Problems In Speed Reading
Speed readers often face a variety of different problems when learning how to speed read different kinds of texts.
Learning to speed read books, texts and journals all need to have different approaches.
The reason is this: different styles of writing demand different styles of reading.
A specific adjustment should be made no matter what text you're reading.
If you succeed in choosing the correct adjustment, you will read the text at 100% of the possible speed and comprehension.
When we choose the wrong "mode," or "setting" for our reading, either our speed or our comprehension will suffer.
The goal is to optimize your specific reading habits so that your reading speed and reading comprehension will be at their appropriate maximum levels.
For the sake of simplicity in this article, all reading will be classified into 5 distinct types...
In order of usual literary density, here are the categories I have selected: poems, short stories, novels, notes, magazine articles, news articles, and textbooks.
For ease of explanation, I will address them in a slightly different order for this article.
Poems, first of all, are often written using a wide range of subtle literary devices.
What I mean by devices are alliteration, assonance, double-entendres, and such.
Often, the effectiveness of these devices depends on whether or not the poem is read aloud.
So, to ensure that you retrieve the maximum amount of meaning from a poem, you should always read it out loud.
Short stories and novels also use many devices, but it is usually to a lesser degree.
Short stories are pleasant to read aloud or silently - you should decide on your own what to do.
When you pay close attention to style and writing techniques, it becomes very easy to see how the writer intended the text to be read.
It would be unreasonable to read a gigantic novel out loud to yourself.
No author expects or even wants that of you.
Novels are written to be read alone, and silently.
If you are reading something written by someone you know, say a note or a letter, it may help your comprehension to imagine their voice reading to you.
This will help put the sentences into context, and this will clarify the accidental mis-statements or strange opinions.
If you don't do this already automatically, give it a try - you'll find that it gives real life to text, and makes it a very enjoyable read (as long as the content is good news).
If you are reading something in a textbook, you do not need to imagine a voice at all.
It's in fact best if you simply recognize the individual words and immediately take in the information directly from the definitions of the words.
This way, you don't waste any time with the middle-step of "voicing the words.
" This concept is explained better at this speed reading site.
If you are reading something from a newspaper or a magazine, it is probably written to be semi-dramatic while also packed with information.
Newspapers try to be a compromise between being "written by someone you know," and "written so that you have the information.
" Therefore, reading them calls for a loose combination of speed reading and of vocal-reading.
(Vocal reading is where you seem to read silently, only you have a voice in your mind that reads the words aloud anyway.
This is also called sub-vocalizing.
) If you use these tricks when reading, both your speed and your comprehension will improve.
If you always identify exactly what you're reading, why you're reading it, and who wrote it, you will be a much more efficient reader.
Learning to speed read books, texts and journals all need to have different approaches.
The reason is this: different styles of writing demand different styles of reading.
A specific adjustment should be made no matter what text you're reading.
If you succeed in choosing the correct adjustment, you will read the text at 100% of the possible speed and comprehension.
When we choose the wrong "mode," or "setting" for our reading, either our speed or our comprehension will suffer.
The goal is to optimize your specific reading habits so that your reading speed and reading comprehension will be at their appropriate maximum levels.
For the sake of simplicity in this article, all reading will be classified into 5 distinct types...
In order of usual literary density, here are the categories I have selected: poems, short stories, novels, notes, magazine articles, news articles, and textbooks.
For ease of explanation, I will address them in a slightly different order for this article.
Poems, first of all, are often written using a wide range of subtle literary devices.
What I mean by devices are alliteration, assonance, double-entendres, and such.
Often, the effectiveness of these devices depends on whether or not the poem is read aloud.
So, to ensure that you retrieve the maximum amount of meaning from a poem, you should always read it out loud.
Short stories and novels also use many devices, but it is usually to a lesser degree.
Short stories are pleasant to read aloud or silently - you should decide on your own what to do.
When you pay close attention to style and writing techniques, it becomes very easy to see how the writer intended the text to be read.
It would be unreasonable to read a gigantic novel out loud to yourself.
No author expects or even wants that of you.
Novels are written to be read alone, and silently.
If you are reading something written by someone you know, say a note or a letter, it may help your comprehension to imagine their voice reading to you.
This will help put the sentences into context, and this will clarify the accidental mis-statements or strange opinions.
If you don't do this already automatically, give it a try - you'll find that it gives real life to text, and makes it a very enjoyable read (as long as the content is good news).
If you are reading something in a textbook, you do not need to imagine a voice at all.
It's in fact best if you simply recognize the individual words and immediately take in the information directly from the definitions of the words.
This way, you don't waste any time with the middle-step of "voicing the words.
" This concept is explained better at this speed reading site.
If you are reading something from a newspaper or a magazine, it is probably written to be semi-dramatic while also packed with information.
Newspapers try to be a compromise between being "written by someone you know," and "written so that you have the information.
" Therefore, reading them calls for a loose combination of speed reading and of vocal-reading.
(Vocal reading is where you seem to read silently, only you have a voice in your mind that reads the words aloud anyway.
This is also called sub-vocalizing.
) If you use these tricks when reading, both your speed and your comprehension will improve.
If you always identify exactly what you're reading, why you're reading it, and who wrote it, you will be a much more efficient reader.
Source...