Why do You Need to Learn Speed Reading? | Wow College Essay Blog

Almost every person interested in self-development comes to the need to absorb as much knowledge as possible. Have you ever noticed how, going into a bookstore, you have the thought: “God, how many books I still want to read…”? Or after listening to some exciting person, scientist, art historian, artist, you begin to realize how little you know, and how you would like to fill your gaps in erudition… You usually want to find some magic means to lead you to more significant results at such moments.

If you’ve seen Limitless (2011), you must have been jealous of the main character, a writer who took pills that multiplied his brain activity. Bradley Cooper’s character could learn more languages, do what he liked more professionally, be incredibly productive physically and mentally, all at an incredible rate. That’s one such tool, but not a cinematic one, but a more realistic one, we’ll discuss with you below. And we are going to talk about speed-reading.

Calls to learn speed-reading can be heard for not the first couple of years. The desire to master large amounts of information is becoming more and more relevant every year because life is accelerating, our interests are expanding, and lifelong learning is becoming an everyday concept. Accordingly, the problem arises of finding all kinds of methods to maximize the information consumed, among which the ability to process a lot of text quickly opens up excellent prospects.

On our site, you can find a free “Speed Reading” course and “Speed Reading” program, which can help acquire such an essential skill as reading quickly and a lot. They can also help you improve your concentration and memory, give you more free time, and make you more competitive and erudite in the job market.

Next, we will understand how the reading process is built-in general, whether you need to learn speed reading, and if so (spoiler — yes). Let’s see what exercises will help along the way. Let’s go!

What is “reading” anyway?

We often hear, “we should read a lot” or “reading makes us educated” or “a person’s best friend is a book”; quotes from many researchers, scholars, famous people encourage us to plunge into the incredible adventures that open behind the doors of a book. That is, we constantly hear the answer to the question, “Why to read?” Yet no one ever asks the question, “And how to read?” Let’s first understand how the mechanism of reading is built, what we have thereby technical description.

Naturally, the main organ that helps us read is our eyes. Of course, today, audiobooks and podcasts have a significant share of the reading market. However, the popularity of paper books can still be challenged and is confirmed by some scientific studies demonstrating its gain [M. Heid, 2018].

The process of reading consists of eye movement, which is divided into three types:

• smooth tracking (when we follow a smoothly moving object);
• vergence (eye movement in opposite directions; let’s say, when you bring your finger closer to your nose, you perform convergence, but if you move your finger away from your nose, you perform divergence);
• Vestibular eye movement (the eyes remain stationary on some object while the head moves in different directions).

It would seem that our eyes use different kinds of the above movements when reading. Still, if we deal with this process structurally, our eyes make involuntary rapid, jerky movements in a certain rhythm, called saccades. You may also have noticed that in addition to constant activities (saccades), we also stop and pause at some word, which is called fixation. And finally, the third part of this process is cognitive processing, when you need to realize what you have just read. These three mini-processes make up the more complex process of reading.

During fixation, foveal vision works mainly, while peripheral vision primarily rests.

Now let us turn to the text we are reading. Text is any sequence of meaningful statements conveying information. It consists of words divided into content words that describe the primary meaning and function words (prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc., i.e., grammatical units that link content words). Research shows that our visual attention is fixed more on content words.

In addition to saccades, fixations, and cognitive processing, we also encounter regressions or returning to what we have read. It often happens, especially in the initial stages when we read and concentrate on the material. In more advanced readers, regressions take up no more than 15% of our reading time. Also, regressions can be our frequent companions if we read some scientific literature, something we have never known before, i.e., creating new neural networks.

In general, as a video blogger, author, and entrepreneur Thomas Frank points out, a person reads between 200 and 400 words per minute, which is average. Anything above this rate is considered reading with a loss of comprehension [Th. Frank, 2015]. Which begs the question: what is more important to you? What do you want when you read a book: another “trophy” on the shelf or meaning extracted from what you read.

Speed reading — to take or not to take?

Our answer is unequivocal yes! The fact is that “reading fluently” and learning to speed-read are two different things. Speed-reading involves mastering the material at a loss of comprehension of no more than 10%. If you recall any of the books you read, you certainly won’t answer all the questions about the content. With proper speed-reading instruction, you risk losing very little, but you gain significantly in time.

So why is speed reading for adults so important?

Firstly, for a person who is confronted with many texts at work and does not need to go into detail or analyze some elements of the material, if they need to evaluate what is written, then speed reading is an essential skill. This skill is also called “text scanning,” which is entirely accurate in conveying the meaning of this action.

Examples of such professions include journalists, writers, editors, copywriters, researchers, etc., i.e., all those who periodically need to get acquainted with new text data.

Secondly, if an adult decides to spend a certain amount of time each day reading, it is necessary to approach it wisely. We think you will agree that there are no people who read only one type of literature: only fiction, only popular science, or only severe scientific publications. Accordingly, the priority of each book is also different.

Come across a popular science book that doesn’t include very many scientific explanations, facts, and complex concepts. You can use speed-reading and scan it and with enough awareness. That way, you can devote more time to what you think is more important to you.

Third, many people, mastering the skill of speed-reading, start reading as much literature as possible from various fields, from programming to music theory. Yes, of course, the more areas we understand, the more exciting and erudite people we become. But in the preceding sentence, the keyword is still “understand.

The task of reading is not to read as much as possible. Reading is a process that makes us a more profound and more fundamental person, so use speed-reading wisely — delve into the topic you find most useful, engaging. Don’t throw yourself into different areas of knowledge. It will bring you more dividends due to the growth of intellectual capital.

Fourth, speed-reading can improve concentration and attention. Reading, in general, is an excellent attention training tool, and speed-reading is a process that requires even more focus.

For example, neuropsychologist and expert in the study of the brain Mark Tigelaar in his book “How to read, memorize and forget nothing,” indicates that the brain is ready to consume about 800–1400 words per minute, while in normal reading mode, we perceive 200–400 words per minute, so there is a certain “mental emptiness” that the brain itself fills with extraneous thoughts. So the expert advises increasing the speed to minimize the risk of distractions penetrating [M. Tigelaar, 2009].

Fifth, once you master the skill of speed reading, you will become a more confident person. Knowing that you have many more books under your belt than those not speed-readers gives you a competitive advantage. Accordingly, you can use it to your advantage by showing more knowledge in different areas.

Opinion formation is built on the experience of receiving information. Consequently, the more quality information you consume, the more likely your opinion will be competent and objective. And when discussing an issue, it is always felt.

Thus, if you have decided to get acquainted with speed-reading, we advise you to start immediately. Just below, we share a few techniques and recommendations on how to do it best.

Exercises and recommendations

If you’re getting into speed reading, it doesn’t mean you’re trying to develop some superpower — you’re just trying to master the skill of reading in its more advanced form. For example, cognitive development specialist and entrepreneur Jordan Harri points out in his TED Talks that a lousy reader is not someone who reads few words per minute but has terrible reading habits. And to become an effective reader, you need to correct them [J. Harry, 2018].

Let’s note these worst reading habits below:

Subvocalization

Some people say every word out loud while reading (this is called “vocalization,” by the way) because it’s easier for them to absorb information that way. It, of course, is rare and abnormal, but it is more common to hear a person read everything in an internal voice, “to himself. It is called subvocalization, which is used for greater understanding, as in the case of vocalization.

Nevertheless, the two processes are essentially no different, and, most frustratingly, they both inhibit our reading skills because, come to think of it, if you take the time to say a word even inwardly, you are expending resources to do so. On the other hand, the goal of speed-reading is to minimize the energy expended in the reading process without losing meaningfulness. And this is possible.

Try reading without saying the words to yourself. At first, you won’t be good at it, you’ll suffer from incomprehension, and you’ll feel like you’re just gliding through the letters. But with time, awareness will come, and you will realize that you don’t have to recite the text to understand it.

There is also a technique that involves us “tuning in” to our environment. For example, many people go to the park or to a cafe to work or read. It would seem that there are many distractions in these places. But in such areas, the brain feels most relaxed because it does not need to look for something to occupy itself — a certain number of such factors already exist. There is no need to get rid of noise and focus because these places are not so noisy and active (or instead, one should choose just such quiet zones).

So how else can an adult help themself when mastering speed-reading?

Regressions

As we pointed out above, regressions go back to the material you just read but have already forgotten. The problem here is that we lose concentration while reading because the author introduced the context to immerse us in what is happening. The problem is that there is often a great deal of “water” in this context. When we are engaged in the context, we lose concentration and miss even key points, causing us to come back later.

So how do we solve this problem? We go back to a habit from childhood. Do you remember when we used to read by holding up the line with a ruler? Why did we do that? Of course, to maintain concentration, not “blur” throughout the text, and be as attentive as possible. Why not apply this technique now?

To get rid of regression, take any object (a plastic card, the same ruler, a phone case, etc.) to cover the distracting part of the text and focus on what you are reading at that particular second, and in no case allow yourself to return to the material you have already read. Over time, you will notice that this need will not be necessary at all.

Another bad habit is also a concept we are already familiar with.

Fixations

You already know that our eyes stop after each saccade, taking an average of 2 to 5 words. After that, we devote time to fixation and cognitive awareness. However, this also takes up a great deal of time. Text comprehension is also possible in continuous reading.

To read continuously, use your nonstop moving finger or pen and move smoothly from word to word without slowing down under any circumstances. Then you will find that your speed will increase, and you will not lose awareness simultaneously.

In addition, many people learn speed-reading from mobile apps that offer automatic word highlighting that replaces your finger or pen. The highlighting goes in a certain rhythm from one word to the next, and the reader has no choice but to follow the highlighting. As a result, fixations disappear, and speed increases.

Another tip for avoiding fixations is the popular means of dividing the reading area into several sections, mainly three. The essence of this technique is to read words in the middle of the first section, then jump to the middle of the second section and the middle of the third section. All other words must be fixed by peripheral vision, so it is vital to develop it [T. Ferris, 2017].

However, besides techniques and exercises, there is one method that should accompany all of the above — read a lot. Read often, read on a variety of topics, read while struggling with yourself. The more reading experience you have, the more vocabulary and knowledge you will have in your luggage, which will allow you to read better and faster because some terms will already be familiar and understandable. The use of specific vocabulary will not be unexpected [Th. Frank, 2015].

Thus, thanks to the techniques mentioned above and exercises for speed reading, you will be able to get rid of habits that inhibit your usual reading pace.

Bottom line

Even if you don’t enroll in a speed-reading school for adults, there are so many techniques for learning this skill on your own. However, before you learn speed-reading, realize why you need it. If you find justification for your desire, go ahead! Do not forget that it will not be accessible at first, and in this case, the main thing is not to despair and keep working on yourself. Work for more than one month, and you will notice visible results, which will bring numerous benefits.