Speed Reading For Dummies

291 Pages·2009·2.33 MB·English

by  Richard Sutz

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Speed Reading
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Richard Sutz
with Peter Weverka
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Speed Reading For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009928739
ISBN: 978-0-470-45744-3
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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About the Authors
Richard Sutz is founder of The Literacy Company. The company’s
software, The Reader’s Edge, is the result of more than $3 million of
research and development. Richard began his involvement in speed
reading more than 30 years ago as a consultant to and a personal
friend of Evelyn Wood, the speed-reading pioneer. His background
and experience span executive roles in both the private and public
sector. Richard was Grumman Aircraft’s Assistant Director for
Europe and the Middle East. In the late 1970s, he was appointed
Deputy Director of the Arizona Energy Office and later joined the
U.S. Department of Energy as director of the Energy Related
Inventions Program.
Peter Weverka is the author of many For Dummies books, including
Office 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies. His articles and
stories have appeared in Harper’s, SPY, and other magazines.
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to the pioneers, researchers, teachers, and
entrepreneurs who from 1880 to the present have provided a solid
base upon which to build my company’s innovative, award-winning
program that teaches silent reading fluency. I’m proud to bring
their teachings into the 21st century.
Author’s Acknowledgements
Where to begin? First with my wife, Wink Blair, who has been a
solid rock of support during the years that I’ve spent on my entre-
preneurial ventures. I thank her from the bottom of my heart.
I thank my second family too. My partners in The Literacy Company
(TLC): Rich Coppola, the co-developer of TLC’s technology, and
Lance Leishman, TLC’s Operations Manager, ran the company while
I was engaged in researching and writing this book.
A special thanks goes to Wiley Publishing for giving me the oppor-
tunity to present what I believe will be a road map to change the
nation’s reading curriculum. I want to thank Michael Lewis for his
support and for understanding that there is a world of difference
between subject matter knowledge, which I do have, and the ability
to write a For Dummies book, which I do not have. Michael arranged
for me to have the very best professional writer, Peter Weverka,
work with me. Without Peter’s partnership, this book could not
have been written. Also at Wiley, I want to thank Alissa Schwipps
and Megan Knoll. It’s incredibly eye-opening to observe the enor-
mous improvements made by professional editing. I take my hat off
to them.
I also want to thank Bill Cowles of SkillPath Seminars and Tom
Hopkins International for being early adopters of silent reading
instruction as taught by The Reader’s Edge. I thank the thousands
of individuals, schools, colleges, universities, and corporations in
99 countries who now use The Reader’s Edge to learn efficient and
effective speed-reading skills.
Finally, I want to thank Harvey Mackay, Tom Hopkins, Rogers
Historical Museum, and StrugglingReaders.com for permitting me
to use their columns and essays in this book as reading selections.
I thank Evan Islam for his list of Fortune Cookies Sayings and
Idiomsite.com and UsingEnglish.com for their list of idioms. I also
thank Howard Bailey for permitting me to use the Recognition and
Motility Eye exercises in this book.
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registra-
tion form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact
our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993,
or fax [phone].
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Composition Services
Development
Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford
Senior Project Editor: Alissa Schwipps Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis,
Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis Christine Williams, Erin Zeltner
Copy Editor: Megan Knoll Proofreader: Jennifer Theriot
Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC
Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen
Technical Editor: Ed Caldwell
Senior Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich
Editorial Assistants: Jennette ElNaggar,
David Lutton
Cover Photo: Walter B. McKenzie
Cartoons: Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction ......................................................1
Part I: Introducing Speed Reading ......................7
Chapter 1: Of Course You Can Speed Read! ...........................................9
Chapter 2: It’s All about Breaking Bad Reading Habits ......................23
Chapter 3: Understanding the Mechanics of Speed Reading .............35
Chapter 4: Introducing Speed-Reading Fundamentals .......................49
Part II: Focusing on the Fundamentals ..............73
Chapter 5: Establishing Your Reading Rate .........................................75
Chapter 6: Taking in More than One Word at a Time:
Reading in Clumps ............................................................................85
Chapter 7: Getting the Gist from Word Groups .................................105
Part III: Advancing Your Speed-Reading Skills ....125
Chapter 8: Building Your Speed-Reading Momentum ......................127
Chapter 9: Exercising Your Ability to Read More
in Even Less Time ...........................................................................147
Chapter 10: Other Reading Strategies to Supplement
Your Speed Reading .......................................................................165
Chapter 11: Taking Advantage of Writing Structure
to Read More Quickly .....................................................................187
Part IV: Improving Your Comprehension ..........199
Chapter 12: Expanding Your Vocabulary to Become
a Better Speed Reader ....................................................................201
Chapter 13: Applying Speed Reading to Various Reading Tasks ........221
Part V: The Part of Tens .................................229
Chapter 14: Ten Quick Techniques to Improve
Your Reading Speed .......................................................................231
Chapter 15: Ten Exercises for Keeping Your Eyes
Speed-Reading Ready .....................................................................235
Chapter 16: Ten Tips for Making Your Speed-Reading
Skills Permanent ..............................................................................241
Part VI: Appendixes .......................................245
Appendix A: Uncovering the Prime Words ........................................247
Appendix B: Your Speed-Reading Progress Worksheet ...................255
Index ............................................................261
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Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................1
Part I: Introducing Speed Reading ......................7
Chapter 1: Of Course You Can Speed Read! . . . . . . . . . . .9
What Is Speed Reading, Anyway? ..........................................10
Speed reading is seeing .................................................10
Speed reading is silent reading ....................................11
Speed reading is decoding the words .........................11
Speed reading is comprehending ................................12
Speed reading is concentrating ...................................13
Debunking Speed-Reading Myths ..........................................14
What You Need to Get Started ...............................................14
Proving You Can Read Faster .................................................15
Chapter 2: It’s All about Breaking
Bad Reading Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Understanding Vocalization and Its Effects ..........................23
Finding out why vocalizing slows you down ..............24
Finding out how (and how much) you vocalize.........25
Getting Away from Vocalization.............................................26
Reading for meaning rather than sound .....................27
Stopping the vocalization motor .................................27
Silencing your inner reading voice ..............................28
Exercising to quiet your inner reader .........................28
Preventing Regression When You Read ................................33
Chapter 3: Understanding the Mechanics
of Speed Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Fixating on Eye Fixations ........................................................35
Looking at eye fixations ................................................36
Eye fixations and reading speed ..................................37
Exercising Your Eye Fixations ................................................39
Comprehending Comprehension Mechanics .......................45
Reading and your short-term memory........................45
Assimilating concepts and ideas .................................46
Exploring the Pacer Question.................................................46
Deciding How Much to Bring to Your Reading ....................48
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