subject: Learning How To Speed Read [print this page] Reading is a critical skill in the world today. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a child who never learned how to read to navigate the adult world successfully when it is time for him or her to enter it.
The ability to read is an essential part of the skills that employers look for in their employees. The top skills that employers look for are the ability to write and the ability to receive information through a variety of means.
In addition, the ability to read is critical to the success of a child in school. Particularly in college, a student cannot get through his or her classes without knowing how to obtain information from books.
College students are also finding that learning how to read faster is critical to their success as a student. Professors are demanding more and more as the working world begins to demand that their employees know more and more information.
Learning how to read quickly can also improve our ability to contribute at work and other areas of our lives. This ability will also increase our ability to process information quickly.
There are several things you can do to help yourself learn how to read faster. The first thing you will need to do is learn how to read without focusing on every single word.
Instead look at groups of words and discern their meaning. Start with groups the size of two to three words.
As you improve, you will start to enlarge the size of the groups of words you can pick up at one time. Translating words together into a meaning makes the transfer of information from the page to your brain much faster.
The second thing you can do to improve how fast you read is to increase the size of your vocabulary. The more words you know and are familiar with, the more meaning you will be able to pick up by reading fewer words.
Words you do not know will cause you to pause to pick up the meaning. This will slow down your reading.
In addition, learning more vocabulary will make you appear smarter. As you use these words in your university essays in the correct manner, you will be able to achieve better grades as well.
The third thing you should do is stop moving your lips when you read. Many people pretend they are reading out loud when they read and move their lips in the shape of the words as they read.
This is extra movement that uses more brain power. In addition, you will move your lips much slower that your brain can pick up information from reading.
Your reading speed will dramatically improve if you force yourself to stop moving your lips. This is a very bad habit that must be broken.
The fourth thing that will help you read faster is practice. The more you read, the faster you will become.
Even if you are only able to read a mere 15 minutes a day, it will make a difference in your speed. Over a year, 15 minutes a day will allow you to ready 18 novels.
This is a lot of reading. Think of how much you could learn by incorporating only a little reading into your regimen every day.
The old phrase, "Practice makes perfect," applies completely in this context. You will only read faster, if you practice reading.
The fifth thing you should consider is why you are reading. When you know why you are reading, it becomes more interesting to you.
If you do not know why you are reading and you think it is completely boring, you will not be motivate to read, let along read faster. When you feel motivated to read you will automatically increase how fast you read.
In addition, knowing why you need to read will help you determine whether you need to pick up details or simply main ideas. If you only need to pick up main ideas, you can skim the material.
Skimming the material will definitely improve the speed at which you read. Even if you have to pickup details, do not read every word.
The sixth thing that you should do is practice speed reading. In your 15 minutes of reading a day, spend five minutes reading several pages two or three times faster than is comfortable for you.
While you are practicing, time yourself to see your improvement. As you speed read, you will become faster and you will learn an increasing amount of material that will help you in your everyday life.
