Improving Your Reading

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–26–2 Ways to improve your reading Learn the reading speed limits Pick up your PACE naturally

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–36–3 How the eyes read Moves (saccades) Pauses (fixations) Focusing

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–46–4 What eye-motion photography reveals An average of 4 fixations per second 1.1 to 2.5 words per fixation

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–56–5 Reading speed limit 4 x 2.5 x 60 = 600 words per minute

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–66–6 Reading expert, Anne Cunningham Places speed limit closer to 300 wpm

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–76–7 Hear your silent speech: Vocalization: Most readers “speak” their words as they read –By whispering their words –By moving their lips –By vibrating their vocal cords Vocalization is necessary but can slow you down

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–86–8 How much can you comprehend? Even speedy readers must take time out to comprehend what they read

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–96–9 One word at a time MIT research shows we comprehend each word individually

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–10 Comprehension requires consolidation time Words you read must be moved from short-term to long-term memory

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–11 Speed reading claims don’t hold up Eye movements, vocalization, comprehension, and consolidation all slow us down

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–12 How can you read faster? By cutting down processing time and picking up the PACE –P: Preparation –A: Altitude –C: Clustering –E: Experience

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–13 Preparation: The more prepared you are, the speedier your reading will be Overview your assignments Use Gibbon’s “Great Recall” Try Daniel Webster’s Way

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–14 Overviewing provides advance organizers Look at titles, headings, subheadings, captions, and key paragraphs

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–15 Gibbon’s “Great Recall” assembles your mental tools Devote time to recalling all you know about a particular subject before you begin reading.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–16 Daniel Webster’s Way involves making three lists 1.Questions you expect the reading to answer 2.Knowledge you expect to gain from the reading 3.Where you expect this knowledge will lead you

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–17 Altitude: Depending on your purpose, reading can be done at a variety of levels Skim at 35,000 feet to get the gist Skim at the treetops for general clues Skim at ground level for specific information

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–18 Skimming to get the gist Helps you to determine if a book or article is worth reading Read the introduction, summary, and all paragraphs with pertinent topic sentences

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–19 Skimming for general clues Guess the form that your answer will take Skim closely enough to pick up the proper context

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–20 Skimming for specifics When you know exactly what you’re looking for Concentrate and rely on mere recognition to spot what you want

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–21 Cluster: Digesting reading more readily but reading words in meaningful groups 1.Use intonation 2.Think in terms of paragraphs 3.Process your reading a page at a time

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–22 Use intonation Grouping words of a sentence into meaningful, rhythmic clusters will make them easier to manage, comprehend and remember.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–23 Think in terms of paragraphs Identify the elements of each paragraph Topic sentence Supporting sentences Concluding sentence … and then distill it down to a single, manageable sentence

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–24 Reading a page at a time Thomas Babington Macaulay improved his comprehension by summarizing each page before moving on to the next one.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6–25 Experience: Authors assume their readers share a certain background of knowledge To keep up to speed with the writers you read: –Bolster your background by reading good books and seeing important movies –Beef up your vocabulary by using the Frontier System explained in the next chapter