Thread: speed reading...

hi all
i'm not quite sure if this is in the right forum, but the others seem to be more for writing as opposed to reading...so i'll hope for hte best and continue writing...

i'm faced with a slight dilemma, i love reading (fiction), and also i need to read (school) BUT i read really slowly.

i know where my main problem is, and that is i 'read' in my head. ie. i say each word in my head as i read.

i've tried to speed up my reading for the past few weeks - trying to read 3+ words as chunks, using my fingers to pace my speed, moving a piece of paper down the page to force myself to read faster and not re-read...and i think i am reading a bit faster.

but i still find that i am saying the words in my head. and when i try to not say the words in my head, i feel like if i'm holding my breath or something - it just feels weird/wrong. Also, i can't not let no words get into my head, some just seem to 'leak' in...and the problem comes when my brain sort of joins these words together...and just mucks up my 'trance'. Worse of all, the longer i read this way, the more meaning i lose(ie. for the first page i would be ok., but as i continue to the 2nd, it just doesn't make sense - only the words htat have 'leaked' in stay and obv. that doesn't help)

i know i can't significantly increase my reading speed in a short period of time, but i was wondering if anyone here can help me a bit, lead me in the right direction?

thanks
pyko

I think I read in my head as well, but my reading speed is about 2 pages a minute, up to 5 a minute if I'm reading from a textbook, and 1 and a half if I'm concious of trying to reread, and reimagine a particular thing.

I wouldn't recomend trying to block reading in your head. It's about as hard as trying not to think of white elephants. I mean really try not to think of white elephants for a whole minute, it's not as easy as it sounds...

But anyway...Back to you. If you can't combine words as you read them, you can still save a lot of time by skipping the pauses between words.

Read Faster

You may have read that as two words. Read, and faster, understandable, the above was composed of two words. However, by forcing yourself not to halt your eyes in the space between the words, you can save time. Don't worry about hearing the words, or really understanding them, often your mind will be capable of catching up with what you've read. Heres another example, I pulled it from a book I just have lying around the house,

Instead of:

Why
not
schedule
that
pause
after
each
phrase
instead
of
each
word
?

Try:

Why not schedule
that pause
after each phrase
instead of
each word?

Also important is the relatively importance of each word. With practice, you should be buzzing right past words like the, and, said, did i mention the?

P.s. after you've imporved your speed It won't hurt to take some reading comprehension tests. I'm guessing you don't want to sacrifice anything in understanding.

You've prolably heard a lot of this before, but I hope I was able to help...