GUIDANCE PLUS
Need for speed: reading as an art
B.S. WARRIER
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Feel weighed down by heavy books and a slow reading pace? Help is at hand. This series explains the art of speed reading and better comprehension.
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— Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar
Plenty on hand: Students have a lot to read these days, and being fast at it will help save time.
We live in an age where there is a deluge of information. It surges into us in forms such as the newspaper, periodicals, books, letters, e-mail, and fax, leave alone television pictures and radio. There are professional documents, and literature books for entertainment. Some say that there is a knowledge explosion. We have to read a lot of material, absorb the ideas, and recall many of them when required.
The surge of information inflow may sometimes assume alarming proportions. A cynic once said that by the time you finish reading a Sunday newspaper including all the supplements at the usual speed of a radio news reader, the Monday issue would arrive to greet you.
Any conscientious official would be anxious to read and dispose of the heap of files before him at the earliest. A scientist may have a large pile of journals and papers to be read before a deadline. If we start reading everything at a slow pace, we would be pushed back in time.
The solution lies in increasing the reading speed. Some may feel that reading fast would reduce comprehension. But that is a fallacy. We can enhance our reading speed without sacrificing comprehension.
It’s a skill
An average person reading at the rate of 250 words per minute may have only 50 to 70 per cent comprehension. Some people read all kinds of material so slowly as if they were reading an examination question paper or a legal document. We have to master the skills for getting more in less time. Right from early childhood, we read to learn. We can learn to read as well. The implication is that we should learn to read efficiently.
As a part of lessons on learning skills, this column had discussed sometime ago in an elementary way certain aspects of reading, such as
Elements of efficient reading
Methods of good reading such as the 4R method and SQ3R method
Pitfalls in reading
Reading speed
Elements of comprehension
Barriers to rapid reading
Muscle reading.
Since the need for rapid reading is felt not only by students but by all kinds of people, it would be appropriate for us to look into the problem in some depth. This should help us to make us faster and better readers. Educational psychologists define learning as ‘change in behaviour.’
In a way, reading leads to change in behaviour and change in personality. Increase in knowledge, opportunity for aesthetic appreciation, relief from tension, change in attitude, and development of self-confidence are some of the benefits of reading. A well-read person is usually respected anywhere.
Reading is a combination of physical and mental processes. Remember the question, who really read: Milton or his daughters? The reference is to John Milton’s young daughters reading Greek and Latin to their blind father. The daughters went through the motions of reading such as their eyes moving and their mouth pronouncing the words. But it was Milton who understood the words. He was the one who ‘read’ in the right sense of the word. This shows that in reading, our body and mind have to be alert. In rapid reading, this assumes greater significance.
Edmund Wilson, American author, said: ‘No two persons ever read the same book’. What we read and understand from a book depends on our prior knowledge and attitude. A person who has a rich vocabulary, expertise in the nuances of language, wide general knowledge, and specific knowledge in the subject discussed will stand to gain far better than a casual reader.
We have to bear in mind the level at which we intend to read the matter before us. Perhaps we want to read at a literal level, just going by the meaning of the words.
There are occasions when this is inadequate. We may desire to reach the interpretative level or even the levels of appreciation or evaluation. Comprehending or analysing the implied meaning involves higher levels of intellectual activity.
We should not forget that all these form part of rapid reading as well. If we start reading with a receptive mind, it will prove to be an enjoyable and rewarding experience, and not a dull chore to be shunned.
Reading speed
This is usually measured as words per minute (wpm). To find your speed, take a fairly easy passage without sketches, diagrams, or numerical calculations. It may have roughly 700 to 800 words. Select a quiet palace without distractions. Keep a stopwatch, paper, and pen ready. Start the stopwatch and read the passage once, in one go, at your usual pace. Stop the watch when you reach the end of the passage, and note down the time spent for reading. Let us say that you took 4 minutes and 12 seconds to read a passage of 777 words.
Time spent by you = 4 min, 12 sec = 4 + 12 / 60 min = 4.2 minutes. Your speed = 777 / 4.2 = 185 words per minute
This represents a low reading speed. Through systematic training, you can increase it to 300 or 400 or more wpm.
Everybody has a practical limit to which the speed can be increased, ensuring fine comprehension. It is not rational to increase reading speed sacrificing comprehension.
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