We live in an information based society where the amount of information available, particularly written information, is increasing at rates unparalleled in human history: one new book is published every thirteen seconds somewhere in the world. For those of us who have to read as part of our jobs or our studies, it can be difficult to find the time to get through everything we need to.
There are, however, ways of ensuring that we can get through all our reading without becoming overwhelmed. One solution is simply to learn to read faster - what is known as speed reading. Most of us will not have received any reading tuition since we were children and we are likely to read at about two to four hundred words (roughly one page of a book) per minute.
However, it is possible to read at much higher speeds. With speed reading training one can easily increase this rate to between five hundred and a thousand words a minute, and with more dedicated practice, speeds of two to three thousand words a minute are possible - equivalent to being able to read a novel in one or two hours.
Speed reading is a useful tool to have in your reading arsenal, but there are further techniques that will enable you to get through all the material you need to read. These range from establishing the correct mental set for the type of reading you are doing, to understanding how the brain most easily absorbs new information, to skimming and scanning effectively and to understanding how redundancy in language can help you to reduce the amount of material you need to read.
Our courses on intelligent speed reading will show you how to read at much higher speeds and get through all the information you need to without compromising your enjoyment or your comprehension.
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