Speed Reading Articles
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Course
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Why would
people want to read faster?
~ by
Melvin Ng
A question often asked is why people
would want to read faster? Without wishing to be
flippant, the answer to this question is essentially two-fold:
(a) because they want to; and
(b) because they need to.
Below we will examine some of the reasons
why someone may want to read faster and, more
pertinently, why they may need to read faster. To
conclude, we’ll also look at some of the practices that can be
adopted so that you can actually read faster.
(a) Why you would want to read faster
When we are children, adults try to relay
to us that reading is a pleasure that we should take care and
time over. We might also be told that in order to fully
understand what we are reading, we need to take time over the
written word – save we may misconstrue what the author
intended. When we reach adolescence, however, we find we’re
in for a rude awakening!
Reading is for educational purposes: and
if we want to improve our minds, we had better be prepared to
do a lot of it!
The need to read lots of information and
data is probably the biggest reason why we want to have the
skills to read faster. There are simply not enough hours
in a day for us to have the luxury of reading everything at a
leisurely pace; we must push the frontiers of our reading
speed and ever increase this as we get older. To do
otherwise means that we have to spend copious amounts of time
reading text that could have been utilized in ways (possibly)
more enjoyable than reading – such as spending time with the
family, or watching television.
(b) Why people need to read faster
The reason why people need to read
faster is actually tied-up with the reason why people want
to read faster – the sheer amount of information that
we need to read these days.
Although sales of novels have fallen
year-on-year for over a generation now, the various different
mediums we have for reading have increased. Indeed, the
Internet alone provides us with a reading medium that we would
unlikely be able to complete even if we spend the rest of our
life trying to do it!
Moreover, today, more and more of us are
required to read very in-depth, complex, reports as part of
our day-to-day work: for which we simply do not have the
luxury of a couple of days. Work related reading material
generally means having to turnaround the reading time as
quickly as possible. It is usually for this reason that those
of us who have not undertaken a speed reading course by
the time we enter the workforce rush out shortly thereafter to
do so.
(c) Methods of reading faster
If you find that you are one of those
people who would like to be able to read faster, the
following are some useful tips that you can adopt in your
pursuit of speed reading:
(i) Preparation:
A large part of being able to read
faster lies on your preparation. Here, before you start
to read that thick business report, give it the once over
(i.e., skim read it), see how long the report is, try to grasp
the main points being conveyed in the report – you can usually
do this by looking at the headings, subheadings and index –
then take a deep breath and plunge into your speed reading
mode. When you adopt some of the other methods listed
below, you’ll usually find that knowing a little of what to
expect next will greatly enhance your ability to read
faster.
(ii) Avoid any distraction:
A lot of us can read in rooms with loud
music. Some of us can read on busy trains. However, if you
want to read anything quickly and accurately, try to
approximate how long it will take you to read it, find and
appropriate a period in your day when you’ll have such time,
then go to a quiet room/place and put up the “do not disturb
sign”. You’ll find reading in an atmosphere of silence will
greatly enhance your ability to read faster. Of
course, this is sometimes easier said than done, especially if
you have a family with young children. If this applies to
you, see if you can postpone reading the material until such
time as you can devote 100% of your time to your reading.
(iii) Try to read in daylight hours:
Although many of us enjoy reading the odd
novel in bed, for the purposes of reading fast,
research has shown that we are much more likely (biologically)
to read fast during daylight hours.
(iv) Take a break:
No one can read continuously for hours on
end. Then again, each of us has different thresholds when we
have been reading too long. Finding equilibrium between
spending too long reading, which will slow down your reading
pace, and taking too many breaks from reading, which will
likewise slow down your reading pace, is very important. In
most cases, the medium time for fast reading is a period of 1
hour reading followed by a 10 to 15 minute break.
(v) Motivation:
Finally, one of the most important
aspects of reading fast is being able to motivate
yourself to read the material in the first place! If you
enjoy reading something, you’ll want to take your time over
it. Reading fast, therefore, usually needs to be adopted with
reading material we are not overly enthusiastic about reading
in the first place! But you should not look at it this way;
otherwise your reading speed is going to deteriorate.
You need to motivate yourself.
Here, prudent practice is to set yourself
goals – like you would with anything else in life: “I want to
read Chapter 1 in 5 minutes”, etc.
So, whatever the reason may be as to why
you want or need to read faster, if you utilize some of
the above practices in your reading, in no time at all you’ll
be reading much faster!
About the author:
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Melvin Ng teaches speed reading
through his
16-Minute Speed Reading Audio Program.
This breakthrough technique
Guarantees to
Double your reading speed in just
16 minutes!
http://www.bestspeedreadingcourse.com
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