Hobbies And Interests
Chunking
Speed readers tend to read text in chunks of several words at a time rather than word by word. Chunking breaks the reading material into digestible sections and prevents word-by-word reading. Reading individual words can reduce comprehension because the reader focuses on an individual word rather than on the meaning of the entire sentence. Studies have shown that chunking improves the comprehension of most readers, especially low-ability readers.
Meta Guiding
Meta guiding is using an object to assist your eyes to scan the text more quickly. You can use your fingers, a pen or a piece of card or paper by placing it on the page and moving it steadily downward. The eye is drawn to movement, and using an object helps the eye move from one block of words to the next. This, in turn, broadens the visual span for speed reading. Many fast readers will draw a finger down a page as they are reading.
Skimming
Skimming involves visually searching the sentences of a page for the major points. This comes naturally for some people, and is very useful when reading in order to search for information. Skimming allows you to cover a large amount of text in a short time frame. However, different materials will require different reading speeds; an information-rich textbook will be harder to absorb than a novel.
Eliminating Subvocalization
Subvocalization is either moving your lips as you read or "hearing" the words in your head. This slows your brain down to speaking rate. However, you are capable of absorbing written information much faster than you are able to speak it. Using chunking and meta guiding will force you to eliminate subvocalization, which will automatically increase your reading speed. The elimination of subvocalization is a major characteristic of speed reading.