Those who say that reading is a thing of the past aren’t aware that the majority of communication today is done through reading. Emails, texts, memos, blogs and social media are all written forms.
In fact, reading and understanding content is an increasingly large percentage of daily life.
Slow and methodical readers have a special challenge when it comes to reading all the content thrown at them in a day. Whether it’s reading an article from your textbook or reading a friend’s blog post or researching for a trip you want to take, finding the time to read and assimilate information can be a challenge for slow readers.
Improving reading speed isn’t just about reading faster. It’s also about increasing understanding and being able to skim large swaths of text for the parts that are important to you. Imagine if you tried to read all the pages of a website just to find out how much a product costs. How much time would you waste if you did this every time you’re looking for a specific piece of information?
Here are some ways to increase your reading speed:
1. Identify what you’re looking for
It helps to increase reading speed if you have a specific idea of what you’re looking for in a text. This allows you to scan and prioritize certain sections without wasting your time reading the whole thing.
2. Learn to skim
Skimming involves scanning the page with your eye to catch topics that are relevant to you. If you’re skimming an article, read the headline and then read the first and last sentences of each paragraph. If there are bullet points, scan them quickly. If you’re skimming a book, read the table of contents and then skim the chapters that are relevant to you by reading the first and last sentences of the paragraphs for that chapter.
After skimming and identifying the most relevant information, you can go back and re-read more carefully, if necessary.
3. Don’t highlight
Some say that highlighting is a way for you to pick out important points from a text. However, by highlighting, you’re not actually reading, but rather putting a visual memo saying this bit of information is important. Many people who highlight don’t retain the information they highlighted. Therefore, it not only slows you down, but causes you to have to go back and re-read the areas you highlighted.
4. Don’t read in bed
If you’re reading something for pleasure, reading in bed is fine. But if you’re reading a challenging text or something that’s important or homework-related, it’s better to use a desk. Reading in bed can cause eye strain and also cue the body to relax, making it difficult for you to concentrate. Use a desk instead.
5. Know when to scan and when to read
Some material can be scanned while other material should be read. For example, a legal contract should be read line for line. However, a newspaper or magazine article or blog post can be scanned.
6. Read in chunks
Instead of reading word for word, try looking at several words at a time. Practice this with programs like Ace Reader or Rapid Reader which flash several words at a time on the screen and test how well you captured them.
7. Time yourself
A simple exercise to gauge if you’re increasing your reading speed is to time yourself. Choose ten 1,000 word articles and time yourself each week. If your speed increases, then you know you’re applying the techniques well. If not, you need to find out what’s holding you back. You can time yourself on any length of text. Even novels and academic books.
If you know other speed reading tricks, feel free to share them in the comments!
Author: Stacey Wonder
Stacey Wonder is a content writer at EssayTigers.com. Creative content ideas is what she is always on the lookout for.
