Fast reading
Speed-reading is one of the possible techniques to handle a large number of pages of text quickly. However, do not expect a simple instant procedure but rather challenging training.
In active reading methods (creative reading techniques, RWCT, compelling reading, etc.), the emphasis is usually on working with the text carefully and critically, thinking about it, reading it several times, etc. This is undoubtedly a good strategy when you know that you are working with a vital document, when it is clear that the time you spend on it will come back to you in the form of deeper understanding or learning something new.
The problem is that you rarely know in advance what problem you can solve. At the same time, contemporary education is based mainly on reading. Especially for the humanities or social sciences, reading many books and articles is an essential method of dealing with a topic. So, how to proceed? One possible way is speed-reading, the purpose of which is not to get a good grasp of the whole subject but to get acquainted with the text and reach a certain level of understanding, quickly. It is the speed of reading and the level of comprehension that you look for in speed reading.
Speed-reading is not ordinary reading with more incredible speed, but a specific competence that allows you to go through a large amount of text very quickly and take away the most important things. As much as it is often said that this method can be taught, we believe that for most people, it will remain a technique that will help them gain some understanding of the text. Still, it isn't easy to use for analytical reading or methods leading to memorization of important information. On the other hand, it will eventually allow you, for example, to get a solid penny of data to work with for an exam or to write a paper.
In general, you can practise the following skills in speed reading:
Visual span - shows how much of the text you can see without moving your eyes or your whole head. This skill can easily be trained with, for example, two identical pencils or fingers. Just put them about 30 centimetres from your eyes in the middle, side by side, and move them simultaneously to either side (i.e., setting them apart), as long as you can still see both. The moment you hit the limit, repeat the exercise. Around ten activities several times a day are usually recommended.
Eye fixation - how many syllables do you read? Most people read in a language they know by syllables or whole words, as long as they are not too long. Reading full terms or even pairs of words consistently takes practice and patience, but it helps a lot.
Reading speed - what most people are most interested in is the reading speed itself. But this depends on the previous two skills, and seeing it as a secondary manifestation of mastery makes sense. There is usually a relationship between speed and error rate - the faster you read, the less you remember the text and the less accurate the information is. An appropriate balance between the two parameters must be found for each text.
What can be recommended for reading is quality conditions. You can't read well without good lighting, sitting up straight, or a reasonable distance between the text and your eyes. Or at least it can, but the results are usually unsatisfactory. So, if you want to do something immediately to improve your speed reading, try working on this aspect of the task and start training your fixation and eye span. The results will come relatively quickly.
If you're reading from an online device, try to set the brightness and contrast to a reasonably high level and a suitable font size. Too small a font makes reading difficult in terms of character recognition. And "line retention" is too large and is impractical for eye fixation. We recommend a size that is easy to read but at the same time as small as possible in this area. Also, apps like F.lux or other sight-saving apps cannot be recommended for speed-reading. Devices with low DPI are similarly problematic.
Speed reading also requires a good attention span, which many people have trouble with - they need absolute quiet to read. Try to start reading in noisier or busier places. While it won't be fast or comfortable, it's a suitable method that teaches focus. If one then studies or reads quietly alone, overall concentration is better, and one can read faster. The other advantage is that a noiseless environment does not allow such good thought association . So you not only remember less from reading in silence, but you also know less.
We think some speed-reading course on the computer is worth considering, as fixation and ocular dispersion are much better digitally trained than on paper. For practical training, we also recommend, for example, Tony Buzan's book Speed Reading (several similar books are on the market).
