Thursday, October 13, 2016

Cut Down Reading Time Into Half With These Speed Reading Tips

By Christopher Phillips


Poor reading habits are actually a thing. With the amount of emails, documents and other written material that need to be read at working conditions, think of how much can get done if one read faster. It goes unnoticed but reading is cognitively complex. There are a lot of reasons why the average person reads at only 200 wpm with a comprehension of 60 percent of the total material.

By default, people read with an inner voice narrating the text that is seen on the material. This process is called subvocalization, which also includes mouthing out the words. The goal of speed reading is to take out these unnecessary defaults to quicken the intake of information.

Fixation on a word is a minor detail that barely anyone notices. On average a person fixates on a single string of letters at an average of . 25 seconds. To minimize this amount of time on focusing on one word, speed readers avoid processing words in a straight horizontal direction. The preferred method is to take snapshots of the area where the eyes are focused instead of following the direction of the string of text.

This works because constantly reading trains our brain to recognize the shape of text and translates it into something comprehensible. A more popular study method is skimming. Skimming is very useful, especially for material that do not require our full attention. But really, it just teaches people to know which parts can be done away with.

A common bad habit of studying is back skipping. This is the subconscious rereading of what has already been read. Meta guiding, a method of reading quickly, strives to eliminate this weakness by using a pointer to make processing lines and words without going back to what has been read already. This prevents the reader from getting distracted with other visual elements.

Perceptual expansion is another technique widely used. This is with the help of peripheral vision. Using peripheral vision while looking at text helps cover more area than locking on one word then on to the next. The brain can process visual information, in this case the text, when it is not focused on one line. Remember that there is no time to sound out the words inside your head.

Bad reading habits include daydreaming and disrupted focus, for example. It takes time readjust the brains functioning to read one way and then shift to another way. While this may take a toll on comprehension and enjoyment, it is said that constant practice will make up for the loss in due time.

There is always an opposing argument to every unconventional idea. While speed learning experts say that processing 1000 words per minute is possible, it still seems questionable. But there is never anything wrong in trying something out. It is useful to learn how to read not so important materials swiftly with the amount of material that needs to be processed everyday.

Think twice about using this newly acquired skill on things that need to be studied. Speed of absorbing certain information is indirectly proportional to comprehension. The faster one might read, the lesser one might understand. It just makes sense that way. To understand the given information is really the main purpose of reading and nothing else.




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