the difference between something that must be true and something that might be true.6.Avoid hasty generalizations.7.Question anything that doesn’t make sense.8.Separate emotional and logical thinking.9.Develop your vocabulary in order to understand others and to make yourself understood.
(From
Critical Thinking Book 1
, by Anita Harnadeck, Midwest Publications Co., Pacific Grove, California, 2976. Adapted by Louise Loomis,director of The New England Cognitive Center, Hartford, Connecticut. Used with permission.)
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Critical Thinking: Engage the Author
Throughout this chapter, I have discussed several ways to hone your critical reading skills. Another way to become a more critical reader or increase your knowledge base is to correspond with an au-thor. For example, let’s say an article strikes your interest. By the end of the article, you either likeor dislike the author’s point of view. Since you are already having a mental conversation with theauthor concerning your likes and dislikes and/or questioning her point of view, why not engage her in person? I’m not saying to actually meet her, though sometimes it may be possible, but rather toget in touch with her via e-mail or letter.As an author, I enjoy receiving communications from people who have read my articles or books. The communications range from kudos to negative criticism, and often there are questionsabout information I have included. This feedback helps me know more about my audience. Usu-ally, I correspond with an individual once depending on the inquiry, sometimes more. Keep in mindthat while not all authors will be as receptive, most do write back to their readers to share their ex- pertise, raise their profile, or generate public interest in their field.As a reader, I have corresponded with authors on several occasions when I have found an au-thor’s work stimulating and interesting. From their responses, I have learned more about their work and have found more resources in the same content area. In turn, this has increased my backgroundknowledge. This process enables me to read an author’s work critically and with increased com- prehension.
Start Your Engines: The Pen Push
There are two ways to perform the pacer known as the Pen Push. Choose a page in amagazine, newspaper, or this book to experiment with. Make sure it is on a flat surface, not balancedupright in your hands.The first method is
pen down
(the other is
pen across
). Take a closed top pen, not a pencil, and place it vertically on top of and in the center of the paragraph you are going to read. Your eyes area line or two under the pen tip. Push the pen down as you begin reading, stopping your eyes onlytwo, maybe three, times on each line, seeing more at a glance. Remember to use key words, phrases,or key phrases to help you go even faster. As you get accustomed to the method, try moving the pena little faster.In the pen across method, you place the pen in a horizontal position above the line you aregoing to start reading. Cover the words you already read and leave open where you are going. Thisis similar to the white card method.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.
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Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
Leaf through a magazine looking for advertisements. Choose one and create a men-tal dialogue with the advertiser. What is he trying to tell or sell you? How does hedo it? What do you think his hidden strategy is for getting you to buy? The more you practice this healthy skepticism, the better you will become at asking thought-provoking questionsin other reading contexts. Your answers will help you become a more informed, critical reader.Day 7 will continue to give you tips and strategies on how to take a large pile of reading mate-rial and select and make decisions based on its value, your time, and interest. You will also learn howto control the incoming flow of your reading material so it becomes more quality, not quantity.
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Day 7: Reducing the Pileup
Pileups are possible during any car race. This may happen because several cars are try-ing to maneuver out of the way of a slower car, the conditions on the track make for slippery driving, or there are just too many cars grouped together. These reasons are similar to whyyou might have a reading pileup: You may be reading too slowly, not reading on the best track, or feeling daunted by the amount in your reading pile.You may be in a reading pileup situation right now. And you would probably like to know howto get out of it and how to avoid getting into it again. But before we get into the solutions to this problem, it’s good to know why a reading pileup occurs.
Personal Contributors to the Reading Pile
Over the years, I have uncovered several popularly held attitudes and misconceptions that ulti-mately contribute to the increasing height of a reading pile. They are:•I’ll get to it later.•If I am reading, then I am not working.•I need to read everything I receive.•I need to remember everything I read.•I need this for my professional or personal development.Let’s look at each of these attitudes and misconceptions a little more carefully.•
I’ll get to it later.
When you receive reading material, usually you don’t have time at themoment to stop what you are doing to read it. So you may put it on a pile called “later.” Yousay, “Oh, I’ll get to it later.” But “later” rarely comes and the pile only gets bigger.•
If I am reading, then I am not working.
After working with business professionals for sev-eral years, it became clear to me that many of them feel as if reading isn’t part of their jobduring work hours. It’s something they still need to do but they are not comfortable readingat work. They believe that reading at work looks like they are goofing off. Though in all like-lihood no one’s boss ever said that reading wasn’t allowed at work, many employees believethat the boss would prefer them to read outside work hours. Where better, though, to getgreat business ideas and ways to stay current or surpass the competition than through rele-vant reading?•
I need to read everything I receive.
People believe they need to read everything that comesin the mail or enters their in basket or e-mail box. If you act accordingly and really read itall, you will not have much time for the rest of your life! Reality dictates that you do not needto nor should you read it all.•
I need to remember everything I read.
This comes directly from school experience. After all, you were tested on everything you read, right? In the real world, however, you are notofficially tested on everything you read unless you are a student. You are sometimes re-sponsible for sharing what you read with others but mostly what you comprehend fromreading is for your own personal or professional benefit.Many untrained readers continue to approach their reading just like they did when theywere in school: They try to memorize everything before they even know what the reading
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is about. The process of memorizing in and of itself is a mechanical process of trying to im- print information on the brain for short-term recall. Whatever information is studied is onlyavailable to you for a few days, at most.After several days, the details are almost all for-gotten. It makes for an unnecessarily slow, tedious, and unrewarding experience for mostreading requirements you have.The absolutely best way to remember what you read is to create an excellent retrievalsystem either electronically or on paper. This takes the pressure off feeling like you have toremember everything. Most times, you don’t know which information is needed or when itwill be used. It is unrealistic to believe you can recall in detail a piece of material you reada few months ago or last year. For the material I read that I suspect I will need in the future,I pre-view it, then read only those sections that interest me. I then effectively highlight it,identifying only key words, and/or write notes in the margin. Finally, I file it away in a la- beled folder. I am thrilled when I go back to the folder, magazine, or book at a later time,and though I may not remember reading it, I see my highlights and margin notes. I havesaved myself time and energy by having this memory system.•
I need this for my professional or personal development.
If you want to continually im- prove yourself you should use reading as a means for learning. However, you don’t need togather and read everything ever written on a topic. When I became pregnant with my firstchild, I began searching for related magazines and books on parenting. Trust me when I saythere is a massive amount of information out there. To narrow it down, I spoke to friendsand experienced parents and found out what they had read. I went to the library and to the bookstore. I pre-viewed books on the shelf to find those that spoke to me, then I read justthe parts that interested me. I became more confident about parenting just from what I choseto read; I certainly didn’t need to read everything written on the topic to feel this confi-dence. As a sole proprietor of a business, I not only have to be an excellent speaker and trainer, but I also need to know how to use and maintain a computer, keep track of my income andexpenses, organize my office, manage accounts receivable and payable, market and sell myservices, and so on. I attribute most of my business success to what I have learned fromreading selectively. You, too, can learn more in less time by reading.
Fast Tracks: Triage Your Reading Pile
Your reading pile can benefit from what emergency room physicians do every day – triage incom-ing patients. This means they sort people into groups based on their need for immediate treatment.You, too, can prioritize and select your reading material from highest to lowest priority using var-ious methods.To start, do you know what’s actually in your pile? Where does it all come from? You need toknow what you have before you know what you can get rid of. Review the six strategies below andsee which ones you think you can use right away.1.
Unsubscribe and get off distribution lists.
If you receive unsolicited e-mail newsletters,follow the simple directions at the end of the communication to get off the mailing list. If you are on a distribution list, either electronically or on paper, find out how to get off. Themore you unsubscribe, the less unwanted or unnecessary reading material you receive.
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2.
Pre-view everything!
Remember that pre-viewing (Day 5) is a great weeding tool. Usingthis technique, it takes only a short time to decide whether a piece of reading material isworth your time and what to focus your attention on.3.
Photocopy or cut out articles.
When reading material such as magazines or professional journals arrives, quickly pre-view the table of contents to locate just the articles you wantto read. If time does not permit you to read them at that moment, cut or tear the article outor photocopy it and discard the magazine. A small pile of handpicked articles is much moreappealing to tackle than a huge stack of magazines or newspapers.4.
Use self-adhesive notes.
Instead of earmarking pages, bending the corner of the page down,which then gets unbent most of the time, place a self-adhesive note so it sticks out of the topor side of the pages you want to return to. You can write the topic or a few key words on thenote for easy referencing.5.
Keep a table of contents notebook.
If you receive a professional journal or even somethinglike a food magazine that you like to keep for referencing, then photocopy the table of con-tents. Place it in a notebook according to the date. If you have more than one journal or pub-lication, place a divider in the notebook separating the contents. When it comes time to look for a specific topic or piece of information, you save time by flipping through the notebook instead of each individual journal or magazine.6.
Throw away junk mail.
When your mail arrives, stand over the trash can. Look at the re-turn address and postage. Immediately throw away any solicitations you know you don’twant. If the stamp or postage is less than twenty-one cents, then it was mailed bulk rate andis probably something you didn’t ask for and don’t want.Try writing to this address to remove your name from unsolicited mailing lists. Include your name, home address, your polite request, and your signature.Mail Preference ServiceThe Direct Marketing AssociationP.O. Box 9008Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008In about three months, you should see a reduction in the unsolicited mail you receive at home.For more information, contact the Mail Preference Service at the address above for their consumer tip sheet. You can also check out www.privatecitizen.comfor more options to reduce junk mail, or
register with Junkbusters at http://www.junkbusters.com.
To get your name removed from all the current lists sold by the big three credit-gathering or-ganizations(Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian— formerlyTRW), call a program called OptOutat their automated toll-free number: 1-888-567-8688. You will probably still get some junk mail,however, as companies and organizations who previously purchased your name from these andother lists will not necessarily be notified.
Finding Time Nuggets
Making time to read is a great way to decrease the size of your reading pile. But there are only 24hours in a day and you may believe that each hour is accounted for with sleep, work, school, er-rands, and so on. You may want to take a closer look. Some people think it’s impossible to make
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more time in a day. Not true. What it really takes is accurate tracking of how you spend your timeand reflection about how you want to make the most of your time.I always devote one segment of my workshop to time management. During the discussion, I sug-gest to my participants that they complete a Daily Time Log for one week. You can create a DailyTime Log by taking a piece of paper and writing down one side of the paper fifteen-minute or thirty-minute intervals, from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night. Of course, each day may be different. For example, let’s say you get up at 6:00 and leave for work at7:15. Your time log should indicate what you did during that hour and fifteen minutes, such as get-ting up, showering and dressing, preparing and eating breakfast, and five minutes of reading thenewspaper. Throughout the day continue to write all your activities such as commuting time, meet-ings, appointments, time spent watching TV or talking on the phone, and so on.Although you already feel the constraints on your time from career and personal obligations, itis well worth your time to perform this exercise for one week.Once your week is completed, try to determine how much time you spent doing each activity.Some areas you may have to calculate include the number of hours you spent sleeping, preparingand eating meals, commuting, watching TV, surfing the Web, or doing housework. When you aredone you will have a clearer picture of how your time is spent. If the total falls under twenty-four hours, try to figure out where the rest of the time went. Now look at your log. Is your time being spent how you want it to? Or is there too much timespent doing activities of little interest to you? Ideally, when you look at your log, you should feelhappy and satisfied that your time is being well spent.To find more reading time, review your log and look for the following:•
Unaccounted for time.
This is the most logical place to build in more reading time.•
Time-robbing activities.
For example, watching TV, talking on the phone, or surfing the Net. You may want to spend less time doing these activities in order to create more time for reading.•
Time when you can multitask
.For example, you can read while commuting or waiting for meetings to start or appointments to arrive. Remember to always carry reading materialswith you, since you never know when you’ll have a few free moments.•
Time you may have set aside to read but that is not the time of day you feel most alert
.You can read more in less time just by planning to read at the times when your brain is mostawake.•
Time you think you can squeeze in a few minutes
.If you usually eat lunch in a cafeteria,which is often noisy, you may want to eat at your desk or find a quieter place so as to be ableto include some reading.Finding time to read does not mean you have to schedule it at the same time every day. It meansreading whenever and as often as possible. My husband, who is a certified financial planner, re-ceives a lot of newspapers and magazines on a regular basis. Keeping abreast in his field is impor-tant to him and his clients. What seems to work well for him is that about every two weeks(sometimes it ends up to be once a month) he gathers all his reading material together and spendsa few hours going through whatever he hadn’t had the chance to look over during the course of thetwo weeks. When he emerges from his reading session, I can see the satisfaction on his face as hecarries his small handful of torn-out articles (the keepers) and puts the rest in the recycle bin.
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Time Trial No. 7
Once again it’s time to test your engine. It should take you five minutes or less. On thefollowing practice reading, experiment with some of the information you have learned about. Tryusing key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer. Ensure an appropriate environment for uninter-rupted successful reading.1.
Pre-view the reading first.
Time yourself for a maximum of only thirty seconds, allowingyourself to quickly look at the introduction, the first sentences of the paragraphs, and thequestions you will be answering.2.
Time yourself.
Now see how long it takes you to read the passage “The Ties That Bind” below. Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided at the end of thereading.
The Ties That Bind
By John D. Whitman
“Nice work on this,” Gilchrist said. He leaned back against the round tablewith the ease of a man who owned not only the furniture, but the buildingthat housed it.“Thanks, Mr. Gilchrist.”“You know, I gotta tell you, when you first came on board, I had myconcerns. I knew you had the wife, two kids.”The wife. The two kids. At the office, Max’s thoughts were only of business, and the unexpected mention of his home life jarred him.“I mean, you’ve gotta have those commitments, they’re the mostimportant thing,” Gilchrist admitted. “But you’re the only family man onthe fast track here, and I was afraid your focus…”“I’m lucky enough to have a family who supports me,” Max inter- jected.“Good, because I’m looking around for a number two, Max, and itmight be you.”Max floated back to his office, riding those words like winged san-dals. He picked up his phone and pressed 1 on his speed dial.“Twentieth Century Fox. Joan Kelly’s office.”“Is the twenty-first-century fox in?” he asked.The voice on the other end smiled. “Hey, Mr. Kelly. One minute, please.”Max heard a click that indicated he was being forwarded. Joan pickedup and said “Hi” from her car phone. “How’d the meeting go?”“Supercalifragilistic,” he said. “The old man is dropping hints.”“You’re a star,” Joan said.“But it means follow-up. I think I’m going to be late.”Pause. The sound of the world rushing by, another world somewhereat the other end of the digital connection, a world with other problems, other
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deadlines, their enormity communicated only by the length of the pause andthen two words. “The kids.”“I know,” he said. “But I don’t think I can make it if I’m gonna getthis report done. Can you go?”Another pause. At the other end of the line, Joan Kelly was hurtlingthrough the Cahuenga Pass, leaving Burbank, heading to a lunch meeting atCitrus. In the gaps between the billboards and apartment buildings, shecaught glimpses of sun-baked grass on the hillsides. The trees looked ar-chaic, like something out of her elementary school history class. She’d stud-ied California history when she was a kid. She drove past the AmericanLegion Hall with its cannon in the front, and recalled that Cahuenga Pass in1845 had been the site of Los Angeles’ only battle.She sighed, surrendering. “I’ll try.”
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Mark your reading time here: ______ (minutes) ______ (seconds).3.
Respond to statements.
Immediately answer the following statements to the best of your ability WITHOUT looking back at the reading. Estimate the number of answers you be-lieve are correct and put the number in the blank provided.
Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False, (F), or Not Discussed (N). _____ 1. Max’s boss does not have a family. _____ 2. Max’s boss is concerned that Max’s fast track career might be derailed by his family. _____ 3. Max has a wife and three kids. _____ 4. Max’s last name is Gilchrist. _____ 5. Number 1 on Max’s speed dial connects him to his wife’s office. _____ 6. Max’s wife works as a secretary for Twentieth Century Fox. _____ 7. It can be inferred that Max’s wife has a busy career of her own. _____ 8. Max’s boss told him he couldn’t attend his kids’ after-school event. _____ 9. Max’s wife wishes she hadn’t given the housekeeper the day off. _____ 10. Max feels lucky to have a family that supports him. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten______.
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4.
Check your responses.
Turn to the Answer Key on page 116. If you have any incorrect,mark the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where youhad a problem.5.
Figure your comprehension percentage.
Add the total number of correct responses youhave and multiply by 10. Write your comprehension percentage in your Personal Progresschart on page 117.
6.
Figure your words per minute.
Look at your reading time and round off the seconds to thenearest 10-second mark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page 119and find your
Words per Minute next to your reading time. Write your Words per Minute in your PersonalProgress chart.7.
Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date you did the ex-ercise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoccupations,strategies used, and so on.
Tips on Finding Time Nuggets While Waiting
How many times do you find yourself waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in a doctor’s of-fice? These are two great examples of time pockets to make more reading time. For example, hereare some pointers to help you speed-read a magazine during a time pocket.•Choose your magazine based on either the title or the cover articles.•Of course, choose the one that holds the most interest for you.•Quickly review the table of contents looking for the cover articles that interest you. Also,look for other articles you may want to look at if time allows.•Turn to the first article that interests you. Then pre-view it. Read the first paragraph or two,then read the first sentences of paragraphs. Look at illustrations, captions, and other fea-tures such as sidebars or boxes that stand out. Depending on your time, decide whether toread the article in more detail or move on to the next article.•If you run out of time, buy the magazine and bring it home! Or ask the receptionist at thedoctor’s office to photocopy the article or whether you might be allowed to take the maga-zine home. I get the magazines for my training program from my generous dentist, chiro- practor, and hairdresser. They usually go through and get rid of their stacks every few months because they, too, are overloaded.
Turbo Comprehension: How to Read Your Newspaper BE-FORE You Reach Your Destination.
Wouldn’t it be great to actually finish your morning newspaper before arriving at work? If youcommute by train, bus, or carpool, it’s possible. Obviously the longer the commute time, the bet-ter your chances. However, even on short commutes, you can still get a lot of information in a lit-tle amount of time.Your mind-set when reading a newspaper can greatly affect how quickly and effectively youread. Try approaching your newspaper reading with the same kind of time pressure you have whenreading a report that will be discussed at a meeting in two hours. A self-imposed time limit for your newspaper reading helps ensure completion of the task.
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Many of the techniques already discussed in this book can be applied to reading a newspaper quickly:•
Define your purpose and responsibility.
For example, your purpose may be to stay cur-rent on local and world events, or on topics relevant to your field of expertise, learning newinformation on topics such as business, real estate, the arts, and so on.•
Pre-view!
This is best accomplished by looking at one section of the paper at a time, insteadof the entire paper – particularly the Sunday edition if you plan to catch up on it on your wayto work Monday morning. Put aside the advertising circulars so you have the meat of the paper in your hands.To pre-view a newspaper section, quickly thumb through it, reading the date, sectiontitle, index, headlines, and captions under photos. Mentally make a note of which articlesare relevant to your purpose. Also mark articles that pique your interest and relate to your purpose by either putting a dot next to the headline with a marker, or writing a key word or phrase in the margin next to the article.•
Skim and scan.
Once you pre-view a section, systematically work through the paper, skim-ming and scanning your chosen articles looking for information relevant to your purpose.•
Key words, phrases, and pacers.
Remember to use key words, phrases and pacers to op-timize your reading.
Use the Commuter Fold
Reading a newspaper in the confined spaces of your commuter seat is a challenging maneuver.The commuter fold helps you fold, hold, and turn the pages of your paper to reduce your requiredreading space. Take a newspaper and follow the steps below.•Unfold the paper so the front page is in front of you.•Fold the paper in half length-wise so the back page halves touch one another. Read what youwant from the left side of page 1, then flip the paper over to read the right side of page 1.•Take hold of the bottom right corner of page 1 in your left hand and fold it back. The rightside of page 1 will be touching the left side of page 1. You will be viewing the left side of page 2. If you turn your whole paper over, you will be looking at the right side of page 3.•To view the right side of page 2, take hold of the fold of page 2 and fold it back so that theleft of page 2 meets the right of page 3.Keep in mind that a newspaper has nearly as many words as a novel, so remember you can’t,nor should you, read it all, but you can choose your material wisely.
How to Speed-Read Written Business Communications
Written business communications come in many different lengths and formats. Some examples in-clude memos, letters, reports, policies, FYI’s (for your information), and so on. Remember, speedreading is not one fast speed, but rather degrees of slow and fast. You consciously decide whichspeed you will use, depending on:•The subject of the communication.•Its relevance to your current tasks.•Who sent it.
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•Your time frame.•Your knowledge level of the topic.•The author’s writing style.•Whether a response is needed. No matter the type of written communication, be sure to pre-view it for general content, use keywords, phrases, or key phrases while reading, and a pacer (hand or card method).
Special Tips for Speed-Reading E-Mail
Nowadays, e-mail is de rigueur in the business world and is used ubiquitously to correspond withemployees, clients, customers, and so on. Here are four tips to help you manage your e-mail in-box.•
Look at who it is sent to as well as who sent it.
Are you one of many who received this e-mail or was it only sent to your attention? If it was a group e-mail, then chances are greater it is more an FYI than a crucial business communication. If your e-mail program allows, setup a preference that puts e-mails from certain senders in a specific folder. For example, alle-mails from your boss will automatically go into your “Boss” folder. So each day when youcheck your in-box, immediately go to that folder first.•
Look at the subject line.
Ideally, the subject line of an e-mail should give you an indica-tion of the topic of the message. Encourage senders to be specific as to what they want youto know before opening the mail. Some examples are:
RE:
Your input on meeting agenda needed on 11
th
for 12
th
.
RE:
How is the budget proposal coming?
RE:
Thanks for your quick response on the sales meeting.By reading the e-mail’s subject line, you’ll be able to determine whether you can read the e-maillater, just skim it, of delete it without reading it atall.•
Pre-view.
Some e-mail programs let you pre-view the communication, which allows you aquick peek at the content to decide whether or not you want to spend your time on it now,later, or never.•
Use speed techniques.
You can use the key word, phrase, or key phrase technique on screen.Pacers, however, are more challenging. Instead of using your arrow key to read line by line,try using the mouse to scroll to the section of text you want to read, read the entire section,then scroll to the next section of text you want to read, scrolling right past sections you wantto skip.
(Since this book was produced, we have come out with another ebook called “
Read More,Faster. . .On-Screen”
which includes other on-screen speed reading tips. Get your copy at www.RevItUpReading.com.)
Start Your Engines: The Open Hand Wiggle
Here’s another pacer to try. The Open Hand Wiggle is a comfortable movement for thehand. Choose a page in a magazine, newspaper, or this book. Make sure the reading material is placed firmly on a reading surface, not held up in your hands.
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Open either hand with your fingers extended outward and your palm facing the page. Placeyour hand over the text with the middle finger centered in the middle of the column. Slowly slither your hand in an S shape down the column, moving down and across a few lines at a time. Your handshould lightly touch the page as it moves. Your eyes move from left to right. You can use key words, phrases, or key phrases to help you go even faster. You are to follow your middle finger down the page. As you become more accustomed to this method, try moving your hand a little faster.
How to Speed-Read a Web Site
Whether you are a student doing research, a professional researching a new project or your com- petitors, or an avid home surfer working on your next vacation or home improvement project, youknow you can find helpful and valuable information on the Web. However, you also know thatsometimes you spend more time than you need finding what you want.Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, noted researcher about the Web, has put appro- priate names to what Web users do: forage and consume. Web foragers are information searcherswho ruthlessly seek out what they’re looking for. They are focused and hungry for information anddon’t want to spend any more time than necessary locating it. They do not read anything in its en-tirety at first. Instead, they scan, looking for specific information. Once they have found it, then theyconsume the information, or skim for more detail. This behavior pattern shows Web users naturally perform useful speed reading techniques.Here are some tips to help you limit the number of Web sites you have to forage through to gainkey information without going cross-eyed.•
Know the difference between a search engine and a directory.
A search engine is a pro-gram that receives your search request, compares it to entries in its index, and matches theresults closest to your topic. Key word searching is most effective for search engines but canyield incredible amounts of pages to sift through. A directory is a subject guide developed by people rather than automated software and usually organized by major topics andsubtopics.Directory-based sites tend to give fewer results but typically more useful ones.The biggest and most successful directoryis Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) •
Identify your top three search engines or directories.
With so many to choose from, youcan be searching for years. Here are some of the more well-known ones:•www.google.com•www.yahoo.com•www.altavista.com•www.dogpile.com•www.webcrawler.com•www.looksmart.com•www.snap.com
•
•
•
•
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•
Learn how to perform effective Boolean searches.
The more you narrow down your search results, the less you have to read. Boolean searches refer to using the most efficientsearch terms that you can to locate what you are searching for, usually by employing wordssuch as “and” or “+”. Search engines will then locate sites that include the words or termsyou’ve coupled together. For example, when you enter “Shakespeare” as your search term6,600,000 sites will come up. Use a Boolean search to narrow your choices to something like“Shakespeare+regional festivals.”•
View only the top 10 percent (or less) of your search results.
Search engines such aswww.google.com prioritize the sites they find for you – those that most closely match your search criteria appear first. You may choose to view only these sites, then move on to an-other search engine or restate your search criteria with a different Boolean search.•
Don’t wait long for graphics.
Graphics take time to load onto your screen. You can either go elsewhere or always keep some other reading material next to your computer. So whenthe graphics are loading, you can get caught up on some of your paper reading.•
Use a home page as a table of contents.
Most Web sites have a home page with links tovarious topics on other pages of the site. Skip the other pages.•
Bookmark your favorite sites.
This will save you time when you want to go back and look for information.•
Use speed techniques.
You can use the key word, phrase, or key phrase technique on screen.Get proficient at foraging (scanning).•
Set a time frame.
Seasoned users know that spending time on the Web can easily take upvaluable time. If you set a specific time frame for Web searching, you will work more effi-ciently.•
Resist printing
– read on screen. You will save valuable time by reading the text on-screenrather than taking the time to print a document. Also, it will cut down on your reading pileup.
Making More Time: How to Manage Monthly or Weekly Tasks.
Let’s face it, there are not enough hours in a day to accomplish those time consuming tasks suchas preparing a weekly dinner menu or grocery shopping and still have time to read. However, if youdevise a system and stick with it, not only will those tasks be less time consuming, but you will havemore reading time. For example, there is a system for managing your bills to make more time for reading.For most people paying bills is a boring and time-consuming activity. But it can become less painful if you become aware of your bill-paying pattern and look for better, faster, more efficientways of doing it.Many people find that using their computer to pay bills saves a great deal of time. You can eas-ily track your accounts and print your checks on the computer, saving a lot of time writing and cal-culating. Once you print out the checks, all you have left to do is sign them, put the checks and billsinto envelopes, put on stamps, and address the envelopes. Some people take it a step further andnever handle a check; your bank wires the money for your bills with the click of a mouse. No sig-nature, stamp or checks.Depending on how you choose to pay your bills, you may find a good idea in the following sug-gestions that will save you time:•
Prepare the bills as soon as you open them.
Open the bill, quickly review and discard theexcess pages, then paper-clip the bill and the return payment envelope together. Put the bills
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in a large manila envelope or folder titled “Bills Payable” and keep it in a place that will bea constant reminder for you.•
Mark the envelope with the due date.
With every bill you write “date to pay” on a stickynote on the return envelope. Make sure to keep the bills in the order of their due dates tomake it easier when it comes time to pay them.•
Create a list of your monthly bills.
Make twelve copies, one for each month. Include thename of the company and in the space next to it write the amount payable and due date.When you sit down to pay your bills, either by computer or hand, you know exactly howmuch you owe and you can expedite the check-writing process.I cut off two hours of bill-paying time by using the above ideas. Now wouldn’t you like that nicetime nugget for reading? Try devising your own time management system for daily, weekly, or monthly tasks that you think are eating up too much time.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.Is your reading attitude changing?
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
If you want to really push yourself with these faster reading strategies, try using ametronome. A metronome is a time keeping device used by musicians. It can be set at differentspeeds and makes a tick sound each time the ticker goes back and forth. I suggest using reading ma-terial with narrow columns such as a newspaper or magazine for this exercise. Begin by setting themetronome at a slow rate to gauge your ability to read it. Your objective is to start at the beginningof the first line on the first tick and then reach the end of the line at the second tick, go to the be-ginning of the next line on the third tick, and so on. It is challenging to get into a strict readingrhythm but it is a great exercise for helping you develop speed. As you become more comfortableand find you are reading faster than the ticks, increase speed on the metronome.In Day 8, you will learn about your hypothetical gear shift, which includes the overdrive fea-tures skimming, scanning, and skipping. You will also look at the issues related to reading a com- puter screen.
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Day 8: Fine-Tuning Your Reading Speed
When you are on the highway, you can drive fifty-five miles per hour or in some places sixty-five or more. But during rush hour, you probably can’t. And driving downMain Street in your town might be faster at midnight than midday. There are many fac-tors that determine the speed of your vehicle, such as time of day, traffic, weather conditions, con-struction zones, and so on. Race car drivers adjust their speed, too, depending on track conditions.Being aware of these conditions and adjusting your driving speed accordingly, you ensure a safeand efficient journey.Today you will look at your hypothetical gear shift and the speed control you have with your reading. Knowing your purpose (Day 3) and applying pre-viewing (Day 5) are the key factors for determining your over drive speeds: skimming, scanning, or skipping. You’ll look at the differ-ences between reading on paper and the computer. Also, you’ll get another opportunity to gaugeyour reading attitude and take a Time Trial for tracking your progress.
Your Control Box: The Gear Shift
Race cars have a gear shift. That’s because adjusting your speed is much more efficient with a stan-dard gear shift than with an automatic. You have greater control over the vehicle and more power to get where you want to go at the speed you want to get there. Efficient readers have a gear shiftthat allows them flexibility to change gears depending upon the conditions of the road or driver.In car racing, there is a flag waver who informs the driver when to speed up and slow down. If it’s okay for the driver to speed up, a green flag is waved. If the driver needs to slow down, a yel-low flag is raised.You have your own reading flags that help you know when it’s safe to speed up or slow down.Many of these signals will be familiar to you from previous chapters – learn to pay attention tohow each affects your speed.•
Purpose and responsibility.
If your purpose is to get the gist of your material, then you canspeed up; if your purpose is to study or memorize, then you need to slow down.•
Pre-viewing
. Pre-viewing provides you with background knowledge. This familiarity helpsspeed up your reading. Without it you spend more time trying to figure out the reading’smeaning and the result is that you read more slowly or read material you don’t need to read.•
Background knowledge.
Any reading content that is familiar or has easy vocabulary speedsyou up. Any content that is unfamiliar or difficult vocabulary slows you down.•
Noise level.
You read faster and more efficiently in a place that has a noise level you arecomfortable with. Most adults prefer a quiet location; so a noisy location may slow you down.•
Distractions and interruptions.
Taking control over your distractions and interruptionswhile reading will help you read faster and usually with better focus and comprehension. If you allow your kids, other people, the telephone, e-mail, or other distractions to interruptyou, your reading naturally slows down and results in reduced focus and comprehension.•
Time factor.
If you are reading to meet a deadline, you have great reason to speed up. If youhave all the time in the world, then you have the option of reading quickly or slowly.•
Time of day.
Knowing your peak, or awake, times of day, and reading at those times, helpsyou speed up your reading. Trying to read at your non-peak, or sleepier, times of day slowsyou down.
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•
Physical condition.
If you are well rested, not hungry, in comfortable clothes, feeling well,and so on, then you are able to read faster than if you are exhausted, starving, wearing con-stricting clothes, or ill. I poll my classes and ask how many feel well rested most of thetime. Not many raise their hands. If you feel tired most of the time, I do not want you to think you are condemned to reading slowly your whole life. This would be a good time to usesome of the speed-up strategies to help you get through the material quickly. And if youread faster, you’ll have more time for sleep.•
Using a speed technique.
If you use an active reading strategy such as key words, phrases,key phrases, or a pacer, you read faster. If you don’t, you won’t.•
Location.
If you are reading for school or for work, then being in a place the brain is usedto working, such as a desk or table, helps you read with more speed.•
Temperature and lighting.
A room where the lighting is adequate for you and it’s neither too hot nor too cold is more conducive to faster reading than one with inadequate lightingor an uncomfortable temperature.•
Interest.
People differ about how quickly they read when they are interested in the mate-rial. What do you do? Do you speed up or slow down? Some readers prefer to get to themeat, the main gist of the reading, while others like to chew everything slowly and read a piece of material from start to finish.•
Column width and print size.
Do you know if you prefer narrow or wide columns? Whichfont size do your eyes prefer? Generally speaking, wider columns are more challenging toread than narrow columns. However, pacers can help with any column width. Reading ma-terial that is agreeable to your eye speeds you up. If not, you tend to slow down.•
Author’s style.
If the author’s style engages you, then chances are you will enjoy what youare reading and read it faster. If you dislike the author’s style, then you will think about howmuch you don’t like what you are reading and slow down.You might be thinking, “It would be great to read with all of these green flags up at the sametime. How can I do it?” Yes, it would be great but it would also be unusual and unrealistic. The ideais not to strive for perfection here, but rather to take as much control over your reading material,reading time, and physical environment as possible to make your reading experience as efficient andas effective as possible.Through trial and error, you will figure out which conditions matter and which don’t. You will become a pro at getting the most out of the material you read in the least amount of time. Be aware,though, that even a pro has a bad day but it doesn’t mean he can’t race. It just means he has to take better control of his gear shift depending upon the current track conditions. Let’s say you have toread a proposal for your business meeting the following day. No problem. Except you are reallytired. What do you do? Either you can take a short nap or get up early the next morning to read thereport. I always suggest reading at a table or desk with good lighting but never read anything ex-tremely important when you are very tired. You will daydream a lot, have a hard time following theauthor’s train of thought, and you won’t retain what you read.
Skim, Scan, or Skip
Skimming, scanning, and skipping function like the overdrive on your gear shift. They are the threemost used reading techniques. They might best be described as techniques for
not
reading. Thefundamental skill in each lies in knowing when and how to do it without missing what you may need
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to comprehend from the reading. As with so many reading skills, the selectivity is found in your reading purpose and responsibility (Day 3).
Skimming
Use skimming when you are looking for the general or main ideas of a reading. Skimming is adeliberate method of reading that results in a solid overview with selected details.You skim when your purpose is:•To pull out the main ideas from a large amount of material.•To test whether a passage can be safely skipped.•To locate material that needs to be read thoroughly.•To obtain a general, bird’s-eye view without the mastery of detail that thorough reading pro-vides.Appropriate material for skimming includes, but is not limited to, Web sites, e-zines, magazines,newspapers, nonfiction books, and manuals.Skimming is similar to pre-viewing with one difference. You now add more to the process than just reading the first sentence of a paragraph. Though the first sentence usually gives you the mainidea of a paragraph, many times you get important details in other parts of the paragraph
without reading it all.
If you feel the first sentence is not helpful, add a phrase or two from the second sen-tence. Then let your eyes
quickly
swing down the rest of that paragraph looking for names, dates,numbers, and any other details that relate to your reading purpose. Occasionally, if the first sentence plus these details do not give you enough about what the paragraph contains, then, and only then,should you read the last sentence of the paragraph. Continue doing the same for the next paragraphand so on. To make this process work and to avoid reading it all, you must proceed with a very clear idea of what you are looking for.This technique takes more time to describe than do. You must keep your skimming fast andflexible so it feels like you are sprinting on tiptoe down an obstacle course. On page 88is an ex-
ample of the eye movements involved in skimming. Move your eyes as quickly as possible to thewords.
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HOW TO SKIM
Usually the first paragraph will beread at average speed all the waythrough. It often contains an intro-duction or overview of what will betalked about.Sometimes, however, the second paragraph contains the introductionor overview. In the first paragraphthe author might just be “warmingup” or saying something clever toattract attention.Reading a third paragraph com- pletely might be unnecessary but… … … … … … … … … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …the main idea is usually containedin the opening sentence … …… … … … … … …… … … … topic sentence… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …Besides the first sentence thereader should get some but notall the detail from the rest of the paragraph… … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … names …… … … … … … …… … … dates … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …this tells you nothing … … … … … … … … …
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… … … … … … …… … … … … … …hence sometimes the main idea isin the middle or at the end of the paragraph.Some paragraphs merely repeatideas … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … … Occasionally the main idea can’t be found in the opening sentence.The whole paragraph must then beread.Then leave out a lot of the next paragraph … … … ... …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … to make up time… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … Remember to keep up a very fastrate … … … … … … … … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … …… 800 wpm… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … Don’t be afraid to leave out half or more of each paragraph …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … Don’t get interested and start toread everything … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …skimming is work … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … …Lowered comprehension isexpected … … … … …… … … … … … … … … … 50% … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … not too low… … … … … … …… … … … … … …Skimming practice makes iteasier … … … … … …… … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … gain confidence … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … Perhaps you won’t get anythingat all from a few paragraphs …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … … … …… … … … don’t worry… … … … … … …… … … … … … Skimming has many uses …… … … … … … …… … … … … reports … … … … … … … …… … … newspapers… …… … … … … … …… … … supplementary… … text … … … …The ending paragraphs might beread more fully as often they con-tain a summary.Remember that the importanceof skimming is to get only theauthor’s main ideas at a very fastspeed.
(Edward Fry, “How to Skim,” from
Teaching Faster Reading: A Manual,
1963, reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press, New York.)
Fast Tracks: Skimming a Passage
Locate an article from a magazine or a chapter from a nonfiction book that you want to read. De-cide on your purpose and responsibility. Your purpose could be as simple as wanting to try skim-ming and your responsibility is to find as much detail as possible, for your interest level, withoutreading it all. Follow the skimming passage presented on page 87and in “How to Skim” above.
Give yourself about fifteen to thirty seconds per page, even less if you are willing to get the mostinformation in the least amount of time without reading it all. When you are done, evaluate your experience. Did you get the gist? Were you able to go fast enough? What would you do differentlynext time you skim? Remember, you will become skilled through trial and error.
Scanning
The opposite of skimming, scanning is used when you are looking for something specific, a par-ticular piece of information. You probably scan all the time but may not realize that is what you aredoing. Some examples of scanning are when you:•Do research on the Internet.•Look at the TV listings to see what time your favorite show is on.•Look for a specific topic in an index or table of contents.•Look for the baseball scores in a daily paper.•Look up a phone number in a telephone book.Frequently, readers skim
and
scan the same piece of material. In a newspaper, you might skimthe headlines looking for a story that is of interest to you, then you may scan it looking for specificdetails such as who it concerns, when did it happen, or how much did it cost. On a retail Web site,you might skim the home page and links, getting the gist of what is offered and how the site is setup. You then go to a linked page scanning for a specific detail such as description of an item, cost,or availability.The easiest way to become efficient at scanning is to place a pen or pencil vertically, from topto bottom, on the center of a column or page. Let your eyes make two stops per line of print, oneto the left of the pen and one to the right. Narrower columns may permit one stop while wider columns may need three. Your scanning may be more accurate if you look at the white space be-tween the lines rather than the lines themselves. Your attention is spread more evenly throughoutyour field of vision and not concentrated on single words.Once you master scanning, you can stop putting the pen on the reading. The pen is meant to re-mind the untrained reader not to slip back into word-for-word reading.Comprehension while scanning is either 100 percent or 0 percent. If you find what you arelooking for and document it accurately, you get 100 percent. If you don’t accurately find what youare looking for or don’t document correctly, you get 0 percent.
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Turbo Comprehension: Scanning
Here is a telephone list and a series of ten questions, or pieces of information, to look for from the listing. With the help of a pacer, your hand, or finger, pull your eyes down the page look-ing for the answer. Notice how your eyes distinguish information only when you stop them. Tryusing your peripheral vision to see above and below your stopping point. When you find the answer to a question, quickly and accurately document the answer, including first names and middle ini-tials as shown. Since all have the same last name, save yourself time by not writing it down.To really make it a challenge, time yourself. Read the questions carefully.1. Whose phone number is 531-7379?_____________________________________________ 2. Who lives at 2 Grigg?________________________________________________________ 3. How many listings does 296 Palmer Hill Rd have?_________________________________ 4. What is the business phone of Joseph L. Hayes, Jr?________________________________ 5. Whose phone number is 661-3383?_____________________________________________ 6. Who lives at 182 Taconic Road?_______________________________________________ 7. What is the phone number of 205 S Water?_______________________________________ 8. What is the address of Richard A. Hayes?________________________________________ 9. Whose phone number is 868-1391?_____________________________________________ 10. Who lives at 795 Lake Ave?___________________________________________________ 868-5178 Hayes A M 56 Oak Ridge532-7968 Hayes Anne M Mrs 80 Henry632-1023 Hayes Antique Shop 179 Shore Rd868-2933 Hayes B W 7 Gaston Farm Rd629-9016 Hayes Barbara S637-4810 Hayes Basil & Christine 10 Owenoke Way637-8993 Hayes Beryl 296 Palmer Hill Rd661-1248 Hayes, C 790 Lake Av637-4208 Hayes C Webb Colonial La531-9084 Hayes Christopher B 4 Hawthorne531-7379 Hayes Claude H 92 Bowman Dr 629-4785 Hayes Clem 83 Mason531-0225 Hayes & Co 250 Mill637-7561 Hayes David 5 Pilot Rock La531-7231 Hayes David J 54 Mead Av622-0279 Hayes Davidson D 58 Cliffdale Rd868-1114 Hayes Elizabeth C North Maple637-1286 Hayes Francis S 35 Marks Rd868-6084 Hayes Frank D 14 Brookridge Dr 637-0635 Hayes George & Kathi 24 Lake Drive S661-7175 Hayes Geo R D 133 Otter Rock Dr 531-4228 Hayes Gwynne 43 Deep Gorge Rd637-8993 Hayes Howard O Jr Dr 296 Palmer Hill Rd637-0848 Hayes –Children Phone 296 Palmer Hill Rd629-2331 Hayes J Bryan III 10 Bolling Pl
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637-1766 Hayes J R 34 Druid La661-7187 Hayes John F Vinyrd La868-1391 Hayes John I 91 Prospect868-1995 Hayes Joseph L III 50 Bush Av661-9283 Hayes Jos L Jr 141 Ovrik Dr 868-6800 Hayes Joseph L Jr rl est 32 Sherwood Pl868-2892 Hayes Joseph S Tinker La868-6800 Hayes Josephine C rl est 32 Sherwood Pl531-5061 Hayes K & R 171 Henry868-8376 Hayes K R 182 Taconic Rd868-3800 Hayes Karen L atty 100 Fieldpoint Rd531-1941 Hayes Keith 40 Nutmeg Dr 625-9443 Hayes Ken 16 Lexington Av627-1687 Hayes Lincoln A 44 Laddins Rock Rd Old698-0870 Hayes Lou 5 Ferris Dr 661-6856 Hayes M V V 6 Stanwich Rd531-6025 Hayes Marjorie 1165 King939-9307 Hayes Martin 11 Pearl Pt Chstr 629-2341 Hayes Philip 155 Field Pt Rd625-0671 Hayes Philip J 2 Grigg661-3383 Hayes R E 140 Field Point Rd531-5061 Hayes R & K 171 Henry531-8570 Hayes Richard A 6 Thistle La531-7282 Hayes Roger J 15 Prospect St W868-9198 Hayes Staunton Jr 184 Parsonage Rd868-4286 Hayes Sydney M 795 Lake Av531-6233 Hayes Thos R 205 S Water Go to the Answer Key on page 116and check your answers. If you took three minutes or less
to do this exercise, then your scanning speed is quite good. If you had nine out of ten correct or a perfect score, then your accuracy is on target. If it took you more time or you got fewer correct, youneed to pay attention to either your scanning speed or accuracy.
Skipping
Skipping means leaving something unread altogether. You skip when you realize at any pointin your reading that the material is unnecessary, repetitive, or filler. A skilled reader accuratelyknows when it is safe and desirable to skip.Skipping is a selective way to read. The key point when skipping is in what you
do
read, notwhat you leave out. You often are faced with numerous pieces of material that could be relevant toyour purpose. If a portion of the material can be skipped how do you choose? You can skip read-ing altogether if:•It contains nothing new.•It covers nothing you need.•It’s too difficult.
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If you read varied material on the same topic in newspapers, Web sites, and magazines youmost likely are getting the same information presented in different ways. For example, just aboutevery book and article on pregnancy discusses the importance of folic acid. If it’s information youalready know, you can skip it or read it again to reinforce what you already gained from the read-ing. Pre-viewing or skimming also helps you quickly identify areas you can safely skip.To learn how to skim, scan, or skip effectively, you need to consider the following:1.
Always identify your purpose for reading.
Remember that without knowing why you areon the road, you waste time, get lost, and become frustrated.2.
Pre-view everything you read.
Pre-viewing gives you the background knowledge to de-cide whether the reading is worth your time and helps you refine your purpose.3.
Overcome your fear of missing material.
There is more than enough reading material tolast a lifetime and your job is to
q-u-i-c-k-l-y
find what is most valuable to you.
Time Trial No. 8
Once again, it’s time to test your engine. It should take you five minutes or less. Re-member to add pre-viewing into the process.On the following practice reading, experiment with some of the information you have learnedabout. Try using key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer. Insure an appropriate environment for uninterrupted successful reading.1.
Pre-view the reading first.
Time yourself for a maximum of only thirty seconds, allowingyourself to quickly look at the introduction, the first sentences of the paragraphs, and thequestions you will be answering.2.
Time yourself.
See how long it takes to read the passage “Books Join the Electronic Wave” below. Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided at the end of thereading.
Books Join the Electronic Wave
By John D. Whitman
Today, I read a book that wasn’t there.Well, the text was there, but the book wasn’t. You see, I have one of those electronic organizers called a personal digital assistant, or PDA. Notonly does it keep track of my address book, it also provides a host of other functions. For example it has the ability to store books on its memory. Andnot just tinybooks. This device, which fits into a shirt pocket, can hold thecomplete works of Shakespeare, novels by Charles Dickens, or the Bible. Now you can have
King Lear
in your carrying case,
Pickwick Papers
in your purse. Now, I’m not a technology nerd. So my first reaction to learningabout “ebooks,” as they’re called, was “This is surely the end of civilizationas we know it.” So, just to be spiteful, I decided to try this ebook feature anddownloaded F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby. I quickly learned that my expectations were wrong: E-books are ac-tually a wonderful tool for reading on the go. In fact, they remind me of a
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time whenthe words were more important than the printing. You see, whatwe call“writing” began as oral tradition, stories passed from generation togeneration before the advent of written language. In Western culture, it was-n’t until theGreeks borrowed writing from the Phoenicians that stories wereset down on papyrus,er, paper. The works of Homer, in fact, marked thetransition fromoral to written culture, but those early “books” emphasizedthe words themselves rather than the written medium.Before the invention of the printing press, handwritten books were sorare that they took on a value of their own. The monks who created many of these early works labored so carefully that we call their works “illuminatedmanuscripts” because of the glorious artwork inked onto every page. Eventoday, when books are printed quickly and inexpensively, they hold a placeof reverence.But, in truth, we revere the ideas and language, not the books them-selves. Reading Fitzgerald’s classic novel on a small, electronic screen, Iwas struck just as powerfully by his ideas and insights as I would have beenif the words had been in ink. Just as Homer’s Odyssey transcended the scrollson which itwas written, great writing rises above the electronic format. Itdoesn’t matterwhether the text is ink or ether;printed or digital; excellentwriting makes forgood reading.
➞
Mark your reading time here: __________(minutes) __________ (seconds).3.
Respond to statements.
Immediately answer the following statements to the best of your ability WITHOUT looking back at the reading. Estimate the number of answers you be-lieve are correct and put the number in the blank provided.
Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). _____ 1. A PDA is a professional digital assistant. _____ 2. A PDA can store addresses. _____ 3. Only technology nerds enjoy reading e-books. _____ 4. An e-book screen is easier to read if the original text is taken from a hardcover book. _____ 5. The author tried reading fiction on his small electronic screen. _____ 6. When books are printed in electronic form, the language loses some of its power. _____ 7. Before the printing press, monks hand wrote books called illuminated manuscripts. _____ 8. E-books are less expensive than printed ones.
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_____ 9. Only classical fiction is available on e-books. _____ 10. It’s not “books” we revere, rather the ideas and language. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten _____.4.
Check your responses.
Turn to the Answer Key on page 116. If you have any incorrect,mark the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where youhad a problem.5.
Figure your comprehension percent.
Add the total number of correct responses you haveand multiply by 10. Write your comprehension percentage in your Personal Progress charton page 117.
6.
Figure your Words per Minute.
Look at your reading time and round off the seconds tothe nearest 10-second mark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page 119and find your
Words per Minute next to your reading time. Write your words per minute in your PersonalProgress chart.7.
Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date you did the ex-ercise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoccupations,strategies used, and so on.
Reading On A Computer Screen
Race car drivers, and all drivers in general, are likely to drive slower in unfamiliar territory, or ter-rain that is new to them. For readers, the same is true when navigating the unfamiliar or less-than-ideal terrain of reading from a computer screen. Anyone who reads on a computer screen intuitivelyknows it is not the same as reading on paper.Research has shown that people experience a 30 percent reduction in speed when reading froma screen. So if your reading speed averages 250 words per minute on paper, your reading speed ona screen may go down to 175 words per minute. Also, comprehension, concentration and retentionare reduced when reading from a computer screen. Extensive research by Paul Muter, from the psychology department at the University of Toronto, identified 24 reasons to partially explain whyreading from a computer screen is not the same as on paper, some of which may be responsible for the decrease in speed, including:•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.
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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 astudy 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 hereto stay. According to researcher and on-screen speed reading specialist Pam Mullan, the best wayto adapt to reading in the computer age is to rely less on printing done on paper, and practice read-ing from the screen.To help people improve their on-screen reading comfort levels, Mullan suggests changing thefont size and style for a positive impact on your screen-reading abilities. For readability, she sug-gests sans serif fonts such as Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica. Font size should not be smaller thantwelve point, and not larger than eighteen point, but Mullan encourages individuals to try differentstyles 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 onscreen. 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 anoption.One simple application for skipping involves managing your e-mail. For example, rather thanopening 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 tipsand techniques as possible to improve your computer reading abilities.If you didn’t know already, READING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS VERY HARD ON THEEYES. SOME PEOPLE USE THEM WHEN THEY TYPE ON A SCREEN OR PAPER. IN THECOMPUTER TEXT WORLD, PEOPLE FEEL AS IF THEY ARE BEING SHOUTED AT WHENSOMEONE WRITES IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. All capital letters also slows you down. Sowhen 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 ex- periment with. Make sure to place it on a flat surface, not balanced upright in your hands. Pick theindex 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 downthe 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 moveyour 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.
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Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement: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 con-trols and word display to your choosing. You can download a thirty-day trial version by contactingthe 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.
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Day 9: Reading on a Technical Track
Race cars either race on oval tracks or road courses. The oval tracks are easier to raceon because the track width accommodates many cars, the distance from corner to cor-ner 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 isnot 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 inthe race and to frequently press the brake pedal. Rookies understandably take a longer time learn-ing how to race on a road course than on an oval track due to a lack of experience and fast drivingexpertise.Relating this analogy to reading material, an oval course is that material which is predictableand 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 efficientreader, sit me down next to a medical researcher reading a technical, detailed pharmaceutical studyand the researcher will read faster and comprehend the material much better than I. This is becausethe researcher’s background knowledge in that area, including familiarity with the structure of thesestudies 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 pro-fession and interests, what you have considered technical up until now is not truly technical. Insteadit 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 oldtakes 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 materialfast. And rightfully so. When you read truly technical material, you are unfamiliar with its contentsand 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 usingactive 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 technicalmaterial more slowly than with material you understand, there are several strategies you can use tohelp you read faster, expand your background knowledge and vocabulary, and help avoid the needto read the material several times.
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Fast Tracks: Getting More Background Knowledge
Individuals who start new jobs, within the same company or in a different organization, sometimesfeel 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, readingtechnical material is a challenge on average for the first six months. After that time, the employeegains 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 makesense 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 isless 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 vocabu-lary 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 themeaning of these terms
before
you read in detail, you have begun to understand the read-ing’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 andH — who, what, when, where, why, and how. Many times, finding the answers to only thesequestions is sufficient. Also, they help you quickly identify unfamiliar vocabulary terms, per-tinent examples, and related ideas.•
Modify a faster reading strategy.
Just because the material is technical doesn’t mean youshould abandon all faster reading strategies and go back to reading word-for-word. You canstill use key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer, but at a slower speed. All of thesestrategies 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 isto make the material a part of your long-term memory, your permanent background knowl-edge, you have to expose yourself to the information many times. Re-viewing is best donea 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 stilldon’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.
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•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 havegrasped enough to get by on the test but probably forgot most of the material the next week. If youhad to use it again in another class or added more information to what you already were exposedto, 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 adictionary 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. Oth-ers try to sound the word out to see if it rings a bell to them that way. A select few use the clues pro-vided 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 backgroundknowledge to make reading faster possible. Also, if a person consistently has a comprehension av-erage lower than 70 percent, determined by using a ten-question format similar to the one found inthis 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 completelydependent upon the breadth of their English vocabulary. Also, these participants are happily re-lieved when they learn how to read key words or thoughts instead of processing English one tediousword at a time.Learning anything new takes time, including new words. It easier when you depend on what youalready know as a basis for building more vocabulary. Remember brain glue from Day 2. Let’stake 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 unim- portant to what you are reading or you get the idea without knowing what a word means, then find-ing its meaning wastes your time. If, however, you are actively trying to build your vocabulary, thenit is a good idea to write the word and its definition down in a special place just for tracking newwords.
Using a Dictionary
Using a dictionary is a great way to learn new vocabulary
if
you remember the word and its mean-ing 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-directedmethod works, then of course use the dictionary.To make the mechanical process of looking up words in the dictionary more mindful, write theterm down with its definition in a separate notebook and review it from time to time. Intentionallyfind opportunities to use the word(s) in conversations. Repetitive exposure to the terms over timewill imprint them in your background knowledge.
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Instead of going to a dictionary, try relying on your brain first. If you can figure the meaningof 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 dic-tionary. Note that roots can also start a word because not all words have a prefix.
PrefixesMeaningExamples
anti against antithesis, antibody pre beforepremonition, predispose
Roots MeaningExamples
aud hear audible, auditoriumomni all omniscient, omnipotent
Suffixes Meaning Examples
able, ible capable of portable, adaptable ation the act of exasperation, coordinationThere are many books and audiotape programs available for building your vocabulary. Look inyour 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 other-wise. It’s just like studying for a test when the purpose is to not only understand but also to applythe information. Up until now, you may not have felt confident or competent with technical mate-rial because you had little previous experience with the information.Remember that your comprehension of any material, including technical, improves when youare 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 mightneed it someday. Remember that memorizing only puts the information into short-term memoryanyway. It doesn’t mean you need to read every word. It means you have to put the active readingstrategies into play more than ever.
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Types of Comprehension
When you say you understood what you read, it means you understood in one of three ways:1.Literally2.Interpretively3.AppliedTake the statement “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” If you understood this literally, youwould 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 andexpand 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 lan-guage (or any other discipline), you start with the basics — vocabulary and verb conjunctions. Youliterally memorize the word and its meaning and respond accordingly on a matching or multiplechoice test. Once you learn the fundamental words, you move into sentences and paragraphs andsee how the words fit together to form meaning. You are asked to interpret more of the languageand take tests with fill-in-the-blank questions or that require short answers. And finally, when youhave a stronger command of the language, you are then asked to
apply
what you know in conver-sation or on longer essays or papers.You can apply technical material when you ask yourself questions such as, “So what does thisreally mean?” or “How does this affect XYZ?” or “In what way can I use this?” Take your knowl-edge 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. Re-member 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.
1. Pre-view the reading first.
Time yourself for a maximum of only thirty seconds, allowingyourself to quickly look at the introduction. The first sentences of the paragraphs, and the ques-tions you will be answering.
2. Time yourself.
See how long it takes to read the passage “A Few Words” below. Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided at the end of the reading.
A Few Words
By John D. Whitman
There are two kinds of words that everyone can identify: old-fashionedwords that can become obscure in modern times or change and modernwords that mean something to everyone. We all understand, for example,
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what a “dollar” is, but if you talk about ‘ducats,” a type of money used sev-eral centuries ago, only historians are likely to understand.But there’s a third type of word: old fashioned words whose originalmeanings have been replaced by more modern definitions. For example,imagine driving to your local gym to work out so you’ll develop washboardabs. On the way you hit a pothole in the road. You can probably define thewords “gym,” “washboard,” and “pothole.” But your definitions are likelyto be very different from the original definitions of these words — all of which are as outdated as the manual typewriter.You might be surprised, for instance, to know that the original tradi-tion of working out at a gym meant you’d have to do it in the nude, becausea
gymnast
literally means a “naked person.” The ancient Greeks preferred itthat way. Very few of us can really get washboard abs and even fewer haveused an actual
washboard
— the ribbed board used to scrub clothes in thedays before washing machines.Potholes originally referred to holes in the tops of old-fashionedstoves. When you wanted to cook something, you moved the lid and placeda pot over the pothole so that the fire could reach it directly.Here are a few more words that may seem current to you, but haveactually evolved from years ago. Try dialing a phone. In this digital age,most phones are push-button, but we still use the word “dial,” which refersto the round disk with finger holes on the front of old-fashioned telephones.Even the experts call most Internet-access points “dial-up servers,” eventhough no one’s dialing anything anymore.How about storage for computers. If you hide your computer in that popular piece of home furniture called the office armoire, you’re storingyour laptop where your ancestors stored the sword. “Armoire” is the Frenchword for armory.We’re bound to hold on to outdated words because their meanings arefamiliar and comfortable. We simply apply them in a new context. So, asyou hurtle down the computer superhighway, just remember to still watch for potholes.
➞
Mark your reading time here: _____ (minutes) _____ (seconds).3.
Respond to statements
. Immediately answer the following statements to the best of your ability WITHOUT looking back at the reading. Estimate the number of answers you be-lieve are correct and put the number in the blank provided.
Comprehension StatementsWithout looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statement is True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). ______ 1.There are two types of words everyone can identify: old fashioned words and wordsthat mean something to everyone.
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______ 2. The word “ducat” is a new term. ______ 3. In ancient Greece, it was forbidden to work out in a gym in the nude. ______ 4. There are potholes on most major roadways. ______ 5. Washboards are used in gyms to clean soiled towels. ______ 6. Placing a pot over a hole in an old-fashioned stove would put the fire out. ______ 7. We keep the term “dial” in our vocabulary because some people still use telephoneswith the round dials on the front. ______ 8. The term “armoire” is derived from the French word for armory. ______ 9. It is likely that we will continue to develop new meanings for old terms. ______10. We hold on to outdated words because we don’t want to go to the effort of creatingnew terms. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten_____.4.
Check your responses
. Turn to the Answer Key on page 116. If you have any incorrect,mark the correct response and return to the reading passage to try to understand where youhad a problem.5.
Figure your comprehension percent
. Add the total number of correct responses you haveand multiply by 10. Write your comprehension percentage in your Personal Progress charton page 117.6.
Figure your Words per Minute
. Look at your reading time and round off the seconds tothe nearest 10-second mark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page 119and find your
Words per Minute next to your reading time. Write your words per minute in your PersonalProgress chart.7.
Track your Time Trial scores
. Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and the date you did the ex-ercise. It’s also helpful to document other details such as time of day, any preoccupations,strategies used, and so on.
Start Your Engines: The Thumb Push
There are two ways to perform the pacer known as the Thumb Push. Choose a page ina magazine, newspaper, or this book to experiment with. Make sure to place it on a flat surface, not balanced upright in your hands.The first method is “thumb down,” the other is “thumb across.” Begin thumb down by position-ing your hand: Make a loose relaxed fist in front of you with whichever hand you want to readwith. Stick your thumb out to the side. Now rotate your thumb toward you so your thumb is point-ing downward, creating a thumb-down sign. Place your hand with the thumb down above the col-umn you are going to read. Your thumb should be pointed down in the center of the column. Beginreading, stopping your eyes only two or three times on each line, seeing more at a glance. Re-
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member to use key words, phrases, or key phrases to help you go even faster. As you become moreaccustomed to the method, try moving your thumb a little faster.The thumb across method starts the same as thumb down by creating a fist with your chosenhand and sticking your thumb out to the side. This time leave the thumb in this position and placeit above the line you are going to start reading. You should have somewhat of a straight line fromyour wrist to the tip of your thumb, covering the words you already read and leaving open whereyou are going. This is very similar to the white card method. Therefore, if you want to use the whitecard method and there is no card around, use your own wrist and thumb.
Gauge Your Attitude
Let’s take an attitude check. Write down or mentally fill in the blank of the followingstatement:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
Look for different ways to experience the world. The more you experience, the more background knowledge you have. And this in turn helps you read faster with better comprehension.You could plan vacations to places you have never been, read books on topics you normally do nothave interest in, expose yourself to educational television programs you may not normally watch,speak to lots of people and tap into their background knowledge, learn a new skill, take a class, andso on. Your ability to expand your background knowledge is only limited by your willingness to ex- plore new horizons.In Day 10, you will evaluate your progress looking at your reading speed and habits. In addi-tion, you will receive one final tip to carry you into the world of faster reading.
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Day 10: The Final Lap
Here you are! The white flag is being waved, just one more lap until the race is over.At this point, you are on the final sprint to the finish line. As you complete the race,give yourself a hearty pat on the back because you finally did something to make faster reading areality. You read this book, tried new strategies, timed yourself, and gathered information to makeyour reading workload more manageable. Your racing career, though, is far from over. It is only just beginning.As a reader and student of this book, you are similar to a race car driver in training. This daycompletes your formal training, but to become truly skilled, you continually need to experiment withthe strategies and learn through trial and error what works for you in your own world. If you listento motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar or sales gurus such as Tom Hopkinsor Brian Tracy, you hear them all tout the value of daily reading. Brian Tracy says if you have anhour’s commute each day and listen to instructional or motivational tapes, you can learn a semes-ter’s worth of material in six months. I’ve heard other experts say if you read a half hour every dayfor two years or an hour a day for a year you become an authority in any subject in which you haveinterest. They agree that reading is crucial to success in your field. Let’s assume they are referringto average untrained readers; I wonder how a faster reading speed coupled with other efficient read-ing skills affects the outcome.It is important to remind you that
your past is not predictive of your future
. If youhave alwaysread slowly, it doesn’t mean you will read slowly your whole life — unless you choose to. Beforeyou started this book, you didn’t have much choice. Now you do. You now know what makes faster reading a reality — if you choose. By following the strategies in this book and adapting them to your world, you can become a faster and more efficient reader.
Reading for Survival
One thing is certain and more so these days than ever: Change is constant and technological inno-vations are at the forefront of this progress. Developing technologies, especially the World WideWeb, are transforming the economy, forcing you, the worker, to continually rationalize, reinvent,and restructure your work. How can you get help to cope with this change? Through reading.Employers are demanding that you constantly acquire new skills but few provide the trainingor time required to obtain these skills. The unemployable of the (near) future will be those whocan’t, or don’t, learn, regardless of available learning resources. Where can you learn these skills?Through reading.You must realize and accept the reality that technology will affect you even though you wish itwouldn’t. Being proactive with respect to this change is much better than being reactive. How canyou become proactive and adapt to changing technologies? Through reading.The ability to communicate and work effectively with others is also a workplace necessity withthe advent of work teams. How can you learn to manage diverse personalities and other interper-sonal issues? Through reading.The information found through reading provides you with options to help you solve problems,cope with change, learn new skills, and most importantly, better understand the world you live in.Reading, unlike taking a class, is done according to your own schedule. You choose what youneed to read and decide which parts to skip or spend your time on. The material is there to refer back
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to, if needed, and no one tests you on what they think you should know. You decide. The world isliterally at your fingertips when you choose to read.
The “Other” Reading Material
You already know about your reading pile. But there is “other” material you read that you proba- bly don’t consider reading, either because it doesn’t make it to the pile or you just process it as itarrives such as regular mail or e-mail. These present you with more opportunities to play with your new reading techniques and use some of the tips discussed in this book. Here’s a sampling of other materials you may read:
At Home
•Homeowner or electronic manuals•Credit card applications•Appliance warranties•Membership applications•Tax forms•School applications•Directions for toys or furniture assembly•Insurance policies•Financial documents
At Work
•Proposals•Patient charts•Legal documents•Corporate profiles•Reports•Insurance policies•Business plans•Résumés•Complaint letters•Interoffice memos•Internet research
At School
•Textbooks•Literature•Reading comprehension tests•Library and Internet research•Reference material
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If you’ve ever been admitted to a hospital, you may recall the lengthy and vital forms you wereasked to sign. The hospital employee processing the paperwork tells you what it says and points tothe dotted line. Most people sign the forms without reading. With your faster reading skills, you cannow read these and other legal documents quickly, making sure you agree with what you are signing.
Where Are You Now?
It’s been ten days since you started your reading training. The following section will help you gaugewhere you are right now.1.
Facts and figures.
In Day 1, you evaluated yourself statistically in Words per Minute andcomprehension on the first Time Trial. Your Personal Progress chart on page 117shows
your development with your reading scores. Now it is time to do the last Time Trial to seewhere you are. Turn to and do Time Trial No. 10 on page 110.
•What seems to be working?•What strategies are you comfortable with?•What do you want to become more comfortable with?2.
Efficiency.
On Day 2, you had the opportunity to evaluate yourself on the “Inefficient andEfficient Reader checklist.” Go back to that list now (page 15) and use a different color pento redo the checklist according to how you feel today. Do you have more checks on the ef-ficient side? If you, what are you doing to achieve this? If not, what is preventing you? Re-member that learning to be more efficient is a process, not a one-time event. Any progresson your process is a step in the right direction.3.
Attitude.
Starting on Day 1 and every day throughout this book, you were asked to gaugeyour attitude. Now is the last time to reevaluate your attitude:I am a(n) ________________________ reader.Are your words more positive, competent, and confident than when you began? If so, what ismaking you feel or think this way? If not, what is preventing you from feeling or thinking this way?If you only read a few chapters or didn’t do any of the exercises, take to time to go back and dothem. Insecurity about your newfound potential is common; certainty comes with experience.
What Are Your Keepers?
Whenever you go to a class or conference, listen to an audio training, read a nonfiction book, or ex- perience any other learning forum, always be on the lookout for solid ideas or actions that you cantake away from the experience. Otherwise, you are wasting your time. When I attend conferences,training or professional meetings, I not only make a list of things to take away but I sometimes cre-ate a list of keepers or to-do’s. What are you going to take away or do as a result of reading this book?The following is a list of possible reading commitments you can make as a result of your ex- perience with this book. They are broken down into three areas: reading awareness, reading and timemanagement, and reading strategies. It takes ten minutes or less to complete this exercise.
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1.Review each list that follows in its entirely.2.Identify and check the items you want to commit yourself to. You can also write them on aseparate piece of paper. Feel free to adapt them or add your own.3.Schedule a date next month and then for the following three months or more to quickly re-view and revise your reading commitment. Use this menu as a guide in your revision.
Reading Awareness
1. I will accept that I’m human and capable of a few natural mistakes.
2. I will be aware of my eye movements involved in the reading process.
3. I want my eyes to stop on the more important words in the text.
4.I want to remember the relationship between background knowledge and reading compre-hension
5. I will read in a quiet, distraction-free environment.
6. I will read without listening to music (unless it’s Mozart or other classical music).
7. I will always know my purpose and responsibility before I begin to read.
8. I will not read for work or school with the television on.
9. I will read work or study materials at a desk or table.
10. I will read leisure material anywhere and anytime I want.
11. I will reevaluate my lighting and make it friendly for my eyes.
12. I will get my eyes checked every two years by an optometrist.
13. I will be aware of and take care of my mental and physical distractions before I read.
14. I will try to relax when I have a lot of reading to do.
15.I will remember the difference between skimming and scanning.
16. I will be able to skip information without guilt.
17. I will be aware of my reading speed and shift it depending on my purpose and backgroundknowledge.
18. I will reevaluate what I consider truly technical material.
19. I will enjoy reading more.
20. I will:_______________________________________________________
Reading and Time Management
1. I will find time to read.
2. I will resist the temptation to pick up the phone while reading.
3. I will resist the temptation to check on incoming faxes.
4. I will resist the temptation to check e-mail the moment it notifies me of incoming messages.
5. I will always carry reading material with me.
6. I will listen to audio recordings for personal or professional development.
7. I will avoid marathon reading sessions by taking short, frequent breaks
8. If I come across usable information, I will immediately make note of it either on the mate-rial or in a notebook.
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9. I will create a reference system for keeping track of important usable reading material.
10 I will: ______________________________________________________
Reading Strategies
Note: You may have more than one answer for some of the questions.
1. I will reduce passive daydreaming when I read by
a. Reading faster.
b. Reading key words, phrases, and key phrases.
c. Using a pacer.
2. I will reduce going back over material (regression) I already read by
a. Reading faster.
b. Reading key words, phrases, and key phrases.
c. Using a pacer.
3. I will reduce the talking in my head (mental whispering/subvocalization) by
a. Reading faster.
b. Reading key words, phrases, and key phrases.
c. Using a pacer.
4. I will stop moving my lips by placing my finger to my lips while I read.
5. I will personally choose only quality material for my reading pile.
6. I will reduce my to read stack by
a. Using the “One Month Tracker”.
b. Pre-viewing everything.
c. Getting myself removed from invaluable mailing lists.
d. Canceling subscriptions.
e. Throwing away junk mail right away.
f. Copying or cutting out interesting articles.
g. Limiting the number of books I buy.
h. Using efficient reading techniques.
i. I will: ________________________________________________
7. I will use a pacer to help me read faster.
8. I will resist the temptation to print off the computer screen.
9. I will read more on the computer screen.
10.I will use the note-making tools only when I think I might need to refer back to the infor-mation again.
11. I will continue to question the author’s point of view.
12. I will be aware of my opinions, inferences, and biases.
13. I want to become an active, mindful, and conscious reader.
14. I will: __________________________________________________
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Time Trial No. 10
For the final lap, let’s evaluate your engine. It should take you five minutes or less. Onthe following practice reading, experiment with some of the information you have learned about.Try using key words, phrases, key phrases, or a pacer. Ensure an appropriate environment for un-interrupted successful reading. 1.
Pre-view the reading first.
Time yourself for a
maximum
of only thirty seconds, allowingyourself to quickly look at the introduction, the first sentences of the paragraphs, and thequestions you will be answering.2.
Time yourself.
See how long it takes to read the passage “April Fool’s Day: A Real Kick in the Pants!” below. Write your total time in minutes and seconds in the space provided atthe end of the reading.
April Fool’s Day: A Real Kick in the Pants!
By John D. Whitman
Mark Twain once wrote, “The first of April is the day we remember what weare the other 364 days of the year.” That day is, of course, April Fool’s Day.On that day, schoolchildren might tell a classmate that school has been can-celed, or point down and say, “Your shoe’s untied!” More elaborate jokesinvolve sending the victim on a “fool’s errand” to find something that does-n’t exist. A modern variation of the fool’s errand is “snark hunting,” wherea group in the know sends a hapless individual out into the woods lookingfor a nonexistent animal.Where did April Fool’s Day originate? Centuries ago,many peoplein European cultures celebrated the New Year at the beginning of spring.This celebration usually took place in March near the spring equinox. Sincespring is a time of renewal, this new year celebration made sense.When Pope Gregory introduced the modern calendar in 1562, mov-ing New Year’s Day to January 1, most Europeans readily adopted the newcalendar. However, those who refused to use it and, even better, those whoforgot about the switch, were labeled fools. They were sent fake party invi-tations and given prank gifts on the old New Year’s Day.The tradition of pulling pranks on April 1 survived long after thememory of the original meaning was forgotten. In France, April 1 is called“Poisson d’avril.” French school children try to fool their comrades by tap-ing a paper fish to their backs. When the classmate discovers the trick, all hisfriends cry out “Poisson d’avril!,” which means “April Fish!”The idea of April Fool’s Day is celebrated in Mexico as well, but for different reasons and even on a different day. In Mexico, December 28 is“El Dia de Los Inocentes.” It is set aside as a day for Christians to mournHerod’s slaughter of innocent children. Over the years, the tone of thatsolemn day changed from sadness to good-natured trickery.
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In Scotland, April Fool’s Day actually lasts two days. The secondday is dedicated to pranks. Some aspects of this second fools day survive inour most cherished traditional practical jokes. If you’ve ever had anyonetape a “Kick Me” sign to your back on April Fool’s Day, you can thank theScots for every boot on your bottom.Today’s best pranks don’t hurt anyone, and delivered in the rightspirit, they usually leave even the victim laughing.
➞
Mark your reading time here: __________ (minutes)__________(seconds).3.
Respond to statements.
Immediately answer thefollowing statements to the best of your abilityWITHOUT looking back at the reading. Estimate thenumber of answers you be-lieve are correct and put thenumber in the blank provided.
Comprehension Statements
Without looking back
at the reading passage, respond to the following statements by indicat-ing whether the statementis True (T), False (F), or Not Discussed (N). ______1. When New Year’s Day was moved on the calendar to January 1, those who contin-ued tocelebrate it on April 1 were considered fools. ______2. On the ancient calendar, April Fool’s Day signaled the beginning of the new year. ______ 3. Today, children participate in April Fool’s Daycoloring contests. ______4. Before the modern calendar was introduced,people were imprisoned if they didn’tcelebrate New Year’s Day on January 1. ______5. In France April Fool’s translates into “AprilFish”. ______6. Mexico celebrates April Fool’s Day on March28, just before the traditional April 1. ______7. Sweden celebrates two April Fools Days. ______8. Scotland is responsible for the “Kick Me” sign prank. ______9. Studies indicate that April Fool’s pranks willbecome less innocent in future years. ______10. April Fool’s Day began in the 1500s. Now, estimate how many of these answers you believe you have correct out of ten ______
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4.
Check Your Responses.
Turn to the Answer Key on page 116.If you have any incorrect,mark the correctresponse and return to the reading passage to try tounderstand where youhad a problem.5.
Figure your comprehension percentage.
Add the total number of correct responses youhave and multiply by10. Write your comprehension percentage in yourPersonal ProgressChart on page 117.6.
Figure your Words Per Minute.
Look at your readingtime and round off the seconds tothe nearest 10-secondmark. Turn to the Words per Minute chart on page 119and find your
Words per Minute next to your readingtime. Write your Words per Minute in your PersonalProgress Chart.7.
Track your Time Trial scores.
Go to your Personal Progress chart and make sure you’verecorded your Words per Minute, comprehension percentage, and thedate you did the ex-ercise. It’s also helpful to documentother details such as time of day, any preoccupations,strategies used, and so on.
Fast Tracks: How to FigureReading Speed on Your Own
After completing the readings in this book, check on yourprogress from time to time. I have sev-eral suggestions.•
To gauge both reading speed and comprehension.
Purchase a timed reading workbook,such as fromJamestown Publishers (now owned by McGraw-Hill) at 1-800-USA-Read.Any bookin the Timed Reading Plus series is closest in length and content to the readingsin this book.•
To check your reading speed.
Use your own reading material. Use material where the col-umn width is consistent, such as a newspaper column.1.
Figure your average words per line:
Choose any 10lines of text and count the num- ber of words in eachline and divide by 10. If your total is 79 words, then the averagewords per line is 7.9 words, or round higher to 8 words per line. If your total is 93 words,then the average words per line is 9.3, or round lowerto 9 words per line.2.
Time Yourself.
Read for exactly one minute.3.
Figure your words per minute.
Count the number of lines you have read and multiplythem by the average number of words per line. Number of lines read timesaveragewords per line equals words per minute.•To figure how long it will take you to read a novel,follow these steps:1.
Time yourself.
Read a book for ten minutes. Countthe number of pages you read.2.
Figure your average time per page.
Take the 10minutes and divide it by the number of pages youread. If you read 8 pages, then divide to by 8. 10divided by 8 is 1.25 or 1minute 15 seconds. Theaverage time per page is 1 minute 15 seconds.
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3.
Figure your total time.
Multiply the number of pagesin the book by 1.25. If the book has 230 pages, then230 pages x 1.25 per page = 287.5 total minutes. Ifyou want toknow hours and minutes, then divide thetotal minutes by 60. 287.5 ÷ 60 = 4.79. Thisends upbeing 4.79 hours or approximately 4 hours and 45 minutes.
The Last Words AboutLeisure Reading Material
Leisure reading material is whatever you choose to read, notwhat work or school dictates. Thoughmany people read non-fiction for leisure, many more people choose to read fiction.Here are a few tips or reminders to keep in mind when reading fiction.1. Don’t skim or pre-view.2. Choose your own reading speed.3. Read anywhere you want.4. Fast forward through the boring parts.5.Read dialogue or poetry slower or even word-for-word to get the true essence of whatis being said or how it is being expressed.
Turbo Comprehension:INCORP Model
If you work within a group or a team of people who have asimilar career, chances areyou read or need to read the same material. The INCORP model helps you and your team staycur-rent in your field, eliminate reading redundancy, sparkcreative synergy and communication, andencourage team work. Use this model and adapt it to suit your group’s working style. INCORP isan acronym:•
I
dentify what you should be reading.•
N
etwork with others in your field. Find out what others read, what organizations they belongto, and whatpublications they receive. List them all. Then decidewhich are the best use of your time and the mostvaluable to your profession.•
C
ollect the material, which may result in ordering newsubscriptions or canceling mul-tiples or non-valuable ones.•
O
rganize a reading team. Divide the material bydeciding among yourselves who readswhat. If someoneprefers to read the business newspaper but dislikesprofessional jour-nals, then let him read the newspaper.Rotate reading assignments for variety.•
R
ead the material in a timely manner looking forbusiness-related information. It is alsohelpful to know alittle about the personal interests of each team memberso you can read
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with them in mind. If you know a teammember is designing a beach house and youcomeacross information about a new building material, youcan share it with him.•
P
rocess the information. Decide to meet weekly,biweekly, or monthly to discuss your findings. You maydecide to just photocopy the articles and circulate themamong theothers in your group. If everyone knows howto pre-view, the article will get passedaround faster. Ifyou are doing research reading, type up your findings bylisting the ar-ticle, source, date, and a brief summary ofthe information presented.If you put this model into practice, you stay current while reducing an individual’s readingworkload.Some companies form reading groups. For example, a popular business book is distributed toeach member of a workteam. Every week, they meet for an hour, usually Friday, to read and dis-cuss how the book affects their business. What agreat way to participate in your own career andthe directionyour company takes.
Start Your Engines:The Two Finger Sway
The Two Finger Sway is the most advanced pacer presented inthis book. It assumes thatyou know how to see more at aglance and are comfortable incorporating two or three lines of text at a time. Choose something to read. Make the peace sign with your index finger and middle finger of ei-ther hand and then putthe two fingers together. Tuck your other three fingers intoyour palm. Placethe two fingers under the first line of theparagraph and move your fingers across the line with your eyes. When you get to the end of the line, drop your fingers down several lines of text and beginreading where your fingers are. Try reading more than just the line you are on. It
is
possible. Moveyour fingers with your eyes across that lineand again move them down several lines. Your hand zig-zags orsways as your reading flows. Go faster as you get more comfortable. Use this method for doing a fast skim or pre-view.Avoid moving your fingers across every line to stop yourselffromreading word-for-word, which slows you down.
Pit Stop: Tip of the Day
At the end of my programs, I tell a true story about when andhow I decided to getinto the faster reading profession. I include it here because it shares a powerful message.It was Christmas 1988 and I had no real career direction. Iwas making a living by workingtemp jobs, substitute teaching, and waitressing. I was going through outplacementcounseling toidentify my strengths and which careersmatched my abilities. During this time, I was thinkingaboutstarting a training business to help busy people manage their reading workload but I wasn’tsure if it would succeed. A career in teaching faster reading didn’t show up on my job list proba- bly because it’s not a typical job. Did people really needto read faster as I had believed? And couldI help them?Being the holidays, I was feeling depressed, with little moneyto spend and no clear career di-rection. I was eating Chinesetakeout with my boyfriend—now my husband, Christopher—and dis-cussing my situation. He said something I’llnever forget: “The universe has a plan for you. Just look
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forthe signs. A sign,” he said, “could be as obvious as somethingsomeone says, or as hidden as acoincidence that might not bea coincidence at all.” I looked at him with a somewhat confused look,shrugged my shoulders, and said, “Okay.”At the end of our meal, he held out his hand with four fortune cookies in it. I picked one, se-cretly hoping, as I alwaysdo, that what it says will bring me luck. I opened the cookieand read thefortune. My jaw dropped, and my eyes widened.I said, “I think I found the sign I was looking for to decidewhether or not I should go into this business.” The fortune said:
The road to knowledge begins with the turn of a page.
And so, as a result of reading this book, I hope you are able toturn more pages, which will putyou solidly on the road toknowledge.
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Answer Key
Day 1: All About Reading
Day 2: Battling the Worry Bug
Day 3: A True Athlete
Day 4: The History of Speed Reading
No comprehension questions
Day 5: Pre-view Day 6
Day 6: It’s All Relative
Day 7: The Ties That Bind
Day 8: Scanning Exercise
1. Claude H, 2. Philip J, 3. 3, 4. 868-6800, 5. RE, 6. KR,7. 531-6233, 8. 6 Thistle La, 9. John I, 10. Sydney M
Day 8: Books Join the Electronic Wave
Day 9: A Few Words
Day 10: April Fool’s Day: A Real Kick in the Pants!
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Personal Progress Chart
Track your progress by completing this chart for the Time Trial exercises you complete. Include thedate you did the exercise, the title of the reading, your words-per-minute (wpm), your comprehen-sion percentage (number of answers correct times 10%) and what strategy(ies) you used. The extraroom underneath is for you to write any other comment such as if you were interested in the read-ing, distracted, bored, challenged, etc. A sample is included below:
SAMPLE ENTRY:DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
2/15/08A True Athlete30080%White CardComment:I really like sports so my interest level was good. The white card helped me concentrate better.
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
All About ReadingComment:
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
A True AthleteComment:
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
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DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
Roadmap ExerciseComment:
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
It’s All RelativeComment:
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
The Ties That BindComment:
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
A Few WordsComment:
DateReading TitleWPMComp%Strategy(ies) Used
April Fools DayComment:
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Words Per Minute Chart
All timed readings contain approximately 400words
except
for Day 4, The History of Speed Read-ing, and Day 5 which is a Pre-View of Day 6.
Time WPM Time WPM TimeWPM
.10 2,400 1:30 265 2:50 140.201,200 1:40240 3:00 135.308001:50220 3:10 125.40 6002:00 200 3:20120 .50 480 2:10185 3:30 1151:00400 2:20 170 3:40 1101:103452:30160 3:501051:20 3002:40150 4:00 100
Day 5 - Pre-View Time Chart
Below is the Word Per Minute chart to use when you pre-view Day 6. Day 6 has 4,877 words, andtime in bold is theinstructed preview time for this exercise.
Pre-View Pre-View Pre-ViewTimeWPMTimeWPMTimeWPM
3:00 1625 4:30 1096 6:00 8123:10 1557 4:4010556:10 7923:20 1489 4:50 1041 6:20 7713:30 1421
5:00975
6:30 7533.40 1353 5:10 948 6:407323:50 1285 5:20 921 6:50 7114:00 1219 5:30894 7:00 6964:10 1178 5:40 8674:20 1137 5:50 840
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About the Authors
The Philip Lief Group
is a book developer based in Princeton, New Jersey, which produces awide range of language and usage guides, including
Grammar 101, Guide to Pronunciation,
and
Roget’s 21
st
Century Thesaurus.
The Philip Lief Group has beensingled out by the
New York Times
for its “consistent best’ sellers” and by
Time
magazine for being “bottom-line think tankers.”
The Princeton Language Institute
is a consortium of experts composed of linguists, lexicogra- phers, writers, teachers, and businesspeople. The institute focuses on developing easy-to-read self-help books in a nonacademic format for writers, businesspeople, and virtually anyone who wantsto enhance their communication and language skills. The Princeton Language Institute is based inPrinceton, New Jersey.Corporate productivity specialist
Abby Marks Beale
is the president and sole proprietor of
TheCorporate Educator
, a speaking and training business that helps busy people work smarter,faster and just plain better. She has been teaching speed readingto busy professionals, educatorsand students since 1988. In addition, she is also a specialist in teachingEmail Management andEtiquette and Time and Stress Management. Abby teaches her own speed reading course called
Rev It Up Reading: Getting Up to Speed With What You Read
on-site at corporations, at as-sociation conferences and most recently online. Abby is also the author of
The Complete IdiotsGuide to Speed Reading
and several study skillspublications, including
Success Skills: Strate- gies for Study and LifelongLearning
.
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Acknowledgements
This book is a reality because of the help and support of the following individuals:My husband, Chris, who tolerated my early morning absences and reviewed each chapter be-fore submission.My kids, who provided me with the humor breaks I desperately needed.My mother, for instilling an early love of reading, which I forgot about until I was way past mycollege years.Christopher Lee, who provided me with the incredibly powerful car racing analogies and jargon.Pamela Mullan, who provided insight about speed reading in her essay “The History of SpeedReading,” included in Days 4 and 5, and her many valuable contributions too numerous to mention. Louise Loomis, director of The Cognitive Center (Hartford, Connecticut), for her contributionto Day 6 on the “Nine Guidelines for Critical Reading.”John Whitman, whose writing talent is displayed in many of the timed reading activities.Joni McPherson for her graphic arts skill in formatting this ebook from the print version.Jon Kaufman, who skillfully retyped the entire manuscript for this ebook version,Jamie Saxon and Eileen Koutnik, my editors at The Philip Lief Group, who answered my ques-tions and kept me on schedule for the printed version.Other authors and researchers in the field of reading too numerous to mention, whose wisdomand insights I have learned and subsequently shared.And finally, I thank the participants in my workshops, who ask great questions and prove to metime and again why I do this for a living.
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My Keepers
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