Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour (Mental Performance)

by Kam Knight

Determine beforehand what you want or hope to gain from the material.

whenever you pick up something to read, state the purpose or intention for reading it. The clearer the purpose, the easier it will be for the mind to grasp the information—and the faster you can sift through it.

The key is to determine why you are reading the text or what you want to know once finished. If reading for an assignment, you might ask why the instructor assigned the chapter or section. Two universal examples include: What can I get out of this material or How will reading it help me?

I want you to preview material before reading it. That means scrolling through the text, scanning the table of contents, major headings, any words in bold or italics, visual aids, and any information that seems relevant.

Preview is one of the most valuable steps readers can take to improve reading speed and comprehension. That’s because previewing gives the mind a framework of what will be discussed. It helps the mind understand the type of information that will be presented and how it will be organized.

The benefit of predicting what comes next is that you can read faster. There’s no need to dissect every word, sentence, and paragraph with a fine-tooth comb to acquire meaning. Based on the author, topic, writing style, content, and other clues, your mental processes can simultaneously read and comprehend.

Preview helps the mind make more accurate predictions. It allows the mind to see what the text is about, determine its length, and assess the writing style. And in the background, it can begin thinking about the material and the possible directions it can go.

While reading, the brain will reference what it learned from preview to confirm that its predictions reflect the actual content. The act not only translates into faster reading, but better comprehension.

So, whether you’re about to read an article, report, manual, novel, or chapter from a textbook, preview it before reading.

Whether you preview or not, the mind is going to make predictions. You can’t stop this process. It is hardwired into the brain. By skipping preview, the mind is likely to form inaccurate predictions, making it difficult to understand the material.

Again, preview is not necessarily meant for you but rather for your mind.

Preview helps the mind zero in on all the options. The mind may not guess exactly what’s going to be discussed, but it can eliminate a million possibilities. Eliminating possibilities is essential for accurate predictions.

Finally, preview can help determine if the text will meet the goal or purpose you established in Chapter 1. Based on the info you gather, you can decide if the material will contain the information or answers you seek. If so, you can proceed with confidence. If not, then you’ve saved a great deal of time.

New or unfamiliar topics, no matter how well written, require reducing speed to fully grasp.

Therefore, adjust reading speed according to the importance, form, genre, and difficulty of the material. In other words, don’t read textbooks in the same way as email. And don’t read email in the same way as a training manual. Each type of material presents its own challenges. Be aware of the challenges and change your speed accordingly.

Something else worth considering is how long the information will remain relevant. If reading to find a solution to a problem that once solved has no further use, then there is no need to be so meticulous. On the other hand, if the information is essential to your major or occupation, or if it’s indispensable to another area of life, such as health or finances, be thorough.

In these cases, race over the ideas that repeat and slow down for those that are new or foreign.

• How long will the information be relevant—for the moment, to clear a temporary hurdle, or for the foreseeable future of my profession?

• How difficult is the material to read and comprehend?

This is how most of us read; we narrow our focus to each word or letter. Much like understanding a face, this process forces us to read bit by bit—letter by letter or word by word—to absorb any significant meaning. If we are distracted or our mind wanders, we miss the meaning of the entire sentence or paragraph and must start over.

Think before you speak. Read before you think–Fran

fixation and regression are enemies of speed reading, and visual range a friend.

If you don’t grasp the main point, you will get lost in the details.

An excellent way to recognize the main points is to recognize the levels embedded in any written composition. It begins with understanding the meaning of a sentence, then how that sentence fits into the paragraph, and then how the paragraph supports the larger chapter. Finally, how the chapter supports the overall piece.

Just as there is a purpose to why we read, there is a purpose to why writers write. In other words, writers write to make a point, and your job as a reader is to understand that point.

It is easy to think you understand the point of a passage, but unless you are actively seeking it, you will likely miss it. So always be on the hunt for the bigger meaning, idea, or purpose. Don't get caught up only in the details. The process can also be applied in reverse. Since the preview step gives you a general overview of a written piece, determine the overall message or point of the material during preview. Then, while reading, watch for how the author delivers and supports that message with the details. Think about the ways each chapter supports the overall book, how the individual paragraphs reinforce each chapter, and how specific sentences develop the paragraphs.

Think about what the writer of each piece wishes to share.

If a thesis is a road map to a paper, then a topic sentence is a guide to a paragraph–BCCC Tutoring Center

Paragraphs are the fundamental unit of all writing. They are the building blocks, much like bricks to a house, which hold together a piece of writing. An idea in one paragraph leads to an idea in the next, and so on, until the reader comes to understand the big picture the writing is trying to convey. Since each paragraph discusses a distinct idea, it helps to locate that idea in each paragraph. The way to do this is to identify the topic sentence—the sentence that clearly states the idea. To understand what a topic sentence is and how to find it, it helps to understand the formal structure of a paragraph.

In formal writing, paragraphs consist of three parts: topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence.

Supporting sentences sell the idea the topic sentence makes.

In many ways, paragraphs resemble hamburgers. The top bun is the topic sentence, the bottom bun concluding sentence, and the meat and trimmings supporting sentences. Although the top and bottom buns look similar, they are not exactly the same. Nonetheless, both buns hold the core of the burger together in the same way that topic and concluding sentences hold together supporting sentences in a paragraph. Such is the nature of paragraphs.[24]

Your goal as a reader is to find the topic sentence in each paragraph and understand how the other sentences detail, elaborate, or describe the claim the topic sentence is making. The practice will yield greater insight into how the paragraph fits into the overall piece.

So, how do you find the topic sentence? While it may appear anywhere in the paragraph, it is often the first sentence as it introduces what follows.

Also, topic sentences tend to be short and general with limited content. That is because they use supporting sentences to provide the necessary details.

Another way to identify a topic sentence is that it often poses a question to be answered. The statement, In many ways, paragraphs resemble hamburgers, raises the questions: Why are they like hamburgers? Or, How do they resemble hamburgers? This makes readers want to dive into the supporting sentences for the answer. If unsure whether or not a sentence is the topic, turn it into a question. If the other sentences seem to answer that question, then you have identified the topic sentence.

In addition, you can spot the topic sentence by finding a word or two that repeat in the rest of the paragraph.

Furthermore, topic sentences often contain transition words that smoothly lead the reader from one paragraph to the next. These include words that show continuity, like next, another, also, in addition, or words that express disagreement, like despite, nevertheless, however, and although.

So, how do you find the topic sentence? While it may appear anywhere in the paragraph, it is most often the first sentence, because it introduces what follows. Reviewing the topic sentence in the previous example, Think of paragraphs like hamburgers, you’ll notice it is the first sentence. In fact, a majority of the topic sentences in this book are the first sentence in the paragraph. Although the first sentence in this example may seem like a topic sentence, it is merely a transition sentence that smoothly transitions the reader from the previous paragraph. The sentence that follows is the true topic as it introduces the main thought. And if you notice, it has the word first, which shows up several times throughout the passage. This increases the likelihood that the sentence is the topic. You don’t see the words in the transition sentence, like find, repeated in the passage.

Although a topic sentence often appears in the beginning of a paragraph, it can show up elsewhere. It can appear as the second, third, and occasionally, even as the final. When it comes last, the supporting sentences develop arguments and examples that build to the main idea announced at the end.

Again, your goal when reading is to be on the hunt for the topic sentence. It will help you better understand the thought or idea of a paragraph. Although that thought or idea is not the main or overarching point of a composition, it will aid in following the writers line of thinking, form one paragraph to the next, until arriving at the main or overarching point. Topic sentences are what keep the conversation going from one paragraph to the next.

As vocabulary is reduced, so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of the things you can identify–Sheri S. Tepper

As you noticed, not knowing the definition of words dramatically slows reading. Our eyes fixate on unfamiliar words longer, and there is a greater impulse to regress. You’re not aware of it, but you can’t help but read slower.

In fact, strong vocabulary is essential to increasing reading speed. When readers know a word, their mind can retrieve the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning as soon their eyes see it. Skilled readers read practically all words from memory by sight. For them, meanings come to mind automatically and instantly when words are seen.[25]

So, the stronger the vocabulary, the more words the brain can recognize and process in the moment.

Weak vocabulary increases fixation, regression, and disrupts pace and rhythm.

It helps to have the basics down first, and that includes vocabulary.

Reading a variety of materials exposes the mind to a wider range of words in meaningful contexts.

Relying solely on reading to build vocabulary is a passive approach that is not very effective. It’s a shortsighted view that limits potential. To develop vocabulary, you must actively work on it.

In my memory improvement material, I teach students not to rely on their automatic mental processes to remember information. Believe it or not, we forget up to 80 percent of what we hear, see, or learn within a few hours of hearing, seeing, or learning it![26]