The Love for Speed Reading

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by: R Smith31
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Word Count: 532
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 Time: 3:23 AM

The term “speed reading” was coined by Evelyn Wood in the 1950’s. It was adapted by Pres. John F. Kennedy and other famous figures and it was later learned that Pres. Kennedy was himself a speed reader. Speed reading is a method where the rate of reading is increase without sacrificing comprehension. Though an average adult read at the speed of 250 words per minute with 70% comprehension, speed reading can enhance this to 500 words per minute with the aim of maintaining or improving comprehension. Different people have different habits of reading. While there are speed readers, there are also others who are slow readers. It is important that you are relaxed while reading. It will also help if you love what you are reading. Some of the methods used in speed reading are skimming and meta guiding. Skimming or scanning means searching the sentence of a page for clues or meaning. An article with hundred words will not have more than 20 words that are relevant to the topic. This method is commonly used while browsing through the internet. The downside of this method is that comprehension is compromise especially for those information-rich materials. Meta guiding is when you use an object as a guide while reading. This can be a pointer or pen or a finger. While it greatly increases retention, one must make sure that you skim every word so as not to miss important words. These methods do not guarantee 100% comprehension but it helps when studying especially if you were given a short span of time to do so. This is the method that led to Ms. Wood’s discovery of speed reading. She discovered that the sweeping motion of her hand across the page caught her attention.

There are speed reading books for readers in the internet. These books contain techniques, tips, instructions and the different methods that will help enhance your speed reading. These self-help books are a well of information. They also give the factors while some people can speed read while other people are slow. Some of these techniques are identifying words without focusing on every letter, not giving sound to all the words, spending time on some phrases and leaving out others, skimming some sections and not sub-vocalizing some phrases. Every reader should remember though to use various methods or use methods that are applicable to the one that you are reading. There are also techniques where you can combine methods for better retention and comprehension. But this will not do if you have a short attention span.

There are speed reading courses that are available both in person or software based. Their clients are mostly professionals and students. Their methods target the specific needs of the individual because different person have different reading habits. Speed reading, however, is a skill that once learned is beneficial. While speed reading courses and books have different take on a variety of approaches on speed reading, they both claim to increase comprehension and retention. Speed reading has grown a long way since the term was coined by Evelyn Wood in 1957. It has benefit people of different ages from different walks of life and race.

About the Author

M Usov is the author of this article on Speed Reading. Find more information about Speed Reading Courses here.

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