I think that is the safest way, I can recommend it to anyone. The results could be devastating if you miss a word - we got to think about the consequences!
Speed reading can be improved by taking a proper course on speed reading. Speed reading programs vary greatly in terms of what techniques they teach, what they promise, and the actual outcome.
Speed reading practice should be done when you are in high school. It gets harder for the grown ups like learning a new language. Speed reading helped me when I was writing term papers in graduate school. I go to the library (good old days) and get 8 to 10 reference books and scan them fast. I always find the items I am looking for and use them. Then the hard part was writing them down. No speed writing....
Reading slowly can prevent good absorption of high level information--the big picture, the plot of the story because when you read slowly it's like looking at the book with a magnifying glass. Yes, speed reading is possible. It works by cutting out the speech center of the brain from the act of comprehension. One of the main ways of doing this is by vocalizing AEIOU or 1, 2, 3, 4 as you read. This way you're not subvocalizing the words. The information takes a shorter path--from the eyes to the neocortex--it bypasses the motor speech center, speeding up the rate at which you can absorb information. There is one Jew who is incredibly fast at reading. Howard Stephen Berg. http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/27150000/world-s-fastest-reader-on-pelosi-bill.htm Watch him go! Also, Kim Peek could read two pages at a time, one with each eye, and do both pages in 30 seconds. I guess you could call that speed reading.
Sure, you can do it. But it can very well lead to a serious misunderstanding of what you've read. For just one simple example, consider what happens to the context when you read so rapidly that you happen to overlook the inclusion of the word "not" in a sentence. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Yes, that's exactly what I've found. If, for whatever reason, I'm reading slowly, I often find myself being forced to re-read sections of what I've already read, as I've seemingly, forgotten things.
The fact that he's all Jewy. "She was exhausted from traveling all day. All she wanted to do was take a shower when she got back to the hotel. She was ______ pleased when she found out the hotel's plumbing was out of service." The brain fills in stuff pretty well. It's Prttey fnuny how we can raed tihs einrte snetnece wtih all tehse ltters all out of palce, and we can cnotniue to keep raednig and sitll mekas snece of waht we are raeding. No mttar how mnay tmies you raed tihs oevr and oevr you can sitll mkae snece of it. How is taht pssoible?
It's possible. Yeah it's possible. It's not the eyes... It's the brain. If you just look at the words really fast with your eyes then anyone could speed read. But to really speed read like I think you means you understand the words so fast cuz you've encountered them before then you understand the senctence paragraph story so on. I can do that. As soon as I see a word I don't need to even conciously think about it I just know what it means. I just understand. So yeah.
That's a poor example because of the way you constructed the context. What I'm' talking about is a sentence that does not give you such a *strong* hint. Consider something as complicated as a legal document - a contract, perhaps. You should be able to understand how attempting to read to too quickly could lead to misunderstanding what it's really saying in some clause (or more). And the same applies to even casual reading if there is something distracting going on around you.
Most reading does give you strong hints. I'm sure it's possible to construct paragraphs that are hard for speed readers to consume. Something like a bill? Did you see that video of the guy reading that bill? He's known for reading 25,000 words per minute, which means that he's looking at each page for only a few seconds. He has nearly perfect recall. And he's really doing it, unless that's something you'd like to contest. And there are others like him, although perhaps not quite so prodigal. So that answers the OP's question.
Oh sure, there are people who can do some pretty amazing stuff. But we're not talking about them but rather ordinary people. :shrug:
You can take a speed reading test online at acereader.com I currently read 762 words per minute with a 100% accuracy, but that's slower than I tested in college when I was doing more reading on a regular basis. Back then I was in the 800-900 range. I am a database administrator/engineer. I'm trained to read and spot check data almost constantly, but I am in the position because I can do so. I would imagine that most of the people who do what I do successfully will come up with similar or better results.
I'm not interested in a test, but thanks anyway. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I enjoy reading (otherwise I wouldn't even be here!) and I don't feel any personal need to speed it up.
I enjoy reading tremendously, and probably read 50-60 books a year for enjoyment only. I didn't post it as an ad, but as a way for people to test themselves if they wanted to.
I'm glad that you do. And I know it wasn't an ad, that's why I said thanks. Incidentally, I'm only in this thread to see what different people have to say about the topic. I'm actually neither pro or con.
