One of the major issues with speed-reading is that the individual could be trained to read at extraordinary speeds and yet, not comprehend a single thing they are reading. Is it possible to increase reading speed and maintain comprehension? It is absolutely possible, as long as the reader uses certain strategies.
The first thing that needs to be changed is reading “out loud” in your head. This slows down your reading speed significantly. When one reads out loud, it takes much longer to finish reading the text than reading silently. It is only common sense then, that reading “out loud” in your head will just slow down your reading speed. It is a very hard habit to break, but if you get rid of this, your reading speed will greatly improve.
Studies have shown that reading every single letter in a block of text is absolutely unnecessary. If you train yourself to just read the more necessary letters and skip the rest, then your reading speed will improve vastly. It is a common misconception that skipping over certain parts of text will decrease comprehension. If you are skipping over important parts of the text, then yes your comprehension will decrease. However, if you skip only the insignificant words, then your comprehension will not be affected, but your reading speed will increase. Let’s take the previous sentence as an example. Here is the sentence, but rewritten: if skip only insignificant words, comprehension will not be affected, reading speed will increase. The sentence sounds awkward but you can understand it’s meaning, and you understood using six words less. This saves you time.
Another useful tip is to train your mind to read chunks of text instead of individual words. This might seem confusing, but it’s actually very simple. Just like you recognize chunks of letters to form a word (d-o-g means dog), you can recognize chunks of words to form a sentence’s meaning. Take for example, the following sentence: Do not eat too many cookies, otherwise you will get sick.
Instead of reading each word individually, train your brain to realize that certain chunks of words have one meaning. For instance “do not” really means “no,” as in this action should not be done. “Eat too many cookies” can be replaced with “cookies” and “otherwise you will get sick” can be replaced with “or be sick.” The new sentence would read “No cookies or be sick.” Of course, this is horrendous grammar, but again, you are simply giving your brain shortcuts. As long as you understand the gist of the text, then your comprehension will not decrease, but your reading speed will increase. The point is to maintain the meaning of the text while reducing the amount of words. This process should become second nature to you. Some speed-reading software can assist you in acquiring and perfecting these techniques.
In the end, practice is absolutely essential. The more you read, the better and faster you will become at it. Practicing the techniques mentioned will also help you improve your reading speed.
