The next two blogs are going to cover reading skills and how you can improve them. This week we’ll look at the bad habits you’ve more than likely picked up – I have a few myself – and next week we’ll concentrate on how to improve your speed reading skills so you can study more in less time.
Why are good reading skills important?
Reading skills are very important, perhaps the most used and important skill you have. Think about it. You need your reading skills to do just about everything study or work related – from filling in application forms to reading text books to understanding the contract for the fabulous job you’ve just been offered.
To give you some idea of how often you use your reading skills try this little test. For one day keep a note of everything you have to read, and how long it takes you to read it. Include everything from bus timetables, to menus, to newspapers, to washing label instructions. Then add this time up to see just how long you spend reading each day – I think you’ll be surprised.
The Five Bad Reading Habits
So to begin with, let’s look at what’s wrong with your reading skills. Below are five bad habits that will slow down your reading time. Have a look through them and see which ones apply to you. After-all, the best way to improve something is to find out where it’s going wrong in the first place!
1. Linear reading – in English we are taught to read every word, sentence, paragraph and page in sequence, from left to right, in a downward motion. However, as most writers include lots of information that is not core to your understanding of the article and there is no rule that says you have to read in this way, it can lead to time wasting. Avoid this by scanning the text for headings, key words, bullet points or summaries and don’t read examples or anecdotes if you feel you’ve understood the point.
2. Eye motion – do you read each word one at a time? Yes, is probably the answer to that question, as most people do. However, your eyes can see about four or five words at once as they can span four centimetres at a time. So, soften your gaze by relaxing your face and move the page to arms length when you read. Soon you’ll start to see blocks of words instead of one at a time and your peripheral vision will take care of those at the start and end of the sentence.
3. Sub-vocalisation – I’m sure you know what this means as most of us do it! It’s saying every word to yourself in your head as you are reading it. This adds to the time it takes you to read as you are not able to say a word as quickly as you can understand it. Breaking this habit takes time and practice, but does become easier once you’ve mastered the block reading described above as it’s much harder to vocalise blocks. This is one of the main ways you can improve your reading speed as you’ll break free from limiting yourself to reading at speaking speed, which is 250-350 words per minute.
4. Regression – this means re-reading material that you have already read. Now sometimes it is necessary, but often it’s not, it’s just a habit some people get into. They may skip back only one or two words or go to extremes and skip back whole paragraphs, just to make sure they’ve understood it correctly. However, doing this can have the opposite effect, leading to a decrease in your overall understanding of the subject. To stop this you have to become very aware of when you are doing it and make sure you only do it when you’ve not understood what you are reading. An easy way to help with this is to run a pointer, such as a pencil or pen, along the line you are reading for your eyes to follow.
5. Poor Concentration – how many times have you tried to read with the TV on? If you have, you’ll know how hard it is to concentrate on one word, never mind a whole paragraph. This kind of distracted reading often leads to regression. So, try to read with as little distraction as possible. And, ridding yourself of internal distractions is just as important. Set aside any unnecessary thoughts, as thinking about what you are going to buy from the supermarket later will only limit your processing ability.
Next week we’ll focus on improving your speed reading skills. So, not only will you be eliminating the bad habits that slow you down, you’ll have a new set of tips to help you improve your reading speed and make your study time as effective as possible.
