Bradley DiTeresi is a Olathe, Kansas-based financial professional with a master of business administration in finance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. During his downtime, Bradley DiTeresi enjoys playing the guitar and reading. Improving your reading speed can prove beneficial, especially when reading dense material.
One way to enhance reading speed is to preview the material before reading it. You can do this by scanning the entire text and watching for indicators of key information, such as headings and subheadings. Skimming through the introduction and conclusion paragraphs also helps you understand the overarching ideas. Additionally, transition sentences and the placement of illustrations and graphs give you a sense of how the content is organized.
Previewing the text allows you to devise a reading strategy that balances efficiency and comprehension. By identifying your learning goals and reasons for reading the text, you can more easily locate relevant passages. This saves time and energy.
Another method that helps improve reading speed involves employing your peripheral vision to parse through multiple words at once. When mastered, this trick proves more effective than sounding out words individually or reviewing them letter by letter. Tools to this end include Ace Reader and Rapid Reader, two computer programs that use flashing letters and sentences to assist people with becoming faster readers.
It takes practice to strategically approach a text and read actively. By using a timer to see how many words or pages per minute you can read, you can monitor how much your reading speed increases over time. It is also essential to evaluate your understanding of the text as you progress to ensure that reading faster does not impact your comprehension level.
Bradley DiTeresi 