Speed reading for all

Speed Reading for All.
IRFAN FTEKHAR

Speed Reading for Beginners
by Irfan Iftekhar
Introduction
First of all it is important to know what ‘Speed Reading is? Speed reading happens when the
attention is on important parts of the text and the reader ignores less important parts. Definitions:
Speed Reading—to read faster than normal, especially by acquired techniques of skimming and
controlled eye movements (Dictionary. Reference 2011) Retention Level: the act or power of
remembering things; memory (Dictionary: Reference 2011).Comprehension: the capacity of the
mind to perceive and understand; power to grasp ideas; ability to know (Dictionary: Reference
2011). Today fewer than1 percent of the adult U.S. population reads at speeds above 400 words
per minute, and the average person reads around 250 words per minute. There are two major
parts of speed reading, the speed, and comprehension. Knowing how to speed read could save
time and increase comprehension and retention of the subject. When you learn how to speed
read, which is focusing on important words, the fluency of reading is developed. With this come
better understanding, better comprehension and pleasure of reading. The reader will have less
stress and still gain the knowledge needed to be successful. A scaffolding effect occurs in
learning new information as the knowledge obtained by reading faster expands the schema. The
comprehension level should rise as only the important words are the focus. There is no time or
effort spent in trying to understand inconsequential words. This makes reading new material
more enjoyable, manageable, and helps with organizational skills.
Reading is an inseparable part of studying, as readers, a lot of reading awaits you, and reading
does not only means magazines or books reading, but also browsing the internet to read the
digital books and magazines. It is a skill which some of us take for granted. It is through
understanding how we read that we can be able to fix our poor or below average reading habits
which are responsible to slow us down. Speed reading is an activity that helps fluency
development. Speed Reading is linked to greater comprehension, better understanding, and
greater enjoyment from reading (Macalister, 2010). The fact is that by using some simple

techniques and by applying the principles of speed reading, everybody can increase their speed
of reading, most probably doubling or even more than doubling your existing reading speed.
Why Reading Speed is Important
Reading speed is the rate at which your eyes and brain decode and understand words. Word-for-
word readers have a slower reading speed than those who read more than one word at a time.
Comprehension involves the mind perceiving and understanding ideas and concepts. When
reading this can mean absorbing very specific details or merely grasping a general concept. A
person needs two things to speed read successfully:
• A solid sight vocabulary (the ability to see a word and immediately understand what it is and
what it means and
• A beginning reading speed of more than 100 words per minute. Work at your own pace and
comprehension level.
A society has many fundamentals and one is reading well. How many times it happens that we
have to drive and also read the names of the street or shop or any other spot where we have to
arrive but due to poor reading skills are unable to do so and drive far away from our destination
only to turn back once again and lament.
Today reading with speed has become sort of credential for getting a job. This is necessary
because at our professional best one has to report verbally about the state of affairs, matters of
concern as well as attend meetings where it is necessary to read and deliberate from the prepared
notes. All these require speed reading skills, poor reading is bound to increase the time it takes
for such day to day activities in the workplace.
For the development of mind reading is essential. People exhibit marked differences in the ways
they walk, run, talk, breathe, write, read or play golf. Are differences in muscle structure partly
responsible for poor reading? Certainly muscle differences exist, but they make very minute
impact on one's performance. The Atlas of Human Anatomy shows different ways in which the

minor pectorals muscle (used when we draw our shoulder down and forward) is attached-
sometimes to four, sometimes to three, sometimes to only two ribs, yet in all cases there is no
lack of movement of performance.
Chemically brain is a terrifically busy place. Although the body weighs about fifty times as much
as the brain, your brain may use up one-fourth of the total energy of your body. The brain has a
lot of work to do: gathering impulses, interpreting them, and sending out new and appropriate
impulses related to the many operations that take place continuously all over the body. But the
brain also develops, like teaching children to read helps them improve their language skills.
Similarly teaching ourselves about speed reading, improves the way we read and communicate.
Reading is a joy. Since our childhood we have read stories of Tarzan, Aladdin, Batman,
Superman, Ninja Turtles etc., and these gave us immense pleasure. The same joy and pleasure
exists even today when we read our selected books and novels. Those who do not read or are
afraid of reading can never experience the joy of reading.
People are often seen to praise some person who delivered a 'great speech'. Great speakers are
great readers, who read from their notes and read fast and with tonal fluctuations which imparts a
power to their 'talks' and speech.
How to Check Your Current Reading Speed
Before you learn the techniques of Speed Reading and start practicing, it is important to first
know your existing speed of reading. Reading speed is calculated in words per minute or wpm. It
is very easy. Select a passage that you like to read, count the number of words present in the text,
write it down, start the timer and begin reading. When you have finished reading the whole
passage, stop the timer and note the time it took for you to read. Now divide the number of
words in the passage by the time you took to read. Its simple formula is here: Words per minute
(wpm) = number of words DIVIDED BY time. For your ease here are some websites that allow
you to check your reading speed online cost-free:
http://www.readingsoft.com/

http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/
http://mindbluff.com/askread.htm
http://www.turboread.com/read_checks.htm
In all the above websites a variety of reading material on a wide range of topics is available for
you to start reading and checking your reading speed.
Learning how to Speed Read
Scholars have divided Speed Reading into ten principles. Some of the principles are supported
by Nuttall’s and Harmer’s ideas:
1. The reading material is easy. The choice of good and suitable material for reading is the basis
of process of becoming a good reader. “There should be no more than one or two unknown
vocabulary items per page for beginners and no more than four or five (2). To develop fluent
reading it is far more useful to read a lot of easy books than a few difficult ones. Nuttall
emphasizes that readers should start their reading programs with texts that are a bit under their
level because it is good motivation when they make progress very soon after start of new
programme. But “it is damaging to their self-esteem to ask them to go back to a lower level”.
2. A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics is available. Speed reading should be
not only reading for information, but also for pleasure. It means that only in variety readers can
find things that they like and want to read about.
3. Learners choose what they want to read. It has been already said but it is one of the most
important things about speed reading. Readers feel more responsible, free and encouraged.
4. Learners read as much as possible. The language learning benefits of speed reading come from
quantity of reading.
5. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower. As it has been already said in the first
principle, the material should be easily understandable. The feeling of success will motivate to
start another book. It should encourage fluent reading without frequent use of dictionary.
Readers should be able to read simple texts without using it, try to guess unknown words or
ignore them.

6. The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding.
It is the difference between speed and intensive reading. Intensive reading requires detailed
understanding. On the other hand, speed reading encourages reading for pleasure and
information.
7. Reading is individual and silent. Speed reading can takes place in the classroom, but most of
materials should be read in the leisure time. The whole point about speed reading scheme is that
it should operate almost entirely out of class time.
8. Reading is its own reward. There can be some follow-up after reading but it should be used
only as a stimulation and encouragement, not as a threat. Bamford and Day puts several reasons
why to do some questions about comprehension: “to discover what the readers understood and
experienced from the reading; to keep track of what readers read; to check readers’ attitude
toward reading; to link reading with other parts of curriculum” (3). However, comprehension
question should not be common part of speed reading.
Scrivener emphasizes that “there is a great deal of evidence that speed reading has a powerful
impact on language learning. He points out that the readers extend their vocabulary and improve
knowledge of grammar and do not even realize it and moreover. This widening language
knowledge seems to increase their overall linguistic confidence, which then influences and
improves their skills in other language areas, too. But there must be highlighted again, that
material they read must be self-chosen and is relevant and interesting to them.
Read, Read and Read
If you want your speed-reading skills to be permanent, you have to make reading a part of your
daily life. When you read more often, you acquire more vocabulary words and therefore become
a faster reader. Because your vocabulary is larger, you don’t have to stop as often to ponder what
a word you don’t know means. Reading more often also increases your breadth of knowledge,
and that in turn increases your reading speed. For example, you don’t have to stop to think about
background information because you already know it from your previous reading.
Set a goal and achieve it

No matter what the endeavor, your chances of succeeding are better if you set goals for yourself.
This fact of life is why speed readers set goals for themselves when they read. If you ask
yourself, “Why am I reading this and what do I want to get from this reading?” before you start
reading a book or article, you’re able to read much more aggressively. Asking that simple
question makes you is reading much more productive because you establish goals when you
read. As you read along, you can skim or skip material that doesn’t help you reach your goals.
And if you come to paragraphs that get to the heart of why you’re reading, you can read those
paragraphs more carefully and get more out of your reading. Chapter 10 helps you figure out
how to get what you need and get out. Enlarge Your Vocabulary to continue to be a speed
reader; you must always work to enlarge your vocabulary. The larger your vocabulary is, the
faster you can read because you don’t have to stop and ponder as many unknown words.
Speed Reading Strategy
Above and beyond reading mechanics, you must continue to refine your strategic reading
abilities if you want to be a long-term speed reader. For example, you must read word groups
and thought units, not words alone. Another helpful habit: Become a bird’s-eye view reader
instead of burying your nose in the pages, read from on high, noting such points as how the
author is makes her argument and whether you can skim or skip certain paragraphs.
Read silent, read fast
The first goal of anybody who wants to be a speed reader is to cut down or eliminate vocalization
(the bad habit of saying and hearing words when you read — check out Chapter 2 for more).
Vocalizing keeps you from reading fast because it takes much longer to see, hear, and process
words than it takes to just see and process them.

Check Your Ability to Speed Read
The exercises in this section are designed to reinforce two essential speed-reading skills: not
vocalizing and expanding your vision span. I would argue that these are actually the two most
essential speed-reading skills. Master these two skills and you are well on your way to becoming
a speed reader.
Focusing on your silent reading
The first goal of anybody who wants to be a speed reader is to cut down or eliminate vocalization
(the bad habit of saying and hearing words when you read). Vocalizing keeps you from reading
fast because it takes much longer to see, hear, and process words than it takes to just see and
process them. Now read an essay called “The Incredible Brain” twice. As you read, try to read in
complete silence without your inner voice making a peep.
Using a timer, read as much of “The Incredible Brain” as you can in 60 seconds (remembering
not to vocalize as you read).
The Incredible Brain
Courtesy of www.StrugglingReaders.com
Human beings have the most highly developed brains of any living creatures. More powerful
than the most advanced supercomputer, the human brain makes it possible for a person to live,
speaks, solve problems, make and enjoy music, and create through thoughts and ideas. The brain
is the body’s control center. It constantly receives information about conditions both inside and
outside the body. It rapidly analyzes the information and then sends out messages that control
bodily functions and actions. Three main parts or areas make up the brain: brain stem,
cerebellum, and cerebrum. The brain stem is at the bottom of the brain and controls the body’s
automatic processes, such as breathing, heartbeat, and body temperature. The cerebellum lies at
the back of the brain. It is the part of the brain that coordinates balance, posture, and movements.
The cerebrum is the center of all thought and includes about 90 percent of the human brain.

The cerebrum is divided into two halves called hemispheres. Each hemisphere is responsible for
specific functions. In general, the left cerebral hemisphere is involved with mathematics,
language, and logical thinking. The right cerebral hemisphere includes feelings, musical ability,
and visual thinking. While each hemisphere has specific functions, the two hemispheres are
thought to also process information together. For example, while the left hemisphere processes
the meanings of words, the right hemisphere processes the emotions related to the words. In most
human beings that are right handed, it is the left hemisphere that usually contains the specialized
language areas. About 20 percent of left-handed people have their language areas in the right
hemisphere.
The human brain is a gray-colored organ. Its jelly-like mass has many grooves and ridges on its
surface. An infant’s brain weighs less than one pound. By the time a child is six years old, the
brain has reached its full weight of approximately three pounds. During the six-year growth
period, a child learns and acquires information at the fastest rate in his or her life. Although the
brain reaches its full weight by six years old, some parts of the brain do not fully develop until
after the teenage years. An environment that stimulates learning actually builds important
networks in the brains of young learners. It was once believed that as one aged; the brain’s
networks became fixed, like plastic hardening. In the past twenty years, however, an enormous
amount of research has revealed that the brain never stops changing and adjusting. Therefore,
throughout life, while reading, studying, and learning, new brain networks are being built.
Proper brain development and functioning also depend on good nutrition. Eating a good diet and
drinking adequate water is important for brain development and function. The brain is about 80
percent water. Even slight dehydration can damage the brain over time. Exercise is also
important for brain development and functioning. The brain works like a computer and a
chemical factory. Brain cells produce electrical signals and send them from cell to cell along
pathways called circuits. As in a computer, these circuits receive, process, store, and retrieve
information. Unlike a computer, the brain creates its electrical signals by chemical means. The
brain depends on many complicated chemical substances working together simultaneously.
Among the many interesting facts about the human brain are that the brain does not feel pain

because it has no pain receptors and that women have about ten percent more of the brain cells
called neurons than men do. Human brains are the most highly developed brains, more powerful
than computers. Research continues to discover amazing information about the incredible human
brain.
In the second half of this practice, just answer some comprehension questions. Read fast, don’t
sacrifice comprehension for speed.
1. Using a timer, start reading the essay again, and read as far as you can in 50 seconds, striving
to get at least to the same line you got to previously.
Now double your efforts to read silently. You’ll likely read faster this time because you’ve
already read most of this essay and you’re familiar with the subject matter.
Answer the following comprehension questions.
Answer the comprehension questions to make sure you’re reading for comprehension as well as
speed. You should be able to answer four out of five questions correctly. If your score is lower
than that, focus more on concentration in your next reading test. Pretend that the reading test is
the only thing in the world that matters and really bear down when you read.
Comprehension Questions
1. The human brain is commonly known as
A. The most important organ
B. The body’s information highway
C. A supercomputer
D. The body’s control center
2. Which of the following is not controlled by the brain stem?
A. Body temperature
B. Language
C. Heartbeat
D. Breathing

3. Which part of the brain is responsible for balance, posture, and the coordination of
movements?
A. The cerebellum
B. The brain stem
C. The cerebrum
D. The cortex
4. The largest part of the brain is called the
A. Brain stem
B. Cerebellum
C. Cerebrum
D. Frontal lobe
5. How much does an adult brain weigh?
A. 1 pound
B. 3 pounds
C. 5 pounds
D. 7 pounds
Answer key: 1. D; 2. B; 3. A; 4. C; 5. B
Session 2
Lewis and Clark
In April 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the entire area of Louisiana from France.
The territory stretched from the Mississippi River to the middle of the Rocky Mountains, but no
one was really sure where the Mississippi River started or where exactly the Rocky Mountains
were located. In June of 1803, Meriwether Lewis was commissioned by Jefferson to find
answers to some of the many questions that people had regarding the new purchase. Captain
Lewis selected William Clark as his partner in the exploration. They were to explore the area and
describe the land and its human and animal inhabitants. During the winter of 1803-1804,
recruitment and training were undertaken at Camp Dubois, Illinois Territory. Located near

present-day Hartford, Illinois, Camp Dubois was the beginning point of the journey, where, on
May 14, 1804, Lewis and Clark departed with 33 men who comprised the “Permanent Party” of
the expedition and sufficient supplies for two years.
Supplies included a ton of dried pork, seven buckets of salt, and medicines for all the men of the
expedition. They paddled up the Missouri River in canoes and met with Lewis in Saint Charles,
Missouri. The expedition continued up the Missouri westward and met and traded with a variety
of Native American tribes. In August of 1804, the Corps of Discovery, the official name of the
expedition, suffered its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd died of acute appendicitis. With
the coming of winter, the party built Fort Mandan near Washburn, North Dakota. It was here that
they became acquainted with a sixteen-year-old Indian woman and adopted her as their primary
guide. Her name was Sacagawea, which means “bird woman.” She was the wife of a French-
Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau that Lewis and Clark employed during their
winter stay at Fort Mandan.
When the ice melted, they continued on their journey. All along the way, Lewis and Clark drew
maps and diagrams and recorded what they observed in meticulous detail. They encountered
Native American leaders, told them about the United States, and presented them with medals and
American flags from the president. They acquired knowledge about soil and weather conditions
and investigated fur trading possibilities. After seven months of difficult travel, they reached the
Rocky Mountains.
Thanks to Sacagawea’s influence, Lewis and Clark obtained horses from the Native Americans.
Their intention was to cross the Rockies with the Pacific Ocean as their final destination. The
weather grew cold, the food became scarce, and the mountains seemed endless. When they
finally arrived at the ocean in December of 1805, Clark wrote in his journal, “The Ocean is in
view! Oh, what joy!” The expedition spent the winter at Fort Caltsop, which they built to prepare
provisions for their trip home. They hunted wildlife, spent time with more of the over 36 tribes
that they would encounter during their more than two-year journey.

When the expedition finally returned home over two years and four months after they began their
journey, they were awarded a tumultuous welcome. People had long since given them up for
dead. That welcome was well deserved. During the long and arduous voyage, Lewis and Clark
had accomplished an outstanding feat in describing the land, the rivers, and the Native American
inhabitants. Their perception of the geography of the Northwest allowed them to fill in details of
previously unknown areas of the northwestern United States. They prepared nearly 140 maps
during the entire journey. Their trip also documented over 100 species of animals and nearly 176
species of native plants. Their contribution to the knowledge of this area was incalculable. They
had proven that there was a way to reach the Pacific and had opened a huge new area for
settlement and trade. Many other Americans would soon follow in their footsteps.
Now answer some comprehension questions, so read for meaning as well as speed.
1. Which U.S. president purchased the entire area of Louisiana from France?
A. John Adams
B. John Madison
C. Thomas Jefferson
D. John Quincy Adams
2. Why did Jefferson ask Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the area and describe
the land and its human and animal inhabitants?
A. France did not give the American government all of the information about the purchased are
that it had in its files.
B. The U.S. did not want to pay for the land without a survey.
C. It was just a formality necessary to close the transaction.
D. No one, neither American nor French, knew much about the land that France sold America.
3. How long did Lewis and Clark think it would take to survey the Louisiana Purchase?
A. 6 months
B. 2 years
C. 1 month

D. 10 months
4. What was the name of the woman they took as their guide?
A. Sacagawea
B. So Kim
C. Tohono O’Odham
D. Alice
5. What was one of the main accomplishments of the Lewis and Clark expedition?
A. They acquired knowledge of the soil and weather.
B. They reached the Pacific Ocean.
C. They reached the Rocky Mountains.
D. They acquired knowledge about the animals that lived in the Louisiana Territory.
Answer key: 1. C; 2. D; 3. B; 4. A; 5. B
Session: 3
Volunteerism: You Often Receive More than You Give by Harvey Mackay, nationally
syndicated columnist. Originally published June 17, 2006
You don’t have to pledge Skull and Bones or be a country club deb to meet the right people.
There are a ton of jobs that offer that opportunity but go begging every year for want of
volunteers willing to take them. Take ushering at your church or synagogue. Maybe it sounds
like its just one step ahead of stoking the boilers, but it’s one of the most important jobs around
the place. It only takes an hour a week, and there’s no heavy lifting. You can look on it as a
“poor man’s finishing school.” It will help you overcome any innate shyness you may have about
meeting and greeting strangers, and if you do it properly, you’ll really enjoy it. Smart leaders of
growing congregations make sure they have an ushering crew that stands tall. The ushers set the
tone. Is it a friendly place with a warm welcome or an ingrown deal with very little to offer
newcomers?
The Reverend James Kennedy, pastor of the well-known Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in
Fort Lauderdale, has a church that attracts a tremendous number of visitors. The ushers at Coral

Ridge are instructed to be certain everyone is welcomed by at least two or three people and told
they “were glad you came to worship with us today.” The church benefits greatly from these
volunteers, but so do the individual ushers who become polished ambassadors for their
congregation. Getting active in an organization can help you in areas where you may be weak.
Afraid to speak in front of a group? You won’t be toast if you join Toastmasters. I did, and I can
tell you that the basics I learned in this organization are the primary reasons for any success I’ve
had as a public speaker.
Also, Toastmasters helps you develop:
• Self-esteem,
• Assertiveness,
• Confidence, and
• Leadership.
Because volunteerism almost always includes fund-raising, you have an unusual opportunity to
hone your selling skills. You will get a ton of no’s but what better way to receive on-the-job
training than on someone else’s payroll. When you do volunteer work, you can learn how to run
a meeting, prepare reports, serve on committees, supervise others, and a thousand other skills
that can help you in your own career. Sometimes, it’s impossible to learn these things on the job.
Most of the people who sign up for these volunteer chores stay active for decades. Here’s an
opportunity to learn teamwork and have the satisfaction of providing a vital service. You’ll make
new friends, and you’ll be able to develop other contacts within the community itself.
Sometimes the rewards of volunteering are unexpected. Will was a pretty fair high school
athlete, but he dropped out of college before he could make any mark in athletics. He loved
hockey and despite a career of mostly lower level blue collar jobs, he found enough time to
coach kid hockey teams. Most of his friends thought he was crazy to spend so much time
coaching for nothing when he didn’t have two quarters to rub together. However, one of the
contacts he made with his coaching really paid off, and today Will has a job he never dreamed he
could get . . . sales manager for a well-respected paper company. Sometimes, the only rewards

for volunteering are the satisfaction of doing a thankless job well. But sometimes, there is a
personal payoff, and it can come in surprising ways.
Now take these steps:
Reset the timer for 60 seconds and reread the essay aggressively, trying to read farther than you
did previously. Read as if your life depended on it. Answer the following comprehension
questions. You should be able to answer four out of the five questions correctly. A lower score
suggests that you’ve forfeited comprehension for speed. Focus more on your comprehension in
your future reading.
1. Who is the pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church?
A. John Kennedy
B. James Kennedy
C. Joseph Kennedy
D. Jay Kennedy
2. Where is the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church?
A. Fort Lauderdale
B. Miami
C. Dade
D. Coral Ridge
3. In what group did Harvey Mackay learn many of his public speaking skills?
A. Toastmasters
B. Toasters
C. Toast makers
D. Toasties
4. What’s the name of the man in the article who coached kids’ hockey?
A. Bill
B. William

C. Billy
D. Will
5. What kind of job did the kids’ hockey coach get through one of the contacts made there?
A. Newspaper writer
B. Volunteer
C. Sales Manager
D. Salesman
Answer key: 1: B; 2: A; 3: A; 4: D; 5: C
Improving your concentration
In many ways, speed reading is just the act of reading with deeper level of concentration and
efficiency. You have to concentrate harder when you
Speed read because you do several things at once in the act of speed reading:
✓ You consciously try to read several words at the same time.
✓ You try to detect and read word groups with a single eye fixation.
✓ You do your best to keep from vocalizing.
This exercise to help you be aware of how well you concentrate when you speed read by
requiring you to read an essay multiple times with ever increasing degrees of concentration.
Using a timer, read as much of the essay “Transportation”
Transportation
Transportation, the act of carrying people and goods from one place to another, has made great
gains since early civilization. In early civilization, transportation developed slowly. Throughout
most of the prehistoric period, people traveled mainly on foot. They had no wheeled vehicles or
roads. Some scientists believe that wheeled carts appeared around 3500 B.C. in Mesopotamia, a
region of the Middle East. As civilizations developed, the need for better forms of transportation

grew. Water transportation in the form of ships and barges developed more quickly than land
transportation.
Most of the world’s trade was by sea. In the 1700s, the first practical steam engine was invented.
This led to the steamship, and in the 1820s, to railroad transportation. In the 1860s, the railroad
expanded quickly across the United States to serve industries and growing cities. As part of the
industrialization of the United States, a vast network of railroads connected the United States
from coast to coast. This was the transcontinental rail system, for the transport of people and
goods.
The evolution of modern land transportation began in Europe and the United States in the late
1800s with the introduction of electric trains and streetcars. Then two inventions led to modern
automobiles: the pneumatic, air-filled tire and the internal combustion engine. At first few people
could afford automobiles; however, during the 1920s, mass production of automobiles on
assembly lines made them affordable to a greater segment of the population. Automobiles
became the chief means of passenger transportation in the United States during the 1920s. The
automobile signaled the end of railroads as the main transportation for people. It began an era of
mobility in the United States that added greatly to its economic output. In the 1950s, the United
States built a network of highways to link its vast territory. Today, there are well-maintained
interstate highways that run from state to state. People can drive continuously from coast to
coast, or from Canada and Mexico, and to most locations in between. Today, most short-distance
travel of people and goods is by road. Some long distance travel is also by road, but most long
distance travel is by air and sea.
Automobiles consume over half the energy used for transportation in the United States. They
contribute heavily to the nation’s energy supply problems and to pollution. In some large cities
major roads are packed with people during rush hour, the morning and evening hours when most
people are going to and returning from work. To help transport the great numbers of people,
most large cities have some form of public transportation such as bus lines, subways, or
commuter trains. People also ride together in car pools. In an effort to find a solution to energy

and environmental concerns, experimentation began with hybrid and electric powered
automobiles. In 2000, the first hybrid automobiles became available to the public.
These automobiles now get close to 50 miles per gallon of gas and emit much less pollution.
Major auto manufacturers expect to be selling plug-in electric automobiles in the United States
by 2010.Here are some interesting facts about cars. One of the smallest cars ever built was only 4
feet and 4 inches long and had no reverse gear. One
American limousine is equipped with a swimming pool and a helicopter landing pad. A flying
car is now in production. It is designed to be used as a car and a plane. Transportation has made
significant progress since early civilization, with accommodation for the expanding population
and for the fragile environment, the progress will continue.
Comprehension
Now complete some comprehension questions after completing the second half of Exercise 9-4.
Be sure to read for meaning as well as speed.
1. Using a timer read the essay again and strives to read to your new goal line. This time,
concentrate even harder. Did you make your goal of reading 25 percent more text? If not, try
reading the essay a third time, and really focus this time to reach your goal.
2. Answer the following comprehension questions to make sure you don’t sacrifice reading
comprehension for reading speed. After all, the primary goal of reading is to comprehend, not to
go fast. You should get at least four out of five answers right on the test. If you answer fewer
than four questions correctly, you’re putting too much emphasis on speed and not enough on
comprehension. Focus more on your comprehension as you read.
1. In prehistoric times, the most common form of transportation was

A. On foot
B. By horse
C. By hot air balloon
D. By bicycle
2. Some scientists believe that wheeled vehicles first appeared in
A. Africa
B. Canada
C. South America
D. The Middle East
3. Modern transportation began in the late 1800s with the arrival of the
A. Electric train and street car
B. Airplane and space travel
C. Stagecoach and Pony Express
D. Bicycle and steam engine
4. Automobiles quickly became the chief means of passenger transportation in the 1920s because
A. Gas cost less than feeding and taking care of horses.
B. Cars were mass produced on an assembly line and became more affordable.
C. Cars were big enough to carry entire families.
D. Cars didn’t waste energy or cause air pollution.
5. Today, most short-distance travel is by road and long-distance travel is by
A. Train
B. Air and sea
C. Car
D. Private aircraft
Answer key: 1. A; 2. D; 3. A; 4. B; 5. C
How to comprehend on what you read
Reading is a very necessary skill in our lives. We read newspapers and magazines, labels on
food, instructions, we read textbooks. People who cannot read well do not do well in school and
miss out a lot of things in life. In the same concern, Mikulecky (1986:1) clarifies that Reading

helps us learn to think in the new language. And build a better vocabulary. In addition, it helps us
be more comfortable with written English. According to Ali (2010:32), reading is a very
important skill as it provides students with knowledge, various skills, values and good manners
and Reading comprehension is a skill that is critical in the educational success of all individuals.
Without adequate reading comprehension skills, students can struggle in many subject areas.
Reading comprehension is an important skill needed for all areas of school. Subjects, other than
reading or literature, where comprehension skills are significantly important include science,
social studies and math. In the area of science, research indicates that many students lack prior
knowledge and reading strategies to generate inferences; thus, the students comprehend science
texts poorly. It is also found that students lack the specific reading strategies to generate
inferences that aid in the understanding of science texts. How to comprehend on what you read?
When using whole language, reading becomes part of the Language Arts area in the curriculum.
This method exposes students to many different kinds of texts and genres of literature. Students
use prior knowledge and visual skills to help them read the text. Students are also introduced to
different methods of communication by use of writing skills. Pleasure as well. Reading, the
mother of all skills, is a basic tool of learning and one of the most important skills in everyday
life. All children begin school with the expectation they will learn to read, and one of the most
important things a child is asked to do is to read. Also, it develops critical thinking and increases
a student's ability to concentrate. In addition, it increases the pleasure and effectiveness.
Moreover, it helps in all the other subjects and in the personal and professional lives. It is
through reading that students can advance their English background, broaden their vision, inspire
their thoughts, build their values and develop their skills and creative performance. (Delia,
2003:2) Reading can be conceived as the material that enables basic instrumental learning of
others, therefore it becomes an essential activity for the acquisition of knowledge.
Comprehension is decoding
Decoding suggests something about what it means in regard to reading. The printed symbols
you are reading now are a code for the spoken language. As part of the process of reading, we
must translate from this written code into the spoken language, the language which we know and
to which we attach meaning. This is decoding: the process of translating from written graphic

symbols to the appropriate sounds of our speech. Decoding is not simply a process of associating
single letters of the alphabet with single speech sounds. The letter-to-sound correspondence in
English is not a one-to-one matching of each letter to a sound element. Decoding requires
associating sounds or sound groups with the letters by which they are represented. The reader
must be able to utilize different approaches to reading – skimming, scanning, and studying –
according to the purpose for which he is reading, and he needs to be able to relate what he is
reading to his own range of experience. In the total process of learning to read, then, the
development of decoding ability occurs somewhere between acquisition of pre-reading skills and
attainment of reading proficiency. Learning to decode is important not because it is sufficient to
make a skillful reader but because it is a prerequisite to proficiency in reading.
Reading is not a passive process or a mere decoding of letters and words; rather it must include:
visual decoding, mental processing of what has been decoded, and relating it to one’s experience.
So, when students read, they should not focus on memorizing patterns and practicing fluency;
this is a passive view of reading.
The old and the new Models of Comprehension
It is important to learn the historical development of the teaching of reading that shaped the
definition of the term. Stierer and Bloome (1994) stated that in the United Kingdom and in the
United States the trend in the teaching of reading was an emphasis on pupils reading a series of
passages of increasing difficulty. This idea was manifested in the popular McGuffy readers of
the mid 1800s and the early 1900s and the basal readers and reading schemes from the 1940s to
the 1970s. In the 1960s, reading research began to be viewed from many disciplines including
cognitive psychology, linguistics and psycholinguistics.
What is notable in the focus of the various disciplines was the emphasis on comprehension of the
text and subsequently this materialized in many reading tests, basal reading programmes and
reading schemes (Stierer and Bloome, 1994). The shifting emphasis from oral reading to 'what is
going on in the mind' was not without arguments among educators as to what to focus on,
especially in early reading instruction. Comprehension is also understood as getting the meaning

in the text and this is a familiar concept in many reading programmes where the pupils are taught
to find the answers to a set of questions by first reading a passage or a short text.
Gough's model highlighted the idea that reading is thought to be a rapid letter-by-letter
identification, progressing to the meanings or to the higher levels of encoding the text. The input
from each stage is recorded and passed on to the subsequent stage. It implies the mastery of
specific discrete skills in sequence. In a similar tone, the graphic and visual inputs string from the
time the eyes meet the text are sequentially transformed from the beginning of the graphical or
visual inputs to the meanings of the text. A basic sequential processing pattern for young and old
readers of the bottom-up model is best illustrated by Davies (1995) as consisting of:
1. Eyes look
2. Letters identified and 'sounded out'
3. Words recognized
4. Words allocated to grammatical class and sentence structure
5. Sentences give meaning
6. Meaning leads to thinking
Gough's model is clearly a bottom-up process. It would seem that a reader's approach to
comprehending a text is in a linear-fashion by first processing small chunks of information and
then moving to larger bits of information until it becomes meaningful information. But, strictly
speaking, Gough (1976) provides no clear explanation of the interaction of the sequence of
events within the model itself, and the events have not given any clear clue to the use of other
information or mechanisms outside of the text other than the use of guessing.
In contrast to the bottom-up model, the top-down models in reading are driven by meaningful
language units. Goodman (1970) rejected the sequential processes from learning letters
identification to the larger language units. Goodman (1970) stressed that reading is 'a selective
process. It involves partial use of available minimal language cues selected from perceptual input
on the basis of the reader's expectation. ‘It is selective in the sense that the graphic cues are held
for a short period in the short-term memory. The reader has to decide the likely meaning of the

graphic cues or words before it is transferred to the medium-term memory. More selective
processes continue and these lead to more possible meanings of the text which are again tested
on whether the accumulated graphic cues fit the reader's expectations, syntactically and
semantically. If there is a good fit between what is read and what was guessed earlier, meaning is
achieved and this is stored in the long-term memory. If there is a mismatch between what is
stored and what was guessed, the reader may regress to the related mismatch to identify the
inconsistency that has occurred.
In the top-down models (Goodman, 1970; Smith, 1973) the reader is thought to have certain
reading tasks and this carries the interpretation that reading comprehension is an act of
hypothesis testing. The reader, who is guided by the selective and predictive processes,
concurrently integrates three kinds of information known as graphic, syntactic and semantic in
making sense of the text. The reader makes use of minimal information from the text and relies
more on the context of the text to confirm his predictions and anticipations of the text read
(Goodman, 1970). In a similar vein, Smith (1973) says 'Fluent readers do not read words, they
read for meanings-in order to read one must constantly form expectations that reduce the
uncertainty of what one is reading, and therefore reduce the amount of visual information
required to extract its meaning. ‘Still, Goodman failed to provide a detailed account of the
integrative process of the syntactic, semantic and the phonological inputs.
Davies (1995, p. 58) illustrates the top-down model as a processing sequence comprised of:
1. Eyes look
2. Thinking-predictions about meaning
3. Sample sentence as a whole to check meaning
4. To check further, look at words
5. If still uncertain study letters
6. Back to meaning predictions.
For Speed Reading it is essential to have these qualities:
“Automatic [and] rapid letter recognition

“Rapid word recognition
“The ability to use context as an aid to comprehension, and
“The ability to use context when necessary as a conscious aid to word recognition
The Rayner and Pollatsek's (1989) model exhibits the recent development in the eyes movement
studies and stressed the importance of 'bottom-up' without ignoring other cognitive inputs in
processing the text such as background knowledge, syntax and semantic clues. Rapid or
automatic word or visual recognition would therefore allow more time for comprehending the
text.
Generally speaking, it is sensible enough to accept Goodman's idea that good readers are
efficient in using context in the quest of meaning but Stanovich (1986) observed that '... reading
skill is not determined by skill at contextual prediction, but rather that the level of word-
recognition skill determines the extent to which contextual information will be relied on to
complete the process of lexical access'. This gives the idea that context is useful to poor readers
in that it provides clues in finding the meaning or identity of a word that hinders understanding.
On the other hand, efficient automatic graphemic word recognition displayed by good reader’s
means that there is no need to play a 'guessing-game' and thus more time could be spent on
comprehension.
Davis (1968) found that the reading comprehension of the tested 988 twelfth-grade pupils was
not unitary but involved sub-skills. The tested skills were:
1. Recalling word meanings
2. Drawing inferences about the meaning of a word from the context.
3. Finding answers to questions answered explicitly or in paraphrase.
4. Weaving together ideas in the content.
6. Recognizing a writer's purpose, attitude, tone and mood.
7. Identifying a writer's techniques.
8. Following the structure of a passage

The Rayner and Pollatsek's (1989) model exhibits the recent development in the eyes movement
studies and stressed the importance of 'bottom-up' without ignoring other cognitive inputs in
processing the text such as background knowledge, syntax and semantic clues. Rapid or
automatic word or visual recognition would therefore allow more time for comprehending the
text.
Generally speaking, it is sensible enough to accept Goodman's idea that good readers are
efficient in using context in the quest of meaning but Stanovich (1986) observed that '... reading
skill is not determined by skill at contextual prediction, but rather that the level of word-
recognition skill determines the extent to which contextual information will be relied on to
complete the process of lexical access'. This gives the idea that context is useful to poor readers
in that it provides clues in finding the meaning or identity of a word that hinders understanding.
On the other hand, efficient automatic graphemic word recognition displayed by good reader’s
means that there is no need to play a 'guessing-game' and thus more time could be spent on
comprehension.
Davis (1968) found that the reading comprehension of the tested 988 twelfth-grade pupils was
not unitary but involved sub-skills. The tested skills were:
1. Recalling word meanings
2. Drawing inferences about the meaning of a word from the context.
3. Finding answers to questions answered explicitly or in paraphrase.
4. Weaving together ideas in the content.
6. Recognizing a writer's purpose, attitude, tone and mood.
7. Identifying a writer's techniques.
8. Following the structure of a passage
To simplify the above matter an outline of the historical development of the correlational studies
in identifying the distinctiveness of different comprehension skills in reading is drawn from
Spearitt (1972, p. 94). They are:
Comprehension Timeline

1917-- Thorndike '... concluded that reading comprehension was basically a process of
reasoning.'
1944-- Davis '... concluded that there were nine distinguishable skills in reading'.
1946-- Thurstone challenged Davis' findings and stressed that '... the correlations could be
adequately explained in terms of one common factor, presumably representing differences in a
general reading ability. '
1968-- Davis reviewed the experimental studies of reading comprehension and '... selected eight
skills and constructed items to measure each of these skills. ‘One item referred to one passage '...
in order to avoid the problem of experimental dependence among responses for items. The items
were tested on 12th Grade High School Students. He used a uniqueness-analysis technique to
analyze his data. Davis found that reading comprehension among mature readers is not a unitary
trait, and that substantial parts of the mental abilities used in the eight skills are independent of
one another
1971-- Davis used the 1968 data using principal components analysis after rotation to a
normalized varimax criterion.
1971-- Thomdike used Davis' 1968 data using components analysis and '... showed that the non-
chance variance in the sets of eight tests could be completely accounted for by three factors... His
rotated factor loadings... showed that the word knowledge test (Skill 1) could be distinguished
from the other reading tests in terms of its factor pattern, but none of the other skills was
separately distinguishable.
Reading comprehension is currently viewed as an active meaning-making process. It is a
cognitively based view that stresses the interactive and constructive aspects of reading, and not
the traditional view that emphasizes mastering many sub-skills which are thought to be mastered
through drilling and practice and later on automatically applied to any text read.
How to improve your reading speed even more
The good reader is one who has learned “to find the facts” and knows how to grasp information.
Recognizing contextual clues helps you to improve your reading speed even more because your

mind is not only focusing on reading alone rather it is also comprehending the facts, so that some
text has not to be read twice to understand the meaning and without understanding the meaning,
reading is of no use. In the English language the position of a word in a sentence determines the
meaning it conveys. If its position is changed in the sentence, its meaning is also changed. The
following is the question the investigator sets to test this sub-skill:
Text - 1
The Angel of Peace
‘This woman’ refers to
a) An angel b) Mother Teresa
c) A nun d) a woman in Calcutta
The above sub-skills are to be tested at the level of comprehension - Reading the Lines. A good
reader may be able to understand the words, locate the facts, and retain and recall ideas
expressed and yet not be able to see their real underlying import. In a purposeful comprehension
programme, sensing the true meaning and applying the information for gaining a general
achievement level is very important. The following are the questions to check the sub skill - Skill
of interpreting information:
The Angel of Peace
Mother Teresa is
a) An Indian b) an American
c) A European d) an African
Also remember that Phrase reading is not synonymous with word reading. A phrase is more than
the sum of the individual words that it contains. By understanding the verbal context pupils can
identify the meaning of words, expressions and ideas. Understanding words require a
psychological orientation far beyond the reader's mental capacity. Readiness is determined by
interest in the topic, familiarity with the vocabulary, and the intellectual ability to respond to the
ideas (Paul S. Anderson, 1964, The pupils reap much benefit from exercises with the synonyms
of words.

Perceiving the root
Being able to break a word into its root, prefix and suffix is a valuable skill in developing
meaning for a word. The root is the main part of a word. It is the reservoir of meaning. To test
this skill of Perceiving the root the following item has been given. Identify the root that is used in
each of the three words:
How to maintain your words per minute
Skimming and Scanning: You probably use skimming and scanning together often without
realizing it. For example, you use both strategies when looking at a web page you’ve
never seen before, first figuring out generally what it’s all about (skimming) and then looking for
some piece of specific information (scanning). Restaurant menus are also good places to use both
strategies. You first skim for the kinds of food offered and then scan for the food you’re most
interested in. Legal contracts should be skimmed first to see what main topic areas are included
and then scanned to find the details specific to the contractual agreement. Textbook chapters can
be skimmed to find the writer’s outline and main ideas and then scanned to get the answers to the
questions at the end of the reading.
Tips
Many people think they’re skimming material when actually they’re scanning, and vice versa.
This confusion is natural, but I hope this section clarifies the word usage: skimming is looking
for general ideas; scanning is looking for specifics. Try to minimize the number and time period
of fixations per line to increase speed.
Do not read in a straight line, but in a sequence of saccadic movements or jumps. Each jump
ends with a temporary snapshot of the text which happens to be in your focus area (approx. the
size of a quarter at 8 inches from reading surface). Each fixation will last ¼ to ½ seconds in the
untrained subject. For this purpose close one eye, place a fingertip on top of that eyelid, and then

slowly scan a straight horizontal line with your other eye-you will feel distinct and separate
movements and periods of fixation.
Do not regress and back-skipping to increase speed.
The untrained reader often engages in regression or simply said sort of conscious rereading habit
hence back-skips for up to 30% of total reading time. Untrained readers use central focus but not
horizontal peripheral focus during reading, foregoing up to 50% of their words per fixation or
simply, the number of words that can be comprehended and “read” in each fixation.
Skipping: Always an Option
Depending on your reason why and what you’re reading for, after a quick skim, you might find
that you don’t need or want to continue reading. As you’re reading, you might realize that you
already know what you’re reading and decide to skip that section. Sometimes you might just find
you’re not interested. I hereby give you permission to skip anything you’re reading for these
reasons!
When you learn to use your eyes, brain, and hands effectively with these strategies, you’ll be
able to breeze through a lot of information quickly and accurately. So the next time you open a
newspaper, magazine, text, or other material, think about breezing through it by skimming,
scanning, or skipping, according to your reasons why and what for.
Speed Secret
Someone once told me that when you read, you’re getting the collective knowledge of someone
else’s universe. What a privilege this is! If you think of reading as an opportunity to benefit from
someone else’s perspective and life experiences, and if you can find their golden nuggets, you
are that much richer. The great ideas and thoughts you glean from reading help you navigate life
in ways you probably couldn’t have done on your own.

Speed Secret
Reading is an event of thinking cued by text, according to college professor Dr. Joe Vaughan.
There is no right or wrong thinking, just a personal interpretation of what you read. All readers
should have this healthy skepticism. In essence, being skeptical means you stop reading and
begin thinking about what you already know about the subject based on your background
knowledge and beliefs. As you read, you mentally ask yourself, or the author, questions to help
you decide what you want to believe and how you want to react. This mental questioning is
essential for truly effective reading. You might ask questions like these:
• What is the author’s background, and what gives him or her experience to write about this?
• What are the writer’s motives for writing this?
• How old is this information? When was it written?
• Is this truly a fact or an opinion a personal conclusion based on the author’s experience?
• How does this match up with my knowledge or experience?
• What do I want to believe?
By constantly thinking about what you’re reading, why the author wrote it and how you’re
reacting to it will keep you mentally involved and active in your reading process. Those who
read without this mental questioning lose out on the best of what reading has to offer.
Break through these plateaus, and get unstuck
Choose a mentor you trust. He or she may be your colleague, friend, or a spouse or even your
parents. Have the courage to ask them for comments on your reading practice that has you
feeling stuck. Their feedback will help you to overcome this plateau. It might take a little time to
get the wheel firmly in your hands. When you get used to steering yourself, then you are ready to
get the best of the right coach, one who won’t try to wrench the wheel out of your hands.
Tip:

Always take a short break, it invigorates your mind. Remember that meaningful material is
stored more accurately. You’ll remember things that have personal importance for you, so find
something that matters in what you read so you can remember it better. Capitalize on the firsts
and lasts. This is where we remember firsts and lasts more than we do middles. If I asked you to
go to the store to shop for 10 items, and I told you what the items were but you didn’t write them
down, you’d probably remember the first 2 or 3 items and last 2 or 3 items. You’d mostly forget
the ones in the middle.
Speed Secret
Your distant memories aren’t usually affected by aging, but your recent memory may be. For
example, you may forget names of people you’ve recently met or even what you did last
weekend. For reading, this means you may have trouble remembering what you just read! These
are (unfortunately) normal changes.
When you’re young, using repetition to learn things is quite possible. However, as you age, this
no longer works. Instead, to remember, you need to capitalize on your background knowledge
and make more associations from what you’re reading to what you already know.
Here are a few more things that might help anyone at any age remember better:
• Write things down.
• Follow a set routine.
• Keep a detailed calendar with all your appointments and special events.
• Put frequently used items, like car keys and umbrellas, in the same place every time.
• Repeat a person’s name when you meet new people. Also make some mental connection about
their physical features to someone or something you already know.
• Mentally go through the alphabet to help trigger the memory of a word you’re trying to
remember. The better you remember, the less often you’ll need to go back.
Setting up a long term plan

Long term plans should not just include speed reading but also comprehending. As both
nonfiction book chapters and magazine articles are presented similarly, so it makes sense that
you approach them similarly. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Look over the table of contents. Do this slowly for the book; you can go quicker for the
magazine articles. Keep in mind that this is the outline of the reading material. In addition, for
the nonfiction book, consider speed reading the preface or other preliminary information.
2. Highlight or circle the articles or chapters of interest.
3. Choose which topic you want to read first and turn to it in the material. You don’t have to go
in order!
4. Cheat read the article or chapter using any of your favorite faster-reading strategies.
5. Decide whether you need to read in more detail. If so, go back, looking for the detail you
missed. If not, get out and move on to the next article or chapter of interest based on your
highlighted table of contents.
Don’t feel obligated to read the entire magazine or book. Remember your reason why you’re
reading, and read only what fits your needs.
Method for Speed Reading Nonfiction Books
1. When choosing a book to read, look at the font the book is printed in and the width of the
columns. If either is too small or unappealing, immediately put it back on the shelf.
2. Look over the cover matter. Remember the old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”?
Well, publishers hope their covers will sell their books so they make them as attractive and
colorful as possible. If the book appears to meet your interests, continue. If not, don’t. There are
plenty of other books out there to choose from.
3. Skim the front matter, including copyright date (how old is the information?), author
biography (is he or she qualified?), and any introductory material (why was the book written, and
how is it set up?).
4. Turn to any page in the book and read a paragraph or two. If you like the author’s writing
style, continue. If not, seriously consider not reading it. Your time is too valuable to waste on
poor writing.

5. Look over the table of contents. Go for an easy-to-read, somewhat detailed table of contents. If
it’s comprehensible and laid out well, keep going. If not, consider not continuing. Read only as
much as you need.
6. If you have read or cheat read the chapters of interest and several other chapters are yet
untouched, leave them untouched. Just because the author wrote it doesn’t mean you have to
read it.
As we grow, our reading skills differ. At some point, it is inefficient to read word by word and to
treat all the material as if it were of equal importance. Some material needs to be read slowly and
deliberately and other material can be skimmed or even skipped. Think of it like driving a car –
You wouldn’t drive in first gear down a highway, nor would you take it through town in fifth
gear. You decide HOW to drive depending on the circumstances. The same is true for reading.
Having a flexible reading rate is the goal. Prior to reading anything, take a few minutes to look
over your materials and think about the following:
Set a purpose to learn. Preview the material to evaluate what you know and what you still need
to learn. The brain will create a readiness. Note areas of interest. Anticipate building concepts in
these areas. Decide if you can skim (read briefly for an idea), scan (read briefly to find an
answer) or speed read the material (comprehend a group of words at a glance).
Slowly sweep your hand over the page using it as a marker. Basically, you use your hand as a
marker. It doesn’t block out the lines as effectively as a note card, but it’s convenient! Remember
our eyes are attracted to motion. Push yourself to read faster. Talk to yourself about reading
groups of words and not word by word. Reading too slowly can bore your brain. Prepare for a
reduction in comprehension. This generally happens, but if you keep practicing, comprehension
should develop at the quicker speeds. KEEP PRACTICING! Read something that interests you
for 15-20 minutes at an increased speed. Practice will make a difference!
Remember the goal is to have a flexible reading rate so sometimes it makes sense to slow down.
Those situations include:

Technical or unfamiliar vocabulary
Try to use context or structural analysis to understand unknown words. Sentence and paragraph
structures may be long or involved. Take time to analyze and untangle what is written. New or
abstract concepts: Try to link new concepts to old ones. Higher level thinking skills requires
time. Create new applications and examples. Detailed material: Decide if the details are key
points or if they support main ideas. Use note cards, mnemonic devices, and other strategies
mentioned in previous weeks to help you move the information into long term memory.
Poor Reading Habits
1. Sub-Vocalization. The habit of pronouncing each word in your head as you read it. This
process takes more time than necessary because your eye can scan and process it to the brain
faster than saying it.
2. Reading Word-by-Word. This will slow you down and lead you to miss the overall concept.
Instead, try reading blocks of 2-5 words together. You will read faster and understand the
material by linking words together.
3. Inefficient Eye Motion. Slow readers focus on each word, but your eye can actually span
about 1.5 inches at a time, seeing 4 to 5 words. Also, use peripheral vision to see words at the
end of the line. Relax and expand your gaze.
4. Regression. Try not to re-read unless it is absolutely necessary. This breaks the flow and
structure of the text, as well as your overall understanding actually decreases. Prevent this by
using a pointer to guide your eyes.
5. Poor Concentration. Read in an environment where distractions are kept to a minimum and do
not try to multi-task.
Always remember that Speed reading is seeing. First and foremost, speed reading is seeing; the
first step in reading anything is seeing the words. But how do you see words on the page when
you read? Prior to 1920 or so, researchers and educators believed that people read one word at a
time. To read, they thought, you moved your eyes left to right across the page, taking in one
word after the other. Under this theory, fast readers were people who could identify and
recognize the words faster. However, all but beginning readers have the ability to see and read

more than one word at a time. As you move your eyes left to right across the page, you jump
ahead in fits and starts, taking in anywhere between one and five words at a time in quick
glances.
Remember the important points to know about speed reading are:
✓You read several words in a single glance. Unless you’re encountering words you don’t know
or haven’t read before, you don’t read words one at a time.
✓You expand your vision so that you can read and understand many words in a single glance. A
very good speed reader can read, see, and process 10 to 14 words in a single eye fixation.
✓You expand your vision to read vertically as well as horizontally on the page. As well as taking
in more than one word on a line of text, speed readers can also, in a single glance, read and
understand words on two or three different lines.
Some of the exercises in this book ask you to calculate your WPM reading rate and your ERR.
Chapter 5 explains these rates in detail; you can use the following formulas to calculate them.
Use this formula to calculate your WPM (word-per-minute) reading rate:
_______________ Number of words in the reading selection
÷ _______________ Time to read the reading selection (enterfractions of minutes as decimals)
= ________________ WPM
Use this formula to calculate your ERR (effective reading rate):
_______________ WPM rate
× _______________ Percentage of comprehension questions answered correctly (enter as a
decimal)
= ________________ ERR
Conclusion

question makes you is reading much more productive because you establish goals when you
paragraphs more carefully and get more out of your reading.
Your ability to speed read is only as good as your ability to see words on the page. If you aren’t
yet 40, you’re in for a surprise where your eyes are concerned (and if you’re over 40, you
probably know what I’m talking about). Starting around age 40, your eyesight starts to
deteriorate. You have trouble reading small print. You have to hold the menu farther and farther
from your face as the years go by, until by age 50 your arm isn’t long enough and you end up
with stew when you thought you ordered steak. To avoid such culinary disasters and keep your
speed reading up to par, have your eyes checked regularly after the age of 40, and get yourself a
pair of glasses if necessary. You can’t speed read without them. If your peepers are already
healthy, thank your lucky stars and then keep them that way.
question makes you’re reading much more productive because you establish goals when you
paragraphs more carefully and get more out of your reading.
Your ability to speed read is only as good as your ability to see words on the page. If you aren’t
yet 40, you’re in for a surprise where your eyes are concerned (and if you’re over 40, you
probably know what I’m talking about). Starting around age 40, your eyesight starts to
deteriorate. You have trouble reading small print. You have to hold the menu farther and farther
from your face as the years go by, until by age 50 your arm isn’t long enough and you end up

No matter how quickly or slowly you read now, you can read much more rapidly by adopting the
speed-reading techniques described in this book. You can also comprehend, retain, and recall
what you read much more successfully. You can become an efficient and effective reader, one
who reads with confidence and greater understanding. You can read more in the time you devote
to reading and get more from the articles and books you read with stew when you thought you
ordered steak. To avoid such culinary disasters and keep your speed reading up to par, have your
eyes checked regularly after the age of 40, and get yourself a pair of glasses if necessary. You
can’t speed read without them. If your peepers are already healthy, thank your lucky stars and
then keep them that way.
Set a purpose to learn. Preview the material to evaluate what you know and what you still need
to learn. The brain will create a readiness. Note areas of interest. Anticipate building concepts in
these areas. Decide if you can skim (read briefly for an idea), scan (read briefly to find an
answer) or speed read the material (comprehend a group of words at a glance). Remember the
goal is to have a flexible reading rate so sometimes it makes sense to slow down. You don’t have
to be a wizard or master arcane techniques to be a speed reader. All you have to do is understand
the mechanics of reading and then apply yourself more efficiently to exercising those mechanics
when you read. This book shows you how to do that. This book is for people who have little or
no background in speed reading, as well as for experienced speed readers who want to hone their
speed-reading skills. It offers many strategies, tips, and tricks to improve your reading speed and
includes numerous exercises to give you hands-on practice in speed-reading techniques.

Speed reading for all

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Speed reading for all