Speed Reading: Lesson 3
Your Third Speed Reading Secret arriving!
If you’ve been following with me then you’ll have already
learned some valuable reading techniques that you can use to trim your reading time down AND improve your comprehension.
In today’s article, I’m going to give you just a few more tips on how you can use a book’s format to further increase your comprehension.
1. Don’t skip over reading the front and rear jackets of a book. These can really give anyone valuable insights into why the book was written and thus give you some insight into what you can expect.
2. By the same token, always check out the book’s forward and introduction. Oftentimes these overlooked segments can remove a lot of the confusion that arises when you have no idea about the authors intended direction BEFORE you begin reading.
3. ALWAYS read the table of contents. It’s the author’s outline and will ‘prime your brain’ to his writing style and thus improve your understanding of his book’s structure.
4. Don’t just let the words ramble on in your mind. Make an effort to *actively read* the book. This means that you should continuously be asking yourself questions about what you’ve just read. Attempt to summarize the information you’ve just read at frequent intervals. By doing this you will soon discover your current level of comprehension and recall.
5. Devour charts and diagrams. If your book contains these features make sure that you stop and take time to actually understand the drawings and diagrams. Spending a few extra moments contemplating these features will
ultimately increase your overall reading speed because you will have a clear visual representation of the information you’ve just read.
6. Make use of the glossary and index usually found at the end of most books.