Subsections
Rapid reading methods have been available to the public for decades. Why isn't this simple skill taught in every school in the land? Why isn't it a normal part of every child's education? If these techniques can get us through the unpleasant reading more quickly, and can help us enjoy the pleasant reading more, then why doesn't everybody use them? This chapter explores the answers to these questions. This chapter looks at possible reasons speed reading hasn't caught on in our mainstream educational system; it also looks at why people who spend money on expensive courses don't practice what they have learned. This chapter will also cover how even the definition of reading can be an obstacle to speed reading for some people.
A friend told about his disappointment with a speed reading class. He is a successful man with a business degree from a good school. This man's father used to tell him, ``If something looks too good to be true, it probably is'', and this warning seemed a perfect fit for this friend's experience with speed reading. Speed reading often seems ``too good to be true''.
Most people take speed reading courses so they can read less, not more. They also take speed reading courses because of incredible claims made by speed reading companies. Speed reading is a skill. Like any other skill, it has to be learned. It has to be practiced. This means you must spend time reading. Many people would never spend the time, or waste their money, on speed reading classes if they knew these requirements.
There are two bogus claims common in the speed reading business. They are:
We'll double your speed in one free session
and
After taking our course you will be reading thousands of words per minute
The first claim appeals to customers who are looking for a quick fix, who believe they can get something for nothing. The second claim hooks people willing to believe in nearly super-human powers. Perhaps neither is fraudulent in a legal sense, but both claims set up the student for disappointment.
Let's look first at the claim of doubled speed in one free session. If you can get someone to relax while they read, and get them to concentrate so they stop regressing, you will double their speed. This holds true for a huge percentage of the reading populace, and it is simple to accomplish. You need only explain that most readers don't concentrate well. Next instruct and encourage the customer to focus, to concentrate (which should be standard instruction in all schools.)
Here's how it works ``in the biz.'' The prospective customer attends a workshop that promises to double the customer's reading speed. Early in the workshop, before the customer settles in, the salesman leading the session ``tests'' the customer's speed and comprehension. It is no surprise when scores are low on this first test. The customer is told that this first test is a baseline for future reference. Baseline is an impressive sounding term from psychology that is supposed to refer to an average performance before an experiment begins. This first reading test is nothing like a baseline, instead it reflects the customer's worst case performance. This first reading is rigged to score well below the customer's true average. Later, after some ice-breaking exercises and a chance to settle in, the workshop leader talks about regression and teaches hand pacing as a way to break the regression habit.3.1 After a little practice the customers take a second test. This time the customer is more relaxed, and uses their hand to prevent regression. Focused, relaxed reading will be faster and better than tense and awkward reading. The customer's scores seem to double, but what are we really comparing? Aren't we comparing tense and distracted performance with focused, relaxed performance? After comparing the customer's worst to their best, the salesman leading the session takes credit for the so-called improvement, and then promises still more improvements if the customer pays for the entire course. The illusion of improvement is created by comparing the customer's worst with their best, and this illusion sells a lot of courses.
There is another aspect to consider. Hand movements recreate a phenomenon from hypnosis called ``automatic movement''. While in the mild hypnosis state that goes with automatic movement, the customers do indeed focus better, concentrate better, and score better. This lets them score at the top of their normal abilities. The true baseline is somewhere between the first test and the second. The salesman leading the session claims the first score is a baseline and the second score is evidence of new powers granted by the salesman's instructions. In reality the only new skill learned is the hypnotic phenomenon of automatic movement. Many people pay for an entire course based on this illusion of improvement. The rest of the course is essentially a series of encouragement and practice sessions. Instead of moving the hand back and forth, customers practice moving their hand in ``U'' shapes, ``Z'' shapes, and up and down instead of back and forth. What each of these hand pacing systems boils down to is reading while displaying hypnotic phenomena, and practicing on faith until it works. For many people, the irrelevant hand motions, and the need to practice, is too great a burden, so they never learn speed reading. Since none of the natural speed readers who were studied use hand pacing, this system eliminates it. Hypnosis may have its place, but automatic movement is no part of natural speed reading.
``Read 25,000 words per minute'' is the second bogus claim in the speed reading business. This claim is the worst kind of bait-and-switch. The hopeful reader sees an ad or comes to a free ``workshop'' and is told that looking at a page is the same as reading a page. The salesman leading the session says skimming is ``reading'' and reading is ``accessing the unconscious'', but most customers can't quite read between the lines to understand what is really being said.
Here's the fast talk behind this scam. Since vision is global, seeing a page for even a second means you see each and every word on the page. There's the bait. In theory if you have seen the words, then they are stored somewhere in your sub-conscious mind. This might even be true, but what good does it do? Here comes the switch. The customer is told skimming again at a slightly slower speed will get what has been skimmed out of the unconscious mind and into the conscious mind where we can use it. If this still isn't good enough, then re-skim even more slowly. After three or four skims, each a little slower, you can go line-by-line over anything you still don't understand; but going line-by-line is not called reading, it is ``accessing your subconscious''.
``Skim fast, then a bit slower and then slower still'' is a very useful strategy, and this book teaches it. But skimming is not reading. The 25,000 words per minute scam artists are telling the plain truth--if you accept their labels whereby skimming is reading and reading is accessing your subconscious. These labels can make the difference between spending or not spending hundreds of dollars on a class that teaches skimming under a different label. In this instance the semantics of the issue are more important than you might think.
Why does anyone use these scams? The obvious reason is for simple profit. Remember pet rocks? There is nothing legally wrong with persuading you to pay for something you can obtain on your own for free. Sales people use fantastic claims to generate curiosity. Many people assume there must be some element of truth in even the most outrageous claims. Many sales people feel justified making stupendous claims if this curiosity motivates a potential customer to check out the product. As a result, many people pay hundreds of dollars on classes that do them more harm than good. Too many people have said to me, ``Sure, I took a speed reading course, but I don't use it.'' These people don't mention the hype that got them in the door, or the disappointment when they discovered that the hype was too good to be true.
Getting the customer in the door is the first reason for exaggerated claims. Once in the door, once money changes hands, there is a second reason to use wild claims and deception. Assume we're talking about a teacher who genuinely wants to give good value to the student. Such a teacher knows that the student is probably sold on hype. The honest teacher knows that skill comes only with practice and patience and discipline, which is the opposite of the quick fix ``something-for-nothing'' appeal of the sales presentation. To motivate the student to practice, some teachers will give the illusion of miraculous initial progress. The testing methods described earlier, in which a worst case score is falsely identified as a baseline, accomplish this trick. The student gets a thrill of initial success. This thrill translates, at least for a while, into motivation. This is a ``the ends justified the means'' kind of rationalization, but the goal that might justify the deception is rarely achieved. Most people never see through the bogus tests or phony re-labeling, and so end up thinking they improved some because of their studies. These are the people who say, ``Speed reading? I know how; I just don't like it''.
Make no mistake, the drills in this book require practice and patience and discipline. If you do the drills as described, you will experience different levels of success on different days. It takes some discipline to do the drills on days when they don't offer up an immediate reward. The drills maximize the plus days and minimize the minus days by having you go from slow to fast and back to slow. This gives you a taste of improvement almost every day as you return to that day's ``slower speeds.''
There is really nothing mysterious about speed reading techniques. They take a little time to learn, and it takes some practice to make them work well. Sadly, the reason most people take a speed reading course is so they can devote less time to reading. Natural speed readers are just the opposite. By definition, ``naturals'' develop their skills without ever taking a speed reading class. Naturals learn speed reading on their own from a love of the printed word. Naturals learn speed reading by spending countless hours reading just for fun. The natural speed reader is a reader, period. Too many people who come for speed reading courses are literate non-readers. They can read, but view reading like a toilet plunger, an unpleasant tool that they hope not to need. Natural speed readers view reading as a friend, as a treasure.
Speed reading means more reading, not less. If you don't like reading, how are you going to enjoy speed reading? Natural speed readers read for fun. They gain speed without ever taking a class or doing a drill. People who don't like to read aren't likely to care for the drills. Even after increasing their speed they might turn their backs on the method because they would rather just avoid reading all together.
What makes reading fun? Start with that one vital question. When you answer it you will have made the most important change you can make as far as your reading skills are concerned. For too many people reading just isn't fun. For these people reading is just something they have to do when they can't get out of it. Many people say that reading was something they were forced to do after a certain age. They say the alphabet was something they learned in school. They say reading wasn't play; reading was hard, boring, humiliating work. No wonder most people don't find reading fun. It's like the difference between hanging out with your best friends or being stuck with the vice-principal on detention. In contrast, some folks don't remember any time in their life when reading wasn't something cool, something that they wanted to do more and do better. Words and letters and books and reading always felt like friends to me. Before they can can talk their parents read to them. Perhaps when they were babies their parents gave them a mobile made of the letters of the alphabet, or sang the alphabet song to them in their crib. With experiences like these it is easy to understand how some folks grow up enjoying reading.
Natural speed readers read for fun. They love reading, and they love talking about what they read. They read fiction and biography and technical non-fiction and whatever else interests them. They usually have one style of writing they prefer, but they also sample almost every style and type of writing This is an important characteristic shared by natural speed readers. It seems worthwhile to develop this characteristic if you want to speed read, but how do you do it? That brings us back to the question, ``What makes reading fun?'' There are lots of answers, and some are listed in Chapter Five, The Rewards. If you don't have your own answer to the question, why not jump ahead to The Rewards?
The cure for the ``don't like reading'' obstacle is to discover what kinds of reading you might enjoy. What interests you? What interests you? Who are the celebrities you like best? Who are your heroes? Your local bookstore probably has a dozen books on topics that interest you. Or try the library, with its superior selection and anti-fad sensibility. Taking a little extra time to find things you enjoy reading will pay off in the long run. Do the drills and you will learn to speed read. If you get your speed up to about 750 words per minute--a conservative goal--you can read a fair sized novel in about the same time it would take to watch a film version of the novel. Since there is much more to most books than in their corresponding movies, you will be getting more benefit for the same time investment. Make it FUN!
Find something you want to read, and use that for your drills. From biographies of sports figures to travel books to murder mystery, find a book that is interesting and fairly easy for you. Don't do the drills with something complex, and for goodness sake don't work with anything boring or difficult. Pick a book that you always wanted to read, not one you think you ``should'' read. Pick a book for pure fun. This will make it easier for you to take ten minutes a day for the drills. That ten minutes can be a double reward for you. The first reward is enjoying what you read. The second reward is learning to read faster and understand more. Do yourself a favor, make it fun. Natural speed readers enjoy reading because they read what they enjoy. If your are going to put in the effort to learn to speed read, why not entice yourself with some rewards?
Your reasons for reading make a big difference in how you read. Too much of the reading in school is boring, and it's rarely much fun to read and summarize a report for your boss. This was true before you ever heard of speed reading. If you have ever picked up a book that interested you and read through it because you enjoyed it, then you know how different pleasure reading is from assigned reading. Learning this difference is one of the most important steps in improving reading speed. Doing the drills with a ``pure fun'' book is important.
Sometimes we want an easy way out of doing unpleasant things. Bluntly put, being a slow reader gives you a ready made excuse. Reading fast and understanding well takes away that excuse. If you are a slow reader, you don't have to worry about getting certain kinds of assignments. On the other hand, when people learn you read 800 words per minute, they may assume they have the right to pass reading assignments to you. Instead of reading less, you could end up reading more than ever before. This is a very real obstacle, however unflattering it may be. If being a slow reader gets you out of things, you may have to learn to politely say, ``No.'' Balancing your needs with what others expect of you is a big issue.
How can you cope with unwanted assigned reading? The answer depends on what is expected of you after you read it. If you are expected to take a no-notes essay test on the material you will use one approach. If you are expected to give a quick summary in a meeting later that day, you will take another approach. Either way, you will be able to get more information from the material in less time if you have practiced the drills. As explained in The Rationale, most writing is quite repetitive. Many of the words required for proper written grammar have nothing to do with the data. If you are reading for a data-only mission, then reading by phrases or clauses will make a huge difference for you. You might even do well to start with skimming and scanning as described in Chapter Four. It is up to you to choose the best to approach for the material at hand.
Normal readers read about 200 words per minute. This means speed reading is abnormal, which is a very real obstacle for some people. Some people are afraid of being abnormal. Normal doesn't mean good, and it doesn't mean bad. Normal just means, ``What most people do.'' Normal is a statement about numbers, not quality. It isn't normal to read at all; think of the generations throughout history who couldn't read at all. The desire to be normal can get in the way of speed reading. Self image prevents people from doing things that are good for them. Learning any new skill brings a change in self image or self concept. With a new skill as unusual as speed reading it is doubly important to take this change in self image into account. Once you learn speed reading you will realize the people around you could also learn speed reading. This can lead you to be less sympathetic when others complain about their reading burdens. Along with a loss of sympathy can come the feeling that people resent you for your new ability. You can even come to doubt yourself, your abilities, and the feelings that come from using them. Learning speed reading must fit your self image and self concept. If it doesn't you might end up ignoring your new found skill, even after proving to yourself that the methods work. If your self image can't adjust you might neglect your speed reading skills because the cost, in terms of relationships and self concept, is too high.
Self Actualized is a term from psychology. The term was developed to describe people who were healthy and happy and successful, without getting too picky about what success means in terms of money or power. The idea of the self actualized person grew from the research of Abraham Maslow. Maslow pointed out that a person can't really worry about issues such as art and social graces if they can't take care of their basic needs. Maslow offered a list of needs and described how these needs are usually prioritized. First come physical needs like air, food, water, shelter. Next comes structure, in the form of work and social order. Third is belonging, being part of a group. Fourth on the list is self-respect and esteem, success. Mallow's hierarchy of needs was offered as a rough guideline and explains why it is important to take care of our needs in proper order.
If you take the people who have filled all the needs in Maslow's hierarchy, you will find some are happier and more successful than others. Maslow calls these people ``self-actualized''. Self-actualization is being the best you can be, regardless of where you stand with the competition. If you are beating the competition, but only putting half your energy into the task, then you aren't really being the best you can be. If you are in the middle of the pack with your competitors, but really putting in 100% effort, then self actualized is a good description. Self actualization has more to do with your own talents and abilities and less to do with the performance of other people.
Part of being self actualized is valuing your opinions at least as much as the opinions of teachers and doctors and friends and family. Self-actualized people put more stock in their own thoughts and feelings and experiences than those of the people around them. Self-actualized people can be a little off beat or out of step with ``normal'' people. There are many things that ``normal'' people care about and do that of little concern to self-actualized people. The self-actualized person does their own thing whenever possible, while continuing to be self supporting and self reliant. The self-actualized person is the opposite of the starving artist. Instead of saying ``art is suffering,'' the self-actualized person finds a way to keep a roof over their head and take plenty of time for the things they love.
Speed reading is a self actualization skill. You won't worry too much about speed reading if you aren't paying your rent or keeping food on the table. Reading better could increase your earning ability, but that won't matter. You will probably won't do the drills, which means you won't develop the skills, until your basic needs are met. This includes your social needs. Speed reading can mean turning away from the opinions and values of people around you. It can mean doing things based on your own values and opinions and experience. Most people will choose keeping stable relationships over a gaining a skill that would require changing those relationships. We do many things to keep other people happy, even if we don't like to admit it. We do things to keep an even keel with the boss, our co-workers, our family. Expectations of the people around you will influence everything you do. These influences aren't always in your best interest. Whenever you seek to improve yourself you will need to take into account how it will affect your relationships.
For many people being called ``bookworm'' is right up there with ``sissy,'' ``weakling,'' and ``cry-baby.'' This is a problem for speed reading, because ``speed reader'' seems painfully close to ``bookworm.''
Maybe you are thinking, ``Not me; I'm an adult. I wouldn't let something like that get in my way.'' Guess again. Most of your self concept and self image were built during childhood. If you decided, or were convinced, that reading is for sissies, then you are going have to decide differently if you want to speed read. You will learn the method just fine, but you won't use it until you convince yourself that reading isn't just for sissies and bookworms. If you made fun of bookworms as a child, speed reading may be uncomfortable for you at first. Speed reading doesn't make you a bookworm; it just makes you a reader. You can live a well-rounded life that just happens to include speed reading. Still, speed reading can involve doing some bookwormish things. You will have to ask yourself if the benefits, such as less time on required reading and more pleasure from leisure reading, are worth the risk.
It is important to drill using material that interests you. Your local library is a great place to find a good book. If you do little pleasure reading you will need to learn about selecting books you like. It is very frustrating to get a book home and discover you hate it.
If you already knew what was in a given book you wouldn't need to read it. Information on the cover of a book can be completely misleading. Your best guides for picking a book are the table of contents, the index, and the book itself. Read a couple of paragraphs at random on two or three pages, just to get a sample of the author's style. If the book passes that test, look at the table of contents and index. If the sample paragraphs, table of contents, and index all look good, then you may have a winner. For fiction the random sample is even more important, because the table of contents won't be very descriptive and there isn't likely to be an index. With fiction this sample paragraph makes or breaks your choice.
Even with this sampling method you can be disappointed. Since there is always this risk, the library might be the best place for starting your search for a good book. This way your mistakes won't cost you anything. More importantly, a library will have a bigger and better selection of books from which to choose. True, you won't have all the latest best-sellers, but last month's best-seller is just as enjoyable today as it was last month. Many books are in limbo. These books had their turn on the best seller lists, and currently await their promotion to the classics section. Such books line the library shelves; looking through them can bring great rewards. ``Lost in the Library'' is an obstacle that is worth overcoming. Few activities bring such rich rewards for so little investment as visiting your library.
Another reading obstacle is the feeling of snobbishness found in some bookstores. Some chains are snooty, but some are staffed by tremendous people eager to help you find the perfect book. Neighborhood stores can be friendly or completely pompous. Sometimes a store's staff members are great, but the store's customers are so pretentious they make your skin crawl. This obstacle goes straight to the issues of self image and self concept. Who wants to speed read if it means dealing with stuck up jerks? Too many so-called intellectuals give this rather negative impression. There is nothing about reading that makes one snobbish. On the contrary, readers can be the friendliest and most accepting people you could hope to meet. Readers tend to be curious about life and about people, that's why they read. This leads readers to ask questions, because they really want to know what is going on.
If the bookstores you visit seem snobbish, check out the competition. Chances are you can find a store where the customers and staff make you feel so comfortable that you to enjoy spending time selecting books or magazines to read. This goes a long way towards overcoming the obstacle of dealing with snobs.
Because of self image issues and self actualization issues, there is more at stake here than just your words per minute. Speed reading will affect your work and your home. Knowing ahead of time about the effects of speed reading lets you prepare for them. Not knowing about these effects can make you turn your back on a priceless skill.
Sometimes it is hard to concentrate on what you are reading because of all the new stuff you are doing. Instead of paying attention to what you are reading, you worry about how you are reading. The drills minimize this problem, but it can't be entirely eliminated. This problem kept me from learning to speed read for more than a decade, even though I read a dozen books on the subject. Using my hand to pace my eyes distracted me too much. I did hand drills for weeks at a time, and never got anywhere. I could never get involved with the meaning of the words while waving my hand over them. I was too distracted by trying to follow my hand. I was too self conscious about looking like I had a nerve disorder. I was too uncomfortable trying to read while moving so much.
``No Hands'' speed reading still isn't what most people would call ``normal,'' but the technique is unobtrusive. Counting while you are trying to read seems awkward at first; it takes a little while to get used to. The drills start off with slow speeds precisely so you can get comfortable with counting and seeing words at the same time. The drills help make sure you are confident of your ability to understand what you read. Before you know it, the how part of speed reading will be in the back of your mind and won't bother you at all.
As mentioned elsewhere, faster isn't always better. Different types of writing should be read differently, which is one reason the drills make you practice reading slowly. You must know how to adjust your speed to suit your needs. Choosing your speed will be based on two factors. First is the difficulty of the material at hand, which is a relative element. If the material is a topic you know well, it will be easier for you to read. The second factor in choosing your reading speed is what you want to get from the material. If you need to prepare a summary for a meeting the next day, you might want to preview, scan, and skim instead of reading. If you just want to spend a pleasant evening curled up with a book, then slow down to whatever speed and meaning group is comfortable. The following sub-sections explore in more detail some of the reasons you might want to adjust your reading speed.
Haiku is a form of poetry, usually three short lines; you don't read haiku at 800 words per minute. On the contrary, good haiku makes you slow down and look for deeper meanings. The conflict of verbal art versus speed is just as obvious in much fiction. Some stories have very little plot, but are woven together with beautiful sounding words. These stories might even be at their best when read out loud. Other stories are all about plot and character. Reading these at high speed gets straight to the heart of seeing the action and feeling the feelings brought up by the characters and their interaction. With the first type of book, reading too fast can get in the way of enjoying it. In the second type of book speed reading is what gets you the most entertainment. If you only read one way you will probably give up on speed reading, because too many things just shouldn't be read at top speed. This isn't limited to fiction. Some non-fiction books are written so well that it is a treat to settle in and ramble around in the individual words. To do that you have to give yourself permission to read as fast or as slow as suits you.
One reason the drills go from slow to fast to slow again is to give you experience with changing speeds. You already know what it feels like to slow down and speed up as suits you. When you are really enjoying an author's style, or a certain turn of phrase, slow down and savor it. One of the beauties of the system in this book is learning that you have more time to ``stop and smell the roses'' when you read. You can speed through the ``parking lots and sidewalks'' of most writing styles, but when you find gems worth stopping for, you will have more time to enjoy them.
Gems of prose aren't the only things that can bring you to a grinding stop in the middle of reading. Stoppers can be as annoying as speed bumps on a freeway, but there is another point of view. Most stoppers are opportunities to do something good for yourself. Most stoppers help you expand your overall knowledge, and that can only be good for you.
Another reason for changing your reading speed has to do with your current vocabulary and knowledge base. If you love the wild west, and have read a dozen novels and seen countless movies about the wild west, then you will probably be able to read books of this type faster than other genres. You will already have a set of pictures and concepts for everything from different types of horses to different types of guns, from different types of terrain to different types of buildings. Someone who has never seen a western movie and has never read one of these books will work much harder to make sense of their reading because they have a different knowledge base. If you are reading something you already know about you will be able to take in larger meaning groups and you will have fewer stoppers per page than a person who doesn't know the subject.
In a more general way, the bigger your vocabulary, the fewer times you will have to stop to re-read a new word. Even if you don't look up words, just taking the time to guess about them, to decide whether or not they are worth looking up, can be a huge time gobbler. The more words you know, the less often this will happen. There is also a relationship between vocabulary and knowledge base; a wide vocabulary will take you into many different knowledge bases. It is also true that the better your vocabulary, the better equipped you are to guess at word meanings. You will get better at figuring out word meanings from their root words. You will get better at deciding quickly whether or not you need to look up a particular word, or if the context provides enough meaning.
New words, new ideas, new settings are all things that can force you to slow down if you are trying to understand what you are reading. The good news is that the more you read the better your vocabulary and knowledge base become.
When you think about it, all the obstacles in this chapter can signal a chance at self improvement. Being less susceptible to hype is certainly good for you, as is understanding the dynamics of self-actualization, or building your vocabulary or knowledge base. Following through on these issues makes speed reading much more valuable than a simple increase in words per minute.
Beau Hayes
2004-08-03
