Have you ever been in a theatre watching a play and lost track of the plot or the characters because so much is happening? When you have a lot of information to deal with quickly, sometimes it’s difficult to hold on to the overall ideas as well as the specific details and facts. That’s one reason why theatre programs often include a brief synopsis of the play and a list of the characters. Audience members can skim through the plot summary, make a note of the names of the characters and their relationships, and have a much better idea once the play starts of who’s on stage and what they’re doing. At the end of the performance, the audience will walk away with a more complete memory of the play, because they will have seen the plot and the characters more than once, and will have understood the play more thoroughly.

In the same way, you can improve your reading speed and retention of information by doing a “preview” of the material you need to read. While this might seem to be just something that adds additional time to the process, you’ll find that it actually saves time by eliminating re-reading and going back to fill in missing information. This technique is particularly helpful when you need to read something like a textbook or technical document, but can also be used in other situations (for example, reading a novel required for a university class).

To preview material, first look at the table of contents. Reading through this and noting the main topic areas will give you a mental “map” of the textual terrain that you’ll be covering. If there are any unfamiliar terms used in the chapter headings, be sure to look them up now, rather than when you’re in the middle of reading those chapters. Being prepared for what you’ll be reading will speed up the reading process, and you won’t have to stop for words you don’t know.

If there’s an introduction and a conclusion, read through them both first. The introduction will prepare you for the discussion to follow, and the conclusion will summarize the information. If you see the “shape” of the text, it will be easier to keep track of where you are and where you’re going. Some authors also put chapter summaries at the beginning of each section. If so, you can read these sequentially. It’s possible that the information you need is in these sections, if you want a high-level view of the text, and you might not need to read the chapters themselves unless you’re looking for a specific piece of data.

Once you’ve previewed the text, you’re ready to read, prepared with the knowledge of what you’ll be reading, where the author is heading with his or her conclusions, and with a good idea of where you’ll find the information you need.