Martin - Speed Reading: Learn How to Read and Understand Faster in Just 2 Hours

The truth is, not many people are able to leverage such an accomplishment. In fact, it is assumed that only expert readers can do this, leaving the average reader struggling to get through even a few pages of a work at a time. To compensate for this, researchers have long debated that speed reading, or the ability to read rapidly by combining phrases and sentences all at once, is the key to acquiring vast amounts of information in a shorter period of time. It has also been suggested that this technique is able to improve reading comprehension when implemented effectively.

Today, you can find several online courses and applications that train individuals on speed reading. These courses aim to help readers improve their ability to comprehend materials without spending extensive time on the text. A strategy such as this one is truly effective for individuals that are required to read a great deal of material. Consider college students or graduate students. The work load is almost certain to be overwhelming; and professors are less inclined to sympathize with a student simply because she is required to read many books at a time. Instead, it is up to the student to develop methods and strategies that will enable him to move through the material much more quickly while still being able to grasp the informations content effectively. Thus, speed reading is a key element in producing these types of results.

This is not to say that this concept is widely accepted among all those who have studied this phenomenon. As you will learn in this book as well as throughout your continued study of speed reading, there are many researchers who believe that speed reading is ineffective in its ability to help a person retain information. For many experts, those who oppose speed reading are considered to be old-fashioned, myth-based researchers who have not fully understood the positive effects of speed reading. To these individuals the ones that oppose speed reading the reader can and will miss important details that are often grasped by those who take their time in reading a text. Theoretically, it would be impossible for a reader to comprehend the material effectively if time is not taken to focus or fixate on each word. This idea, however, could not be further from the truth. In fact, there is substantial evidence to validate that ones inability to speed read greatly hinders his progress in acquiring the information presented in a text.

Quintessentially, and for the sake of this book, we will explore the many benefits of speed reading, and will discuss various strategies that one can use to improve reading comprehension and completion.

Chapter 1 - What is Reading Speed and How Does It Work?

Reading speed or reading rate is best understood as the ability to engage all of your senses (hearing, seeing, thinking, comprehending) at a rate that is more effective and quicker than normal. By using your eyes, ears, mouth, and brain, you can employ the senses to increase the rate at which you read. Lets explore this in more details.

The first process in reading involves seeing the words on the page. For most readers, we are able to look at more than one word at time. In other words, we can read in clumps. Long ago, researchers believed that every reader read each word individually, which added to the amount of time it took to get through a book. But current research suggests that not only are we able to look at multiple words at once, but we are able to skip certain words while still acquiring a general understanding of the text. This all aids in our ability to speed read.

Because we are able to look at multiple words at a time, our ability to comprehend various terms is enhanced by our power to read quickly. Even if we do not know the exact meaning of every word, we can decipher its definition by using context clues. (Context clues are basically the words or phrases surrounding an unfamiliar term, which often provide a suggested meaning of the word.) For this reason, we can conclude that speed reading enhances reading comprehension. To understand this further, lets consider the following example.

For many non-native speakers, reading each individual word at a time can become tedious, especially when the words are unrecognizable. The majority of ones concentration is focused not on the meaning of the word, but whether or not it can be pronounced. This focus or fixation on each word takes away from ones ability to concentrate on the overall meaning of the text. Thus, we can deduce that those who read more slowly than others are lagging behind in their ability to comprehend a text. Therefore, by increasing ones ability to read, his concentration moves away from fixation and move towards the general meaning of the entire text. This is what makes speed reading a powerful and effective method for readers.

Consider another benefit of speed reading: enhancing ones memory. Believe it or not, being able to read at a faster rate challenges your brain to work harder at retaining the information given. This, in essence, strengthens the brain, which is like a muscle. The more practice or exercise you employ with speed reading, the more the brain is able to work more efficiently at locking onto the information that is presented.