If you’ve been working on improving your speed reading skills, you’ll know that it’s not just about how fast you can move your eyes down the page. It’s true that by learning to eliminate habits like regression and subvocalization you can speed up your reading rate. It’s also true that you can train your eyes and your brain to take in larger chunks of words, and to do it faster. But you also need to train your brain to process, understand, and remember what you read. As part of your speed reading study, you’ll find it useful to include some practice in reading comprehension. To do this, you need to look at the notion of “how to read” from a different perspective. Rather than concentrating only on the work that your eyes are doing, focus on how your brain handles the text that you’re reading. The process of reading isn’t just a passive act, where information comes in through your eyes and piles up in your brain in a big heap. Instead, you get the most out of what you read when you learn to automatically analyze the information as you read.
To be an active reader, you need to practice critical reading. This isn’t “criticism” in the sense of “complaining about what the author wrote.” When you practice critical reading, you’re not complaining, you’re comparing and contrasting and cogitating – in other words, you’re actively thinking about what you’re reading. When your mind is as engaged as your eyes are in the act of reading, you’ll be forming the mental connections that will help you understand and remember what you’re reading. Critical reading starts before you even pick up a book, and continues after you put it down again. There are three essential aspects to critical reading:
1. Keep an open mind. Assume that the author has a valid point and knows the subject. You’re looking for information, and for something you didn’t know before.
2. Be ready to ask questions. On the other hand, not everyone is right all the time. You know things as well, and you don’t have to accept everything the author says if you have questions or doubts.
3. Take notes. Write down summaries of main ideas, facts and figures that you need, and any questions you have. Make notes of words or terms that you need to look up to make sure you understand the text. Use these notes to verify the information, and as a study guide to help you remember.
For more tips on how to be a critical reader, this set of reading guidelines from Columbia University in New York is a good place to start.
