What Slows Down Faster Reading
You have probably seen very young children - or very old people - learning to read. They move the index finger along the line of print, pointing to each word, sometimes even to individual letters. They say the word or letters to themselves in a low voice. This is called 'vocalizing'. Sometimes the learner makes no sound, though his lips may move to form the words. Sometimes there is no perceptible movement of the mouth at all, but the learner is still activating his throat muscles slightly, 'saying' the words to himself. He is still vocalizing.
Even a little vocalizing keeps a reader below about 280 w.p.m. The appreciation of written words must be entirely visual, and we must read more than one word at a time.
Look at 'you', the second word of this passage. Even if you look straight at the 'o' of that word, you can clearly see 'perhaps' and 'have' on either side without moving your eyes. So you can read three words at once. Now look at the word 'word' on line 3. With a slight movement of your eyes, you can take in the whole phrase '... saying the word or letters...' in the same glance. In the same way, you can probably take in a whole short sentence, like the one on line 8, at one glance. No line of print on a page this size should need more than three eye movements. Take line 6. It would probably break into three word groups: (1)... times there is not even.... (2)...any perceptible movement...(3)... of the mouth at all, but... When you read well, your eyes stay one or two word groups ahead of your mind.
Practice on something easy and interesting:
Many students who try to increase their reading speed become discouraged when they find that, if they race through a passage faster, they fail to take in what they have read. By the end, they have been so busy 'reading faster' that they cannot remember what the passage was about. The problem is the material itself. It is either too difficult for them in vocabulary or content, or not interesting enough. We hope the passages in this course will be both interesting and fairly easy, but you should also practice as much as you can in your own time. Read things you like reading. Go to the subject catalog in the library. Biography, sport, domestic science, the cinema — there is sure to be some area that interests you, with books at about your level or just below.
If you want a quick check on how easy a book is, read through three or four pages at random. If each page has more than five or six words that are completely new to you, the book (though you may persevere with it for interest's sake) is not suitable for improving your reading speed. Also, try to read three or four times as much 'light' speed reading material (whether it is Newsweek, The Saint or A Tale of Two Cities) as you do close, slow textbook work. You cannot make lasting improvement in your reading speed if you spend most of your practice reading slowly.