Comprehension is the goal in speed reading, just as much as actual words per minute. After all, if you don’t understand what you’ve read, you won’t be saving any time at all when you have to go back and re-read text to get the information you need. There are several things that you can do to make sure that you’re not skipping over vital material when you’re reading, so that even as your reading speed increases, you’ll still be able to find and remember the facts and figures that you need from the text.
Focus your attention on what you’re looking for. You might think that speed reading’s just a matter of training your eyes to quickly scan text, but in fact you’re really training your brain to quickly process the information that your eyes are taking in. In order to make your brain more efficient at this task, prepare yourself for reading before you even pick up the document. Ask yourself what it is you need to find in the text, or what questions you need answered, or what specific sets of detail you need to look for. By prompting and preparing your mind to be actively looking for this information, you’ll make sure that you don’t accidentally skip over it.
Learn how to best focus your eyes. To be the best speed reader possible, you need to be able to take in groups of words, not just single words. A good way to practice learning how to do this is to make whatever you’re reading into a prepared set of grouped words, by changing the margins of the text. Obviously, this will only work with on-line documents, but it’s a useful exercise. Increase the margins on the document so that the words are in a narrow column approximately 5 or 6 words wide down the middle of the page, and try to take in each group of words line by line as you read.
Devote focused practice time to speed reading. Just like any other skill, speed reading takes practice. If you want to be the best basketball player possible, you’ll spend hours practicing your free throw shots. Repeating these motions over and over will eventually give you smooth, fast, and accurate hoop skills. If you practice your speed reading techniques with the same focus and concentration, you’ll quickly get the same results.
