Try Reading Words, Not Single Letters

A simple way of increasing your reading speed

Last week’s exercise prompted you to not only read a passage with completely mis-spelt words but also try your hand at reading a passage without any vowels. The passage was :

It is important to understand that no distinct “normal” and “speed-reading” types of reading exist in practice, since all readers use some of the techniques used in speed reading (such as identifying words without focusing on each letter, not sounding out all words, not articulating some phrases, or spending less time on some phrases than others, and skimming small sections).

Most readers found it very easy enough, except n_t__rt_c_l__ng which should have been n_t _rt_c_l_t_ng = not articulating. Sorry for the printer’s devil, but most got the message anyway. In any case, most of us have become comfortable with sms language, with scant regard for spellings.

The longest word without any vowel in English common usage is rhythms. However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists ‘twyndyllyngs’   - a 15th century Welsh spelling of  “twinling,” which means “twin” , in modern English.

These exercises demonstrate how our brain functions - usually, readers don’t read letter by letter but recognise whole words. So by reading all of the letters in a word, you slow down your reading speed. And as you have seen, the absence of vowels does not reduce the understanding of the text; a look at the word is enough to recognize it. If we were to look at s_t it could mean ‘sat’, ‘set’, ‘sit’ or ‘sot’ (yes indeed meaning drunkard). However your brain can decipher the word automatically in context to the sentence in which it is contained.

In short, you can improve your readig sped by not reading each letter, word, or sentence of a text.

High-frequency words are those words that occur often in print. Rather than having to sound them out individually, you will be able to read more fluently if these words are “automatized” (i.e., “automatically” recognize them when you see them). 

These are ‘sight words’ as listed in  the Dolch Word List, a list of 220 commonly used words that a reader automatically recognizes and can pronounce without decoding the word’s spelling. A common first sight word is a child’s name. Sight words just need to be memorized since they do not follow any rules or guidelines.
 
For a full list check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolch_Word_List. Examples of ‘sight words’ starting with ‘a’ are : a, and, away, all, am, are, at, ate, after, again, an, any, as, ask, always, around,  about

A study (Fry, Kress, and Fountoukidis, 2000) found that the 25 most common words make up about one-third of our written material. And the 100 most common words account for about 50 percent of the material we read. Imagine the positive difference it would make to your reading speed if you were to simply take them from granted.

Finally let me summarize some basic tips for improving your reading speed. There are several others, ofcourse.

• Ask yourself what you are looking for
• Practise the eye exercises given in an earlier edition of Open Mind.
• Get your eyes checked. Often, very slow reading is related to uncorrected eye defects.
• Force yourself to read faster to avoid moving your lips.
• Move your eyes faster over the text. Instead of taking in three words per ‘fixation’, take in six words.
• Spend a few minutes a day reading at a faster-than-comfortable rate (about two to three times faster than your normal speed).
• Don’t read every word. If you only need the main ideas, allow yourself to skim the material. This way you can get 80 per cent of the information in 20 per cent of the time.
• Improve your vocabulary. Familiarize yourself with new words so you don’t get stuck on them when you read them again.
• If you have poor concentration, practise reading for five to ten minutes at a time and gradually increase this window.
• Simply read more! 
  

The key to increasing reading rate is practice. Your reading speed will not increase overnight; the process will take some time. Don’t give up

.
Thought for the Week

“I’m not a speed reader.
I’m a speed understander.”
Isaac Asimov
(Science fiction writer 1920-1992)
.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

The Missing Links

Why are we able to read and understand words 
even when they are incomplete?

Many of you must have thought that counting alphabets was a cinch. But of the responses that came in showed that only 10 per cent were able to count all the Fs and fs! The first count ranged from 1 to 4. A few repeated the exercise and were astonished to note that their original count had changed to the actual tally of 6. How did this happen?

Recall the sentence :
Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of many years.
So how come you missed so many of them? The answer lies in an earlier column “...text is read not only with the eyes, but also with the “ears and lips”. The sentence in question has three instances of “of” which is phonetically pronounced “ov” and hence tends to get missed.

Let’s look at another example below. 

 Read the sentence within the triangle once. Notice anything odd. If not, read again until you do.

Going further, read the following sentence normally. Almost all words will be unusual, but let’s try anyway:
 Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Almost all the words are mis-spelt. Yet you could not only read through but understand the words as well. Once your brain adapted to the strange words it accelerated its pace without stopping at the odd words (probably being encountered for the first time). So much for spellings.

Now let’s read the following :
    _t _s _mp_rt_nt t_ _nd_rst_nd th_t n_  d_st_nct “n_rm_l” _nd “sp__d-r__d_ng” typ_s _f r__d_ng _x_st _n pr_ct_c_, s_nc_ _ll r__d_rs _s_ s_m_ _f th_ t_chn_q__s _s_d _n sp__d r__d_ng (s_ch _s _d_nt_fy_ng w_rds w_th__t f_c_s_ng _n __ch l_tt_r, n_t s__nd_ng __t _ll w_rds, n_t _rt_c_l_t_ng s_m_ phr_s_s, _r sp_nd_ng l_ss t_m_ _n s_m_ phr_s_s th_n _th_rs, _nd sk_mm_ng sm_ll s_ct__ns).
 
It is important to understand that no distinct “normal” and “speed-reading” types of reading exist in practice, since all readers use some of the techniques used in speed reading (such as identifying words without focusing on each letter, not sounding out all words, not articulating some phrases, or spending less time on some phrases than others, and skimming small sections).

Can you figure out the words? If you can, send in the complete text to graymatter@hindustantimes.com with the subject ‘vowel’.

That was an exercise in understanding the role of vowels - sounds in spoken language. In English, they are : a, e, i, o, u. Their role in reading cannot be overemphasized. Next week we’ll discuss the importance of these exercises.

That’s all for this week. We look forward to your exercising your brain on the above and sharing any one or all of your responses. Next week we’ll see the importance of these in speeding up your reading.

.
Thought for the Week

“If you read a lot of books you are considered well read.
But if you watch a lot of TV,
you’re not considered well viewed.”
Lily Tomlin
(American Actress and Comedian)
.

 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Are You Reading Words Or Thoughts?

Two exercises to increase your reading speed

We were simply swamped by the email responses to last week’s speed reading exercise. And several readers wrote in to share more than their reading speeds.Thank you for giving this column its loyal readership.

Every reader who sent in their reading speed has been replied to individually.

But here is a broad guide for those who didn’t:
•     Below 100 words per minute (wpm) — Slow reader, with many possibilities for improvement.
•    100 to 250 wpm — Oral reader who can rapidly and significantly progress by suppressing ‘articulation’ (as explained last week).
•    250 to 400 wpm — Auditory reader who can easily go beyond the sound barrier of 400 wpm.
•    Above 400 wpm — Visual reader who has achieved nirvana… but who can help others improve their reading speed.

Keep in mind, as some of you observed, reading speed varies with the subject matter eg, fiction, news, medical, legal, financial, economics etc. Most people will read faster when they are familiar with the subject.

Your responses only supported the research that has been done over the last 40 years since Evelyn Wood made the famous discovery that Speed Reading can be learnt and taught. 

The speed of reading for the majority of people who use a traditional method of reading does not exceed 750 characters per minute (cpm), which translates into approximately 120 to 150 words per minute (wpm). Your brain has to simultaneously cope with two complex activities at the same time — word recognition and comprehension. 

At the World Championship Speed Reading Competition, comprehension of subjecr matter is as critical as speed. Top contestants typically read 1,000 to 2,000 words per minute with approximately 50% comprehension. The 10,000 word/min claimants have yet to reach this level.
However, Howard Stephen Berg (who figured in the 1990 Guinness Book of World Records) claims to be the fastest reader in the world with a speed of 25,000 words per minute.

As our eyes move across the page they make a series of jerky movements. Whenever they come to linger on a word, that is called a ‘fixation’. Most people fixate at least on a couple of words across a line of print. Research shows that reading is around 25 per cent slower on a computer screen than on paper because they eyes tend to fixate more on a computer screen than on paper because the eyes tend to fixate more on the computer screen. This difference generally increases with increasing reading speed.

Now for this week’s first exercise. Let’s start with vision training. Look at the accompanying diagram.
You have to simply read very quickly in sequence:

A > B > C > D > E > F
A > D > B > E > C > F
A > D > E > B > C > F
F > E > D > A > B > C
F > C > B > E > D > A

There are many more sequences possible. Go ahead and create your own eye-pathways.
Practise this to activate your peripheral vision (ability to perceive the presence, motion or color of objects outside of the direct line of vision). The yogic technique of rotating the eyes by looking towards the right, then top, left and  bottom helps develop your peripheral vision too.
That will help you read more than one word at a glance and take in phrases or “thought units” of two, three or four words rather than single words.

You can extend this exercise to Sudoku; it will not only help you read faster, it will also develop fresh new neural pathways, which is excellent exercise for your brain. 

Recent Right Brain research has enabled some revolutionary techniques that can work wonders. We will deal with some of them in forthcoming columns.

This week’s second exercise requires you to simply read the following sentence as quickly as possible and count the number of times the alphabet ‘F or f’ appears in it.

The sentence is:

Finished files are the result of years of scientific study
combined with the experience of many years.

How many Fs or fs did you find in your first reading? 

You might discover some more in a second or third reading. Email me your score/s with the subject line ‘F Count and I will explain why you didn’t catch them all.

.
Thought for the Week

“Sooner or later you’re going to realise 
just as I did that there’s a difference between
knowing the path and walking the path.”
Morpheus to Neo
(in the movie Matrix 1999)
.

 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Are You A Slow Reader Or A Speed Reader?

Have you ever figured out your reading speed?

Have you ever figured out your reading speed? If you haven’t stop right here. Get hold of a watch and time yourself as you read this article till you see the word STOP.

Your time starts now.

Why is reading speed so important? Because the information glut of our times is a serious barrier to professional performance. A recent study by the Xerox Corporation determined that one must read at least 1,000,000 words (in print or on the net) per week just to stay abreast of new information. That’s 142,857 words a day.

Yet, the average reading speed is only about 200 words per minute.  So it would take the average reader close to 12 hours of reading a day at 200 words a minute, i.e. over 4,000 hours a year to read that much! Who has the time for that much reading? Do you?

Strange as it may sound, we have never really been taught how to read, after the basic lessons when we start school. But most people can increase their reading speed without reducing their comprehension. 

And effective readers enjoy better grades during education, competitive examinations and advance further in their careers.

So what prevents us from reading quickly? Here are the basic reasons:

1. Articulation (movements of the lips and tongue while reading to oneself) :
 A child first learning to read examines each letter, reads each     syllable, pronounces each word, follows along a line with his finger and skips back and forth as he tries to understand what he’s reading.If this habit of pronouncing the text persists, text is read not only with the eyes, but also with the “ears and lips”. As the child grows up, the movements of the lips and tongue could get hidden externally, but might continue mentally as “internal speech”. This child will be a slow reader all his life.

2. Narrow field of sight : 
“Field of sight” is the number of characters precisely seen by the eyes in one moment of sight. In traditional reading, when a few letters, or at best, two to three words are perceived, the field of sight is not wide enough. Therefore, the eyes have to make many jumps and stops. A wider field of sight enables more letters and words to be simultaneously seen at every stop of the eye. This results in fewer halts on a page, and therefore, a better reading rate.

3. Back-skipping 
In slow reading, there are involuntary back-skipping movements of the eyes and repeated reading of the same text. A reader usually makes 10 to 15 back-skipping motions for every 100 words. Without realizing it, some people read every section of text - easy and difficult - twice just to make sure they have comprehended the text. This will obviously reduce reading speed.

4. Absence of attention
A slow reader’s attention often wanders. So large fragments are sometimes read mechanically, without understanding their meaning. Speed reading actually contributes to better comprehension while slow reading works in the reverse.

5.     Reading Culture :
Francis Bacon put it best -
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

STOP

How many seconds did you take to read upto this point? Now divide 644 (the number of words) by the number of seconds and multiply by 60 to get your reading speed in words per minute (wpm).

Send us your reading speed and the number of seconds you took to graymatter@hindustantimes.com with the subject line “Reading Speed”. We will review the results next week and tell you how to improve your reading speed.

.
Thought for the Week

“Reading is to the mind 
what exercise is to the body.”
Joseph Addison
(Essayist, Poet, Dramatist & Statesman, 1672-1719)
.

 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times