Speeding Your Reading (1947)

speed to most of us R will matter we pick up a book sit down and read the speed at which we read however depends largely upon how well we use our eyes most of us can increase our reading speed greatly if we learn to use our eyes correctly this is John Doe he spends th hours every day in Reading let's watch his eyes and see what happens notice how his eyes move quick little jerks back and forth here is another pair of eyes notice how smoothly they move but the not reading they are watching a bicycle but in reading the eyes always move in quick jerks and this is why when your eyes look at a page of printing they automatically focus on some one point this letter e for example such a point becomes the point of sharpest Focus as long as our focus on this point the rest of the page is more and more out of focus enough of the pag is in Focus however for all of us to recognize at least one word and many of us can recognize many words without moving the eyes how many words can you recognize at a single eye fixation that is without moving your eye look at this point of focus try not to movees without moving your eyes from the e you should be able to recognize a complete word most of us can recognize several words at a single ey fixation the amount of printed matter you can recognize at a single eye fixation is your span of recognition now about eye movements assume that this circle represents your normal span of recognition and for Simplicity consider only one line in selecting a point of focus select one that will utilize your full span of recognition if you select a point of focus in the first word of a line part of the of recognition will be lost so choose a point of focus that will utilize your full span of recognition with your eyes focused on this point read a natural phrase next move your eyes eyes quickly to another Point your eyes see nothing but a blur while they are moving move your eyes in a regular rhythm don't go back now try again Watch The Eyes of a good reader as he reads these same sentences a careful study of Rapid readers has shown that rapid readers also enjoy a more complete standing than slow readers now let's review these factors of Rapid reading first your eyes fix themselves on a point of focus approximately in the center of the largest group of words you can readily recognize without moving the eyes you will be able to read the entire group of words second move your eyes quickly in one motion to the next group of words the fewer the eye fixations per line the faster you will read after some practice you should be able to read the average line of print in not more than four or five fixations now let's repeat try making only one eye fixation for each group of words unfortunately all of us are not fast readers there are many types of slow readers who must correct serious faults before they can speed their reading slowest of all is the spell outer many of us were trained in childhood to spell out words and we still do it in reading this is what the spell outer sees this means many eye fixations train yourself to recognize groups of words at a single eye fixation closely related to the spellar outer is the vocalizer some of us learn to read out loud and we still do it even though we do not say the word out loud more than half of us are vocalizers are you if you move your lips if you Mumble if your throat vibrates when you read if you silently say each word to yourself you are a vocalizer vocalizing slows down your reading the eye and the mind are many times faster than the voice conclusion use only your eyes and your mind when you read don't vocalize don't say each word to yourself and another slow reader is the back looker he moves his eyes too far ahead this is what he sees frequently he misses a word or sees it but does not get the meaning then he has to go back and pick it up in order to correct this difficulty learn to read rhythmically not this way but this way many people have developed good reading Rhythm by reading to music