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EFFICIENT READING• Can you read English sentences faster?• How do you think our eyes and brain

recognize words and sentences?• Which is important? Reading faster or

reproducing better?• Do we read by words? or by sentences?• What is efficient reading and how to

achieve it? And how “efficient reading” is different from “Speed Reading”


TRY TO READ THIS• The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.


SPEED READING• Speed reading refers to techniques

and strategies that allow you to read and understand more in less time. Many speed-reading courses and books focus on speed alone, which apart from impressing your friends, is not of much use.


I DO NOT HAVE TIME• I do not have the time to read all the

magazines, books, papers and so on that land on my desk. How can I cope?

• Simply reading faster is not the answer to your problem. Much of the reading that lands on our desk is not relevant and the most effective strategy for dealing with this problem is to be very selective in what you choose to read, and prioritise appropriately.


COMPREHENSION & RECALL• Before you start reading, think for a

moment about why you are reading that particular text and what you hope to learn from it. Then concentrate while reading, and make notes. When you have finished reading, review whether you achieved what you set out to achieve.


EFFICIENT WAY TO READ A BOOK

• Unless you are reading a book to appreciate the author’s use of language and literary style, you will learn most from a book by adopting a structured, multi-step process – think, preview, read and review.


READ LESS!• For most of us, the single best step to be taken

towards improved reading is to read less! We all tend to read, or attempt to read, a lot of material that is unnecessary, uninteresting and irrelevant. Time wasted on such items could be much better spent on necessary, interesting and relevant material.

• So how do you read less? The key is to pause and think before reading anything. Ask the simple question: ‘Why am I reading this?’. If there is a good reason, then go ahead. Else STOP.

• Look at the hints in the next slides that may help you.


READ REGULARLY• As with most skills, practice improve

reading: the more that you read, the better you will get at reading, and the more you will enjoy it. Given the huge amount of reading that we all have to do, it should not be allowed to be a chore. And if you enjoy reading, you will get better at reading, and learn more – a truly virtuous circle.


PRIORITISE YOUR READING• For most people, reading is a very

important part of their job, and so should be appropriately prioritised along with all the other essential tasks. If you really need to read a complex textbook, don’t just read a few pages in bed each night for the next month – set aside quality time and do the book justice.


KEEP A READING FILE• There will be a lot of shorter pieces of

reading (magazine articles, academic papers and so on) that can be read very efficiently during your wait times in a railway station or at a clinic. However we tend to forget them out over a period of time. To avoid it, we can maintain a reading file containing chronological information about our reading.


IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY• The better your vocabulary, the better you

will be able to read and comprehend. Therefore, whenever you come across an unfamiliar word, take time to look it up in a dictionary, and make a note of its meaning. If you are using a computer frequently install a dictionary in it or refer to online dictionaries to understand about unfamiliar words.


APPROPRIATE ENVIRONMENT• If you have to do a significant piece of

reading, then do so in the right surroundings. Schedule a time of day when you can best absorb the material, sit comfortably, with good source of light.

• Once you finish the reading, do a recall about what you have understood.


READ ACTIVELY

• We often tend to read passively – a mechanical process of running our eyes over the words while we think about something else. In order to learn from your reading, you need to read actively and with a purpose.


SPEED READING…..• Since the invention of printing in Europe

in 1440, which eventually lead to mass literacy, many people have yearned to be able to read faster.

• If you search Google for the term ‘speed reading’ you will get more than two million results – most of them trying to sell you a software or a course that will make you read so fast.


SPEED + NEED• Speed reading without comprehension is of no

practical use. The aim is to increase your reading speed while ensuring that you fulfill the object of reading – to take in and

learn what is important and new to you.• You can see some guidelines in the next few

slides that could help you develop your speed as well as meet the need.


Tips for effective RECALL• Read with a purpose• Tune in: While focusing your mind on the

subject of the item to be read, ask yourself: what do I already know about this topic? What else I will learn by reading this? What questions I can answer after reading this?

• Preview: Look at introductions, structure of the book or article, about the author etc.,

• Make notes.• Review


What is my speed?• Choose an article with about 1200 words. • Press your stop clock and start reading. • Note down the time taken in seconds, on

completion.• For example, if you took 255 seconds to read

this article, then your reading speed will be:


But Remember…..• The average reading speed of a normal person,

who have not practiced speed reading is between 250 and 300 wpm.

• Don’t worry even if you are an average – but check whether you could correctly answer these questions:

• Who, or what, is the article about?• When did the events take place?• Where?• What else have you learnt?


Key techniques to improve your reading speed

• Most of us read a lot slower than we could, often as a result of how we were taught to read in the first place.

• Once you know about the mechanical processes involved in reading, you will find it easier to increase your reading speed.

• Let’s have a look.


Fixation, back-skipping and regression

• If you carefully watch a person’s eyes as they are reading, you will see that their eyes make a series of rapid stop/start movements across the page.

• This is because the eye can only focus when relatively stationary and so it jumps from word to word, stopping at each. This is known as fixation.


• Most of us have the (often unconscious) habit of back-skipping, which is letting our eyes jump back to words that we have already read.

• Regression is a more conscious habit; it involves re-reading words, sentences or even whole paragraphs, because we think that we have not understood them.

• So, how to fix all these? Turn to next slide!


• Try to focus on groups of words, rather than single words at a time.

• Force yourself to keep moving forward through the text, avoiding back-skipping and regression; it is not necessary to understand every single word in a document in order to understand the key message.

• As you get better at focusing on groups of words, just concentrate on the middle of lines of text – with enough practice, this will allow you to read page of text by moving your eyes smoothly down the centre of the page without any lateral movement.

• With more practice, you will find that you can read complete sentences or even whole paragraphs with a single fixation.


Subvocalisation• When we are taught to read, we are taught to

read out loud. (So that teachers and parents can ensure that we are reading). Later on, we are told to read silently.

• But for most of us, mouths continue to move. Since our mouths move much slower than eyes, this ‘subvocalisation’ as it is called, limits our reading speed.

• A conscious effort will make you getting rid of this habit.


Skimming• Skimming refers to reading a piece of text very

rapidly in order to get an overview. It is an important technique when reading a sizeable text – books and newspapers, for example.

• When skimming, you are not trying to read or absorb everything, but picking up the key ideas through headings, diagrams, highlighted words and so on.

• But don’t skim, short but important details such as statistical data.


Scanning• If you are looking for a telephone number in

the directory, you do the scanning. You try to ignore everything else, though your eyes look at them.

• To make effective scanning, learn to look for specific information which could be a single word, a phrase or even a particular type of information.

• If you could scan rapidly, you could also read rapidly.


MAKING NOTES…..• Use a full size, blank paper and write the title

of the book in the centre of the page in colour. Add an image that summarises for you the essence of the book.

• Around the title of the book, write keywords that represent the main ideas of the book.

• Join the keywords to the central title.• Add keywords representing subordinate ideas

and join them to the major keywords.• Try this method and see the results.


So Efficient Reading is…..• Slightly faster reading, compared to average

reading speed.• We learn and understand what we read.• We are able to re-produce what we read.• We can skim or scan, when required.• We can fix longer sentences or even a

paragraph in one go.• We make notes that could give us a pictorial

representation of the entire theme we have read.


So Efficient Reading is…..•Apart from all the above, we can also ENJOY READING…..


•Call us to know about in-campus training programmes on Soft Skills development,

Personality Development, GDs, Mock interviews etc.,


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efficient reading - wordpress.com...and how “efficient reading” is different from “speed...

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