Speed reading
Captain’s Log, Stardate 05.04.2007
I totally want to learn to speed read. My friend Georgiana found a website and posted a few tips on her blog:
Speed Reading 101
If I could speed read, I could read so many more books than I do now! I think my biggest problem is sub-vocalizing my words. I don’t think I’ve EVER not done it. I don’t know if I’d be able to not do it. If that makes any sense whatsoever.
Anybody have tips?
Oh, man! I wanna learn, too. There is this one book "The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program" that I'm trying to get through. It's helped me move a bit faster and improve my comprehension a tad, but I'm still nowhere near a speed reader.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Evelyn Wood program from TV commercials back in the '70s. Me, I already read pretty fast but now if I could inhale books, I could really make a dent in the TBR list!
ReplyDeleteI'm with ya. If I could read faster than I already do, my TBR would go down a lot faster too. That and I could get in equal amounts of reading and writing time.
ReplyDeleteCourse, I cheat sometimes. I'll read large chunks of the book, skip even larger chunks and get the main gist of the book wihtout reading it all.
I had some sort of speed reading class in high school, but I just didn't get it at all! I think reading all the time later after high school is what helped me speed up. Just pain ole practice.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Camy, I'm tagging you for blog tag! I hope you'll come to my blog to see the details. Come out to play. :)
Missy
I took the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading Course many years ago--I think when Evelyn was still a young girl!!
ReplyDeleteThe whole trick was using hand motions to "draw" your eyes down the page. Moving your hand fast forced your eyes to move faster than they would on their own, not giving you time to sub-vocalize. It tooks quite a bit of practice, but comprehension actually increases--a lot.
They taught us techniques for different types of material, but that is the basic concept. It really works. I still use it sometimes when I need to hurry through something (though of course not when I'm critiquing one of my writing buddies!
since i don't have good comprehension skills, i try to practice speed reading in a quiet place. key word= try. hehehe. thanks for the link. i love a good book!
ReplyDeleteAt least you had a good score on the quiz! LOL, I'm picking up some speed, but still falling way behind the rest of you! Maybe I can hit 300 WPM sometime next year--it's a wonder I get anything read at all!
ReplyDeleteI've always read fast (I guess one reason is that I don't subvocalize - I didn't even know what that was!), so it was neat to get an opportunity to test myself. I came out at 575 (despite distracting TV show playing in the background), with 100% comprehension. The computer screen made it hard. I'm guessing I'm closer to 700 or 800, especially with fiction.
ReplyDeleteSome suggestions - try to allow the words to create a picture in your mind without focusing on each word. Also, practice on thrillers. :)
So far as sub-vocalising goes in relation to speed reading. I had always believed, perhaps mistakenly so, that there is NO comprehension without sub -vocalisation
ReplyDelete