Speed Reading for Dummies (ISBN - 0470457449)

291 Pages·2021·2.91 MB·English

Richard Sutz
Founder and CEO, The Literacy Company
with Peter Weverka

• Increase your reading speed and
comprehension

• Use speed techniques for any type of
reading material

• Improve your silent reading skills

• Recall more of what you read

Learn to:

Speed Reading

Making Everything Easier!™

Open the book and find:

• Tried-and-true techniques from
Tried-and-true techniques from
The Reader’s Edge
The Reader’s Edge® program
program

• How to assess your current
How to assess your current
reading level
reading level

• Tools and exercises to improve
Tools and exercises to improve
your reading skills
your reading skills

• Speed-reading fundamentals
Speed-reading fundamentals
you must know
you must know

• Helpful lists of prefixes, suffixes,
Helpful lists of prefixes, suffixes,
roots, and prime words
roots, and prime words

• A speed-reading progress
A speed-reading progress
worksheet
worksheet

• Exercises for eye health and
Exercises for eye health and
expanded reading vision
expanded reading vision

• Tips for making your speed-
Tips for making your speed-
reading skills permanent
reading skills permanent

Richard Sutz is the founder and CEO of The Literacy
Company, developers of The Reader’s Edge® speed-reading
program. Sutz’s program teaches silent reading fluency
for effective and efficient speed reading. Peter Weverka
is the author of many For Dummies books. His articles
and stories have appeared in Harper’s, SPY, and other
magazines.

Reference/Reading Skills

$16.99 US / $19.99 CN / £12.99 UK

ISBN 978-0-470-45744-3

Go to dummies.com®

for more!

Want to read faster — and recall more of what you
read? This practical, hands-on guide gives you the
techniques you need to increase your reading speed
and retention, whether you’re reading books, e-mails,
magazines, or even technical journals! You’ll find
reading aids and plenty of exercises to help you read
faster and better comprehend the text.

• Yes, you can speed read — discover the skills you
need to read quickly and effectively, break your bad
reading habits, and take in more text at a glance

• Focus on the fundamentals — widen your vision
span and see how to increase your comprehension,
retention, and recall

• Advance your speed-reading skills — read blocks
of text, heighten your concentration, and follow an
author’s thought patterns

• Zero in on key points — skim, scan, and preread to
quickly locate the information you want

• Expand your vocabulary — recognize the most
common words and phrases to help you move
through the text more quickly

The fun and easy way® to
become a more efficient,
effective reader!

Speed Reading

Sutz
Weverka

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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

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit-
ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written per-
mission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the
Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone].
Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://
www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the
Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything
Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or
its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with
any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF
THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITH-
OUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE
CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES
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TION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE
OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES
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WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, 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].

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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
Development

Senior Project Editor: Alissa Schwipps
Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis
Copy Editor: Megan Knoll
Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney
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)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford
Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis,
Christine Williams, Erin Zeltner
Proofreader: Jennifer Theriot
Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

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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