So much to read, so little time to read it all! Students often wish they could read more quickly, and, in fact, it’s easy to teach people how to speed-read. It’s important to understand, however, how speed-reading works, because this will help you see when speed-reading is a good idea—and when it’s a terrible strategy.
In normal reading, there’s no need to look at every word on the page. Printed material (like language in general) follows predictable patterns, and so, having read a few words, you’re often able to guess what the next words will be. And without realizing you’re doing it, you routinely exploit this predictability: you ordinarily skip over many of the words on the page, relying on rapid inference to fill in what you’ve skipped.
The same process is central for speed-reading. Courses that teach you how to speed-read actually rely on simple strategies that help you to skip more, as you move down the page, and, with this, to increase your use of inference. As a result, speed-reading is not really “reading faster”; it is instead “reading less and inferring more.”
How does this process work? First, before you speed-read some text, you need to lay the groundwork for the inference process—so that you’ll make the inferences efficiently and accurately. Specifically, before you speed-read a text, you should flip through it quickly. Look at the figures and the figure captions. If there’s a summary at the end or a preview at the beginning, read these. These steps will give you a broad sense of what the material is about, preparing you to make rapid—and sensible—inferences about the material.
Second, you need to make sure you do rely on inference, rather than word-by-word scrutiny of the page. To achieve this, read for a while holding an index card just under the line you’re reading, or perhaps using your finger to slide along the line of print to indicate what you are reading at that moment.
These procedures establish a physical marker that helps you keep track of where you are as you move from word to word. This use of a pointer will become easy and automatic after a bit of practice, and once it does, you’re ready for the key step.
Rather than using the marker to follow your eye-position, use the marker to lead your eyes. Specifically, try moving the index card or your finger a bit more quickly than you have so far, and try to move your eyes to “keep up” with this marker.
Of course, if you suddenly realize that you don’t have a clue what’s on the page, then you’re trying to go too fast. Just move quickly enough so that you have to hustle along to keep up with your pointer. Don’t move so quickly that you lose track of what you’re reading
This procedure will feel awkward at first, but it will become easier with some practice, and you’ll gradually learn to move the pointer faster and faster. As a result, you’ll increase your reading speed by 30%, 40%, or more.
But let’s be clear about what’s going on here: You’re simply shifting the balance between how much input you’re taking in and how much you’re filling in the gaps with sophisticated guesswork. Often, though, this is a fine strategy.
Many of the things you read are highly predictable, and so your inferences about the skipped words are likely to be correct. In this setting, you might as well use the faster process of making inferences, rather than the slower process of looking at individual words.
Of course, speed-reading is a bad bet if the material is hard to understand; in that case, you won’t be able to figure out the skipped words via inference, and so speed-reading will hurt you. Speed-reading is also a poor choice if you’re trying to appreciate an author’s style.
If, for example, you speed-read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, you probably will be able to make inferences about the plot, but you won’t be able to make inferences about the specific words you’re skipping over, and so you won’t be able to make inferences about the language that Shakespeare actually used. And, of course, if you miss the language of Shakespeare and miss the poetry, you’ve missed the point.
Speed-reading will enable you to zoom through many assignments. But do not speed-read material that is technical, filled with details that you’ll need, or beautiful for its language. In those cases, what you want is to pay attention to the words on the page and not rely on your own inferences.
Essay Questions
Instructions: Complete and then submit the answers to the questions below in 100-150 words.
Why is speed-reading a better strategy for redundant or repetitive material compared to material that is difficult to understand? How about materials in a science course?
Would a speed-reading strategy be helpful to someone with dyslexia? Why or why not?
Discuss how you could you relate what you’ve learned here to writing – your term paper for example.
