Online Speed Reading Tools And Techniques

Online speed reading is a technique that enables you to read fast. It has many advantages and can greatly improve your personal as well as professional life. It enables you to read books quickly. A novel that may have taken few weeks can be completed in few days. Similarly, you can also read official reports and other corporate communication stuff very quickly. It helps in saving time. Not just that, reading improves your knowledge base too. When you know to read fast, you can imagine the rich knowledge that you will accumulate. Speed reading is a simple technique that can be achieved at home with this online method. The process is easy to understand and implement. You would just require some regular practice. A consistent effort is of paramount importance when you learn the online speed reading technique. Here is some detailed information about this method of reading.

How it Works

Here are some easy steps that can help you master the technique. It will not only help you to read fast, it will also improve vocabulary. Speed reading is a mechanism that can be learned and mastered with consistent efforts. The below-mentioned step-by-step guide will help you achieve a good reading speed.

Structure: Written literature usually follows a structure. It has an introduction, body, and conclusion. While reading, you can simply read the introduction and conclusion to get an idea about its content. This will reduce the time that you spend on reading the entire article. Also, you could read in between lines to look for content that is bold or highlighted.

Chunking: This method of online speed reading calls for chunking words while reading. When you club words together, it becomes easier to read rather than reading one single word at a time. For instance, have you noticed how you react when you see a group of people? Usually, when you look at a few people standing together, you chunk them and look at them as a group instead of an individual.

Hand Motion: Do you remember how you used to read as a child by placing a finger on the text. Try using the same technique for speed reading. When you place the finger, it helps you to move your eyes quickly and this helps in fast reading.

Word Skipping: Online speed reading can be achieved by skipping words like "the," "a," "an," "and," among others. It is OK to skip such words if you want to improve your speed. Once you learn to skip these small words, it will naturally increase your pace and you will be able to skip few more words.

Vocabulary: When you improve vocabulary, it helps read faster. This is because you do not have to spend time on thinking about the meaning of the word. When you know the meaning, it is a lot easier to comprehend the content quickly.

Sub Vocalization: Sub vocalization while reading is very common and can reduce the speed at which you read. Online speed reading emphasizes on eliminating subvocalization. When you read out words loud or even if you read it under your breath, it reduces the pace at which you read. It is said that our eyes and brain work at a much quicker rate than we can speak. So when you don't pronounce words, it increases the speed of your reading.

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How to Study: Speed Reading

What is the most efficient way to retain facts in your memory? How can you go through vast amounts of information, several pages of densely written material and memorize as much information as possible? I have always had this question and tried several techniques to achieve better results. One of them was speed reading or photo reading (although the two terms differ somehow).

What is speed reading?

Speed reading is a series of techniques that have been devised to increase the speed of reading without compromising retention and comprehension.

How effective is speed reading claimed to be?

Speed reading advocates claim that by adopting their techniques you can double your reading speed almost immediately. With regular everyday practice reading speeds can exceed 1000 words per minute (wpm).

How old is speed reading?

The principle is as old as 1940 when training machines were used to help increase the reading speed. Evelyn Wood is the first researcher that after an impressive "demonstration" of reading speed by her university professor decided to uncover the clues why some of us are able to read and comprehend at higher speeds than others. Her "Wood method" or "Reading Dynamics" was developed to teach how to increase your reading speed.

What device was originally used to prove that humans can perceive and comprehend words at a very high speed?

The tachistoscope was used to prove that humans can identify images that appear for as short as 2 ms.

What techniques do the proponents of speed reading use?

Several techniques have been used such as:

• Choosing the right environment without distractions.
• Positioning yourself at the right distance from the book or computer screen.

Skimming. This involves the peripheral vision and usually is performed by searching through the series of paragraphs for the important or relevant information that is necessary to perceive the main meaning of the paragraph excluding the redundant words.

Avoid subvocalization. This technique is one of the most important, difficult for the beginner and first to be taught among speed readers. Subvocalization includes repeating the words of a text at a lower voice or subconsciously while we read. It is a very common habit and virtually everybody succumbs. As a result, the reading speed is limited by the speed that words can be pronounced and thus to less than 300-400 wpm.

Meta guiding. Meta guiding involves using a guide for the eye, either a finger or a pen or some other pointer to swipe through the text. This is claimed to not only increase reading speed but also force the eyes to expand their visual field. Several repeated movements with the pointer have been proposed and in different patterns, zig-zag through the pages or at a linear motion etc.

Avoid backtracking through the text. It is common to re-read several chunks of text in an effort to comprehend better. It has been proven that this process helps little in understanding and at the same time decreases the reading speed.

What is PhotoReading?

PhotoReading is a product that was introduced claiming to teach how to achieve reading speeds of up to 25,000 wpm without engaging to active reading but by soft focusing through the pages and subconsciously processing them. Several attempts to achieve those reading speeds by individual researchers have not been successful.

Have my attempts at speed reading or photo reading been successful? Is it a useful tool on how to study more efficiently and decrease the amount of time needed to comprehend and memorize?

I have seen a considerable increase in reading speeds after applying speed reading techniques. This was as impressive as tripling my initial reading speeds to more than 1000 wpm. I have noticed that the efficiency of reading depends on the type of material that needs to be memorized or comprehended.

In the case of novels, short stories or in general text that is not heavy in technical terms the techniques have proven very successful to me. In regards to technical material or scientific language, text that is heavily formatted I have found it very challenging to understand and memorize at such high speeds.

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