What about a scientific research paper?

Ann McNeal of Hampshire College’s has a four-step guide for reading a research paper.

While her tips primarily apply to students trying to slog their way through academia, anyone who wants to read with more comprehension will get something out of this.

Essentially, the reading tips boil down to skimming, deciphering vocab, attempting to comprehend, and then criticism/reflection. A good set of reminders for anyone who wants to get more out of their reading.

Check out How to Read a Scientific Research Paper.

Brian Tracy, a best-selling author, points out that just 1 hour per day of reading will make you an international expert in your chosen field within 7 years.

If you’re looking to increase your learning rate while decreasing your effort, speed reading is a method you should consider studying. By simply learning how to process information at a more rapid rate, you’re not only going to be able to move through books more quickly, but you will also be able to comprehend and process more of what you have read. Speed reading is an excellent skill that can be used in your workplace, your home life, as well as your personal hobbies.

The Brain’s Power
Speed reading actually began as part of military training to identify enemy war planes. Pilots used a pacing tool called a tachistoscope that flashed images before their eyes at increasing speeds. This allowed the pilots to quickly identify the enemy planes in order to attack as needed. With the hundreds of possible planes that could be used in the military setting, this rapid identification was literally the tool that made a life and death difference.

But what was interesting about this method of military training is that it began to unveil the idea that the brain could process more things visually than was previously thought. Even with hundreds of images, the brain was able to identify them and then make decisions based on messages in the right side of the brain.

What many people don’t realize is that the mind becomes bored when it’s not constantly stimulated. When you are reading at your normal rates, the mind will become bored and begin to lose interest in what you are trying to learn. It’s not that you aren’t a good student or a proficient reader, it’s just that your mind is made to do more than you are asking of it.

Hearing the words in your head
At this average speed, most of us are actually reading the words to ourselves in our head, which is known as subvocalizing. This is where you are ‘hearing’ the words in your head, or even saying them to yourself as you read. A behavior like this slows down your reading significantly, so it’s the first thing to go when you’re learning to speed read.

To eliminate subvocalizing, you must practice reading faster than you can actually read. You can practice this skill with an online tool known as Spreeder.

Of course, there are times when subvocalization is a good idea — as in the case of dense texts or subjects with which you’re not familiar. Science and math are such subjects. In these cases, you might need to slow down your reading style to make sure you comprehend what is being taught. Others choose to read more slowly when they want to savor what they are reading, like fiction or poetry.

However, when you are reading subjects that you need to learn quickly, speed reading can come in handy.

A How-to Guide
Here are some techniques that will help you to increase your reading rate:

1. Realize that reading is not from beginning to end, but rather point to point. When you are reading, you need to pick up the important points of the book, but that doesn’t mean that you need to read them in a particular order.

In fact, I would suggest skipping parts of a book that you don’t need. Almost every book has a good point or two, but it is highly unlikely that you need to read every page of the entire book.

2. Try using a pacing tool. Whether it’s your finger or a pencil, try moving this tool along the lines of the book you are reading to keep you moving forward as quickly as possible.

Reading is a series of jumping snapshots called saccades. Using a visual guide prevents regression.

By moving your pacing tool faster than your normal reading rate, your eyes get used to viewing text faster than your brain can process the actual words on the page. This will enable you to break the habit of subvocalization.

3. Get rid of all distractions and possible interruptions. When you are trying to focus on what you are reading, you need to be in a comfortable seat in a quiet room. Distractions can severely interrupt your reading patters and decrease your comprehension of the text.

4. Try to read more than one word at a time. This is a speed reading technique known as chunking. By looking at ‘blocks’ of words as you read, you will allow your mind to process ideas and visual images instead of individual words.

5. Never move backwards. When you are speed reading, the main point is to keep moving forward and not stop to reread something. This is the most inefficient use of your reading time. Keep yourself moving forward at all times.

6. Think visually. One of the most effective speed reading techniques is to visualize the ideas on the page as pictures in your head. Huge portions of the human brain are dedicated to processing information visually, making them the fastest circuits in the brain for processing information.

Mind maps are one of the best ways to process information visually. Begin using the same visual process in your head while reading.

As you practice and become more proficient at speed reading, you will be amazed at what you can do.

Kim Roach is a productivity junkie who blogs regularly at The Optimized Life. Read her articles on 50 Essential GTD Resources, How to Have a 46 Hour Day, What They Don?t Teach You in School, and Free Yourself From the Inbox.

One of the ways to “steal” time catching up with all those outstanding readings is to read while commuting. Unfortunately, you’re out of luck if you drive.

Pasta and vinegar reported an interesting project from The Reading Lab called Speeder Reader.

It says,

Speeder Reader gives you a gas pedal to control your rate of speed-reading and a steering wheel to navigate between streams of text. You can also jump forward or backwards in the text (by sentence, paragraph, or chapter).

In Western culture, the act of driving is very personally empowering (just like reading!). By combining the driving interface with dynamic text, we’re offering a model of reading as a medium that gets you places.

I’d sure like to see the technology available to the masses. I could read Harry Potter on the way to the gym.

According to several studies published in the Journal of Vision in March 2007, the idea of speed reading is bunk. The research proved that the construction of the eyes is such that it only allows them to focus on one small area on the page at a time, thus making speed reading impossible.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota say that although you might have the illusion that you see the whole page, you can actually only see small groups of letters at the point where your eyes are focused. Only eight or 10 letters fit in this tiny window, called the visual span. The rest of the letters are just a blur.

So how does anyone ever finish a book as long as "War and Peace"? Readers make a series of eye movements while scanning the page, said Gordon Legge, a vision researcher at the University of Minnesota.

People typically make four eye movements per second, picking up about four or five words per second and 250 to 300 words per minute. That’s a typical estimate for normal reading speed, Legge said.

Due to the constraints of the visual span, reading more than 300 words per minute is almost impossible.

"Speed reading is misleading," said Legge, whose research is published in the March issue of the Journal of Vision. "There’s no magic there. You’re just planting the little island of vision quickly through the page."

When viewing conditions are less than ideal, the visual window shrinks, Legge said.

For instance, people with macular degeneration-the leading cause of vision loss in Americans aged 65 or older-read more slowly than people with healthy eyes, even if they’re handed a magnifying glass. The disease affects the macula, part of the retina responsible for central, sharp vision, and forces people to rely on their cloudy peripheral vision.

Tests were conducted on how changing different aspects of the visual span, such as character size and contrast, affected the speed at which people read. Legge told LiveScience that reading small print, print with poor contrast, or print with strange spacing also leads to slower reading.

Source: LiveScience.com

Using the same methodology, the U.S. Air Force soon discovered that they could flash four words simultaneously on the screen at rates of one five-hundredth of a second with full recognition by the reader. This training demonstrated clearly that, with some work, reading speeds could be increased from reading rates to skimming rates. Not only could they be increased but the improvements were made by improving visual processing. Therefore, the next step was to train eye movements by means of a variety of pacing techniques in an attempt to improve reading. The reading courses that followed used the tachistoscope to increase reading speeds; it assumed that readers were able to increase their effective speeds from 200 to 400 words per minute using the machine. The drawback to the tachistoscope was that post-course timings showed that, without the machine, speed increases rapidly diminished.

Following the tachistoscope discoveries, the Harvard Business School produced the first film-aided course, designed to widen the reader’s field of focus in order to increase reading speed. Again, the focus was on visual processing as a means of improvement. Using machines to increase people’s reading speeds was a trend of the 1940s. While it had been assumed that reading speed increases of 100% were possible and had been attained, lasting results had yet to be demonstrated.

It was not until the late 1950s that a portable, reliable and ‘handy’ device would be developed as a tool for increasing reading speed. The researcher was a school-teacher named Evelyn WoodEvelyn Wood. She was committed to understanding why some people were naturally faster at reading than others and was trying to force herself to read very quickly. It is told that while brushing off the pages of the book she had thrown down in despair, she discovered that the sweeping motion of her hand across the page caught the attention of her eyes, and helped them move more smoothly across the page.

She then utilized the hand as a pacer, and called it the ‘Wood Method’ which was renamed into Reading Dynamics in 1958. She coined the term ’speed reading’.

More recently, speed reading courses and books have been developed designed to help the consumer achieve even higher increases in reading speed, some at 10,000 words per minute with high comprehension. With specific reference to pseudoscience concepts, companies have claimed to be able to extract meaning out of consciously unnoticed text from the para-consciousness or subconscious. These courses go by various titles such as photo-reading (1994), mega-speedreading (1997) and alpha-netics (1999). Reading experts refer to them as snake oil reading lessons because of their high dependence on the suspension of the consumer’s disbelief.

Other researchers have gone in the opposite direction. Rather than seeking increased reading speed, they have focused on comprehension. These approaches include Rapid Analytical Reading (2005), and have been marketed primarily to college students and corporations.

Source: Wikiped, read the full article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed-reading

Here is a list of top 10 ways to improve your reading speed and become a master in speed reading and comprehension. And, mind you, these are all tried and tested methods.

Top 10 Ways To Improve Speed Reading And Comprehension:

1. Skim before starting to read — it helps you to grasp the main idea of the content. If it’s a book, then skim the content page first. After that, you can start reading the lines.
2. Prioritize your reading matter — which content requires urgent attention? Classify your reading matter as "very important" and "less important" and then start speed reading the matter accordingly. This way you can work on the important matter with a fresh mind.
3. Choose an appropriate reading place — never read difficult or important matter in bed. Select a solemn place for speed reading. You do not want to be disturbed in between.
4. Early morning is the best time to read — a fresh and active mind gives better results. Early morning is the time when your mind is least stressed, so grab a book at his time? Spare the evenings for other things.
5. See headings as questions — one of the best ways to find out the relevant information from the text is to see the heading as a question. Your brain will look for answers once you start speed reading. It improves your comprehension, as you are focused on finding the answer.
6. Do not use a highlighter while speed reading — most of the people use a highlighter thinking it will help them to understand better. However, it reduces your speed of reading and comprehension. You end up reading the matter twice, which is bad for speed reading.
7. Preview first and then read — do not jump into speed reading the matter. Preview the entire content to get the essence of it. You will also be able to sort out the relevant matter.
8. Be flexible with speed — materials containing legal content, mathematics, and other such subjects require a slow pace to understand them better. Books, novel, magazines, newspapers, and other such stuff can be read at a faster speed. So adjust your reading speed according to the nature of content.
9. Read and act on it then and there — once you read content, decide what to do of it then and there. Do not keep it aside for later. You will have to read it again, which is a sheer waster of time.
10. Practice regularly.

So, start your speed reading practice today and keep a track on your speed.

Isn’t it wonderful to be able to read with speed and still comprehend the matter you are reading? Yes, speed reading is inevitable in the present fast paced world. And if you wish to climb the success ladder in your studies or career, start practicing speed reading now!

Speed Reading: A Valuable Skill

Once you gain mastery over the skill of speed reading, you will save a lot of time. There is a load of information available nowadays and a slow reader can lose a great deal of it. You have to be better equipped with knowledge. For that you need to read faster and comprehend with the same speed too. To gain a competitive edge in the fast paced world, speed reading is a must!

Top 3 Compelling Reasons To Learn Speed Reading

Do not pay attention to people who say that you can do without speed reading. It’s not true! Many young people have been surveyed and it has been found that those with speed reading skills definitely had an edge over those without.

1. Save You Time

One of the biggest advantages is saving your time. With speed reading, you are able to read a book in half the time (even less than half) than that you take in normal reading. Another advantage is that now you need not read the whole matter to get the idea; you simply skim the page and absorb the essential information. Imagine the impression it makes over the other person!

2. You’ll Love Reading

Another change witnessed among the people who practiced speed reading was that they actually started to love reading. The task that was regarded as boring was now interesting and enjoyable! Not only this, your ability to think and reason increases. Your intellectual skill gets brushed up too.

3. Push Your Grades Higher

Speed-reading renders much benefit to the students. With the increasing load of information that they have to feed to their brains, speed reading comes to their rescue. Many students have been able to push their grade points higher through this skill.

Once you develop a taste for speed reading, you will want to dig deeper into the world of books. You will want to read books on varied topics, thus, enriching your knowledge and vocabulary. And the more you read, the better you will be in speed reading. You will find a treasure in books and an unending desire to know more.

Remember, people who read always gain something or the other. But they never lose. A book is a man’s best friend. And when you have a friend beside you, can you ever feel lonely?

You might have heard of speed reading, but speed spelling, well, what’s that? It is a pioneering way to teach children particular subjects. However, this is not a new technique. It has been practiced since 30 years.

So, if you want your kid to gain mastery over their spellings, try speed spelling, along with speed reading and watch them pass school with flying colors.

The following are the steps to carry out speed spelling with your child.

Steps Of Speed Spelling

• Firstly, teach your kid speed reading.
• Then take a page and jot down about 20 words on it. Write the words in large letters. One important thing to remember here is that the word should be written in a haphazard way, tilted at an angle with each other. Moreover, each word should be written in different colors. This will not only make it enjoyable for your child, but also make it easier for him or her to learn.
• Sit with your child for about 15 minutes daily and let him or her to scan the pages containing the words. Let your child take about 5-10 seconds to look at each page.
• After they have scanned each and every page, let them go through the pages again for a deeper understanding. Ask them to visualize the words. This makes it easier for them to learn.
• Do not let them to reduce their speed of reading.
• After the scanning is completed, let your child recall the words from his or her memory.
• Even if they fail to recall, encourage them. Never scold or discourage them. The best thing is that your child showed interest and tried speed reading and speed spelling.
• Reward them with something for their attempt, even if they fail. This will keep them motivated for the next time.
• Let them repeat the process many times. Once they fare better in this. Encourage them to spell the words backwards. Usually it takes a week to get results. However, for some children, it may take a little longer. It depends on the ability of the child to grasp.
• The next week, collect a new set of words on another page. Carry out speed reading and speed spelling process in the same manner.

You can also refer a book to teach your child new words. Every day, sit with your child for 15-20 minutes and let him or her read out from the book. So, make your child skillful in speed reading as well as speed spelling.

Develop Your Own Speed Reading Program

The basic step to learning speed reading is to determine what your current reading speed is.

How to do that?

Well, take a book or magazine. Select the page you want to read. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes time period. Before that, do not forget to choose a quiet corner of your home. Begin to read at your normal speed. Do not try to speed read. Avoid being conscious and read freely. When your timer goes off, mark the page where you stopped to know how much you have read. Now, count the number of words you read during this time. You are now aware of your current reading speed.

Thereafter, set the timer again for the same time period. Begin to read from where you stopped. Do not read the same matter again. This time, you have to read in speed. In the beginning, you will have to consciously make an effort to do speed reading. Read as speedily as you can. And remember, you have to understand what you are reading. Try to retain as much information as you can. Comprehension and reading have to go simultaneously.

As the timer goes off, mark the page where you stopped. Count the number of words you read during the set time. Did the word count increase? It may not be a drastic increase, but don’t lose heart. A slight improvement is also appreciable.

Repeat the process once again.

Do this everyday. You only need to spare 15-20 minutes daily for your home speed reading program. When your speed gets considerably higher, observe whether you feel tensed or relaxed while reading in speed. Next time, try to keep yourself relaxed while speed reading. Remember, it is possible to achieve amazing speed along with a good comprehension. The brain has tremendous power. You only need to learn to use it.

Practice Is The Key

One of the keys to developing speed reading skill is regular practice. Besides this, you need to have patience and will power to achieve it. You simply cannot get admirable results overnight. And remember; read only that fast that you can understand the matter you are reading. Simply increasing the speed is useless. Reading and comprehension are like a pair of shoes. You just cannot wear one shoe.

So, start your speed reading program from today itself. Good luck!

Here are certain ways to help you understand the content better while reading it faster.

10 Amazing Tips To Comprehend More While Reading:

1. While picking up the reading matter, you should be aware of the central idea of the author.
2. Make it clear in your mind whether you are reading for some purpose, say gaining information, or simply for pleasure.
3. A quick way to find out whether the book will fulfill your purpose of speed reading is to go through the content page and introduction. The headings of the chapter also reflect what is inside it.
4. If the book does not seem to cater to your purpose, it’s no use speed reading it. Switch to another book.
5. Each paragraph has a main idea hidden in it. Try to find out that.
6. Sort out the important points that you come across while speed reading.
7. The speediest way to read is skim through the page and pick the central theme. You don’t need to go through each line. Once you find out the main idea of the content, you come to know what the content is all about.
8. Do not focus on words, but the idea. Many words are simply there to make the language impressive.
9. For example, while speed reading the sentence, ‘the economy of the US is growing at a faster rate’, you simply have to pick words like ‘economy’, ‘US’, and ‘faster.’ This automatically makes sense that the content is talking something positive about the economy of US. You don’t have to read ‘of’, ‘the’, ‘is’, ‘rate’, and other such redundant words.
10. And last but not the least; use your common sense to extract the central idea of the content.

Most of the readers make the mistake of falling into the tricky world of words. And this slows down their speed. So, beware of this temptation! With regular speed reading practice, you will become apt in recognizing the central theme of contents, where they are located usually in the matter, and where not to read at all.

Unless you are judging a person of his writing abilities, you need not dig deeper into the words, simply extract the meaning and speed your way through the page!