Friday, February 19, 2016

A Closer Look At Hyper Speed Reading

By John Clark


Having the ability to read and process information simultaneously is a skill that most people would be very eager to possess. With the magnanimous amount of information in both physical and digital print, hyper speed reading will become more popular. Thankfully, this is now a skill that can be learned and developed.

Whether for personal, professional, or academic purposes, reading lengthy texts will always be a daunting task. In these situations, the biggest temptation is to simply skim over the text and hope that what your eyes are catching is enough to get the plot, pass the test, or make a successful pitch. This could work with a little luck, but why throw your cards into the wind when there's another option?

There are an abundance of mobile apps available that allow readers to take their favorite books on-the-go. However, these don't necessarily speed up a person's ability to read and comprehend everything. Now, there are apps that are similar yet still of a completely different purpose because instead of having access to an entire page of text, the words are flashed one at a time, thus minimizing eye movement.

When our eyes have less distractions, they are allowed to focus on the one word that's in front of them. These apps strategically place the words where optimum legibility is achievable and the focal point of the word (slightly to the left of the middle) is highlighted. This draws the eyes to focus on that point but still be able to read the entire word, thus speeding up the process.

This is just one of the benefits of increasing reading speed, particularly for individuals who lead a double-life of pursuing studies and working simultaneously. Dealing with one or the other is stressful enough, but having to do both is close to impossible. With faster reading and comprehension skills, it's much easier to get through the daily grind of school and work.

An additional benefit of this is that as a side effect, the muscles in the eyes are strengthened with constant training. This may sound like a negligible and unimportant benefit, but it's actually very useful. It's not unheard of for some people who work or study for lengthy periods to experience pain from straining their eyes too hard or too long. Over time, the muscles will strengthen and the pain will reduce.

Some might argue that speed reading is not as beneficial as it sounds. Again, it will take a lot of time and effort to get to the point where reading quickly is almost natural. Not everyone has that luxury of time that's needed.

Having only one word flash before the eyes may speed up reading pace, but comprehension may be affected as a result. Everyone is different; some may need to rely on surrounding context clues to fully understand the text. And what happens if the reader blinks and misses a word? More time is wasted trying to figure it out, and that could have a domino effect.

So, speed reading really depends on the reader and the need of it. For those who are crunched for time, it's a viable option. On the other hand, those who prefer to let the imagination take over once in a while, it doesn't matter how fast or slow they read.




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