Four Surefire Tips on How to Read Faster with More Comprehension

We are now living in the information age. The ability to absorb and interpret facts and written material is surely a great asset in the scholarly environment and in the workplace as well. Are you worried that your reading speed is similar to that of a turtle?

Well, fret not, because here are some specific tips that can help you increase your reading speed in no time:

1. Don't read with your lips

   Many people make the mistake of trying to read the words aloud. Others do this unconsciously, and if you watch their lips, they are whispering very slowly the words that they read. Getting rid of this reading habit can double or even triple your reading speed. Try this - read only with your mind, and not with your lips! To make sure you're not reading with your lips, try this:
   
   Zip your lips using your right pointing finger, then start to read. You should feel no vibration or tongue movement during the reading process. Try to arrest any tongue or lip movement whenever you feel any vibrations. Practice and you will be able to eliminate the habit of reading through your lips.

2. Use Your Peripheral Vision

   In simpler terms, your peripheral vision is the "side view" of your eyes. For example, when you focus on a particular object, you will also see the objects beside it even if you're not trying to look at them. You can use your peripheral vision to read faster. Here's how:
   
   Focus on the keywords only, and use your peripheral vision on short words and conjunctions. For example, in the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". The keywords are quick, brown, fox, jumps, over, lazy dog. The word "the" is a conjunction and therefore you can mentally skip that one and read it only with your peripheral vision. You can do the same for words such as you, I, as, at, and, of, or, on, it. Doing this will increase your reading speed.

3. Divide Your Reading Material Into Three Columns

   The next time you read, mentally divide your reading material into three equal columns, using imaginary lines. Now practice your eyes to focus on the first column and read everything there as fast as you can (using the techniques we mentioned previously), then make a smooth transition to the next two columns. Do the same for the succeeding lines.

4. Increase Your Vocabulary

   This is self explanatory. The more words you know, the faster you read and the greater comprehension you will have of the material at hand.