Mistake #1 – Reading word for word – This first ineffective old reading habit usually comes from childhood, when the child carefully follows the text with his finger, word after word.
You have to know that while reading, the movement of the eye is not continuous and rectilinear along the lines of the text. It is a false belief. In reality, the eye moves along the line of text by successive jumps, because the eye can only see when it is stationary.
Thus, reading word by word forces the eye to have a large number of fixation points per line, as many as there are words per line. For example, if a line contains 16 words, the eye will stop and fix on each word and do 16 fixes.
what to do instead – Make as few anchor points as possible per line of text. This way, instead of seeing just one word at a time, you’ll see several (but this shouldn’t affect your reading comprehension). A slow reader perceives 1 or 2 words per fixation point, an average reader 3 to 4 words and a fast reader 5 and more.
Mistake #2 – Vocalization and Subvocalization – Vocalization is another habit that comes from childhood, when children are learning to read and pronounce words out loud.
Many readers have kept this bad habit, or turned it into subvocalization (when you pronounce the words in your head but no longer out loud). Vocalization and subvocalization consistently slow down reading because speaking a word is about four times longer than just reading it.
what to do instead – To find out if you subvocalize, place a piece of paper between your lips and read the following sentence:
“In the Christian tradition, there is a particularly applicable country brewery at the Marlboro Reservoir.”
If the paper has moved, it means you are subvocalizing. So correct this bad habit as soon as possible by supervising yourself while you read.
Mistake #3 – Frequent checks – This habit consists of skipping backwards through the text to reread a word, name or sentence in order to check and make sure it was understood correctly.
The main reason is anxiety and fear of misunderstanding something. It is often due to a lack of self-confidence (unconscious).
No matter the reason, keep in mind that regressions are useless in 90% of cases and are one of the main obstacles to speed reading.
what to do instead – If you find yourself in this case, the simple fact of being aware of it could help you to suppress this bad habit. So, regain your self-confidence in your reading comprehension ability. You will see that you will still understand everything even if you do not do any regression. Of course, it is normal to do some verification when the text is difficult to understand, but it should be exceptional.
Following these simple steps will definitely put you on the right track to becoming a successful speed reader.