Let's get ready to read

Fast reading is not only about being able to decode a set of graphic signs in the shortest possible time, but basically about understanding what is being read in the shortest possible time. For this reason, it is considered a complex intellectual process.

Hence the need for the use of different strategies that enhance the reader's motivations, interests and knowledge to achieve a significant increase in their reading skills.

The following are some of the most commonly used strategies to achieve greater effectiveness in speed reading practices.

Making predictions from the text

Making predictions before and during reading about how a problem will be solved, how an action will end, when a conflict will begin, etc., contributes to raising the reader's level of expectations, increasing motivation and concentration in speed reading. This strategy also conditions the constant activation of prior knowledge, a necessary element to intuit, understand, relate and fix better what is being read without the need to slow down the speed of reading.

Creating images and images that are not only useful for the reader, but also for the reader to understand and understand, relate and fix better what is being read.

Creating images in memory

If while reading we manage to abstract ourselves and feel the fragrance of a perfume, the emotion of an encounter, the murmur of the waves, we would create images of the content that would be stored much better in our memory, and thus we would remember a large number of elements for a longer period of time.

The best achieved images are obtained when we gather a greater number of sensory data; to achieve this, the reader must imagine what it would look like, what it would smell like, what it would taste like, and so on.

Underlining consists of highlighting words, statements, concepts or paragraphs that the reader considers important. Underlining is a very useful strategy for the following reasons:

• It forces the reader to do an active reading in order to discard what is secondary and highlight what is most relevant.

• It helps in the formation of a general and coherent representation of the text.

• Facilitates the study and selective re-reading of the text.

For underlining we must take into account the following recommendations:

• One should underline little, only those words, sentences or paragraphs that we consider necessary to understand the main postulates of the text.

• Underline always after having understood the idea well, never mechanically.

Read between the lines

This strategy consists of using logic to understand a word or phrase in the text. To achieve this, the reader must pay attention to the parts of the text surrounding the word or phrase, until discovering its meaning.

In most cases, the reader performs the reading between the lines automati