When we talk about “how to speed read,” let’s keep two things in mind. First, there’s fast versus slow. Fast means having your eyes moving over the words as they appear, but still being able to understand every word. Slow means taking longer to process each sentence, because you’ve slowed down by stopping on certain words, rereading them, etc. Second, there’s easy versus hard reading. Easy reading involves no real effort; you take what you need from the page and move on. Hard reading requires a lot of concentration and energy. Both types of readers take different amounts of time—easy readers may finish a book in an hour while hard readers might spend three hours with the same book. So, we want to aim for both kinds of speeds at the same time.

The first thing you should try to do is become familiar with the various parts of text (the sentences) and learn how to recognize patterns. You’ll notice that many books are made up of paragraphs (longer sections), chapters (often subdivided into smaller units called scenes), and subchapters. Each paragraph usually has one main idea within it, which makes sense since you wouldn’t want to read a whole chapter without understanding its main point. Chapters often contain themes, such as love stories or science fiction tales, and these themes sometimes repeat themselves throughout the entire book. Subchapters tend to follow logically after the previous section, so you’d better figure out where you left off before starting again! Once you learn these basic concepts, you’ll see the logic behind why some books are easier to read than others.

Honing in on words as symbols

Next, look at those big words that seem like gibberish when you first start reading. If you break apart the letters, you will realize that the letter combination does resemble something else. For example, the word “tiresomely” isn’t difficult to decipher once you realize that “tr-” and “-es” sound alike, which sounds like “trails.” When this happens, it’s important to know that you aren’t struggling against a complex concept, you’re simply learning new ways to identify similar ideas. This is especially true when you come across unfamiliar vocabulary. In fact, using context clues is probably the best way to understand a word.

Shortcuts are a key to learn how to speed read

Another how to speed read trick is to use shortcuts. There are lots of little conventions used in writing to save space and time. These include abbreviations, acronyms, contractions, homonyms, idioms, and slang terms. Learning to recognize these helps you avoid confusion later on.

Finally, pay attention to the punctuation marks around the text. They tell you whether a sentence ends with a question mark, exclamation point, semicolon, colon, dash, parentheses, brackets, etc. Knowing this information tells you whether the author expects you to answer his questions, ask him a rhetorical question, offer advice, summarize the story, or give a command. It also gives you a clue to whether he wants you to laugh, cry, or think.

These tips are all great tools to help you speed up your reading, but they won’t work unless you actually practice doing them. A good place to start is with shorter texts. Read through a magazine article or newspaper column. Try to speed up your reading by skipping ahead whenever possible and paying extra attention to any tricky words and phrases. Next, pick a novel and read it cover to cover. Then choose another and go through it line by line. Finally, find a few short nonfiction pieces and read them. After you master the basics, you can then tackle long works of literature.

But remember, speed doesn’t always mean comprehension. Sometimes you really want to enjoy the story itself. And even though you want to read faster, you shouldn’t sacrifice quality. Take your time and savor the experience instead of rushing through it. That said, here are some quick fixes to help you get back on track if you happen to fall behind:

– Take a breather. Stop reading for ten minutes, or until you feel ready to continue.

– Restate the last sentence you read. This forces you to focus on the meaning, not the details.

– Look up unfamiliar words. Find definitions online, skim Wikipedia articles, or consult the dictionary.

After you’ve mastered the art of speed reading, you can finally dive into the classics. But whatever you do, don’t forget to relax and enjoy yourself!

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