Abby Marks Beale - The Complete Idiots Guide to Speed Reading

Table of Contents

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Copyright 2008 by Abby Marks Beale

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THE COMPLETE IDIOTS GUIDE TO and Design are registered trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-59257-778-1

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007941352

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Introduction

People think of many different things when they hear the phrase speed reading. Some might think of Evelyn Wood, the woman who pioneered speed reading in the 1950s, who offered free sample classes across the United States. Others might conjure up the vision of a finger zipping down the pages in record time while the other hand turns the pages. Many envy the thought of being able to speed read. Some just cant figure out how it can really be done.

In this book, Pam and I have combined our more than 40 years of speed reading experience, both doing research and training others, with information gleaned from reading over 30 speed reading books and experience with over 10 speed reading software programs to come up with The Complete Idiots Guide to Speed Reading .

The Complete Idiots Guide to Speed Reading enables you to see and experience ways of getting through your reading workload with speed and efficiency. If you practice with the suggested strategies, you can easily double or even triple your current reading speed. In addition, you might find you concentrate better or understand what you read with greater ease.

As you go through the chapters, youll quickly learn that there are many simple options available to you for reading better and faster that you probably didnt know existed. Once you know, I think youll enjoy putting them into action.

Because each reader comes into this process with varied levels of education, vocabulary, background knowledge, experience, and motivation, you learn how to speed read in your way. I present a buffet of proven ideas. Some will work for you better than others. There will be a lot you will want to keep and some you wont, but the only way to know whats best for you is to try everything, figure out which one(s) are best for you, and have fun along the way.

If you try something once and you feel its not working, consider trying it several times before deciding its not for you. I encourage you to experimentor play, if you willwith the ideas in this book so you can come away with the most useful strategies to read faster and better to get you where you want to go. Remember, there is no one best way to read, just the way(s) you find most useful.

If you have any questions or want to send me your comments, please do so. Id love to hear from you. (My contact info appears on the inside back cover of the book.)

Have fun speeding through your reading!

How to Use This Book

This book is divided into four distinct parts. Each chapter in each part builds upon the next with an opportunity to practice your speed strategies to solidify your learning. Heres what youll find:

Part 1, Getting Up to Speed with What You Read, puts you directly in the speed reading drivers seat. In these chapters, you first evaluate your current reading speed and comprehension using the One-Minute Timing Exercise. You are then introduced to several proven speed strategies, including using your hands and a card, reading key words, reading thought chunks, and spreading your peripheral vision to see more words at a glance. Another timing exercise, the 3-2-1 Drill, is also introduced as a way to challenge yourself to read faster than you might normally feel comfortable. Because comprehension is the biggest concern new speed readers have, I have included an entire chapter on helping you understand how comprehension is affected when you first learn to read faster and what you can do about it to secure it.

Part 2, Get In, Get Out, and Dont Go Back, starts with helping you know how to best set yourself up for reading success. Good concentration is essential for reading with speed and comprehending most easily. The getting in part deals with the differences between nonfiction and fiction reading. It uncovers where the writers outline is located in nonfiction so you can quickly find the most important information and not waste time. Getting out guides you into thinking about how you are going to literally get out of what youre reading as efficiently as possible through skimming, scanning, skipping, summarizing, and understanding the organizational patterns of most nonfiction. Dont go back provides ways to keep your keepers and reduce your natural tendency to forget. To put all this into practice, I also share some of the best ways to read each different type of material.

Part 3, Tuning Up Your Speed, takes what you know about the speed reading techniques and the other effective general reading strategies to discover what to speed read and what not to. Included here is a fabulous chapter on speed reading on screen, which, as of this printing, is not found anywhere else. You learn how to adapt the hand and card methods for paper onto a computer screen as well as get some insights into how to print less to save trees and time. And finally, we look at how all readers can learn how to reduce daydreaming, back-skipping, and subvocalizing while reading to help their reading speed, concentration, and comprehension.