What does it mean when people talk about "reading efficiency?" Does it mean more than saving time by reading rapidly? What changes have to be made in the conventional reading process of translating visual symbols into words to improve reading speed?

Improving reading speed most certainly includes understanding the ideas the writer is trying to send. It includes organizing those ideas logically to remember them.

However, it also has to include processing the information as quickly as possible. People have so much to read and understand in what always seems too little time.

Understanding Reading Efficiency and Rapid Eye Movement

Reading is not a simple physical activity. You see nothing while your eyes are moving. To see, you must stop and focus.

Reading is much more than eye movement. When it is properly developed, the reading process becomes a thinking process.

When you are reading to learn, you are constantly thinking, judging, comparing, evaluating, imagining, and reasoning. You are adding new information to previous knowledge, judging its value and validity, and comparing its use in solving problems or creating new horizons.

Training your eyes to move faster is useful in improving reading speed and in breaking restrictive reading habits-habits that slow you down and limit how much you remember.

But eye movement alone will not improve your reading speed. The efficient reader is a thinking reader, thus, reading is a thinking process.

Overcome the Obstacles

There are some roadblocks to improving reading speed. Words, the way words are used together, and the varied meanings people understand are the most common roadblocks to reading efficiency.

Words differ in length and complexity. A complicated arrangement of words, sentences, or ideas will certainly affect the rate of reading.

Therefore, to read efficiently, people must do more than recognize words rapidly.

Knowledge and Reading

Look out a window. You will see an entire scene. The meaning you give will depend on your understanding of what you see-of the knowledge you have from your experiences.

Similarly, the style and difficulty of the material and the reader's experience and knowledge will influence the speed of comprehension.

Hence, to improve reading speed is to increase the kind of knowledge that people learn in their culture, the way they live, in the environment, and in everything around them.

So for people who are willing to improve their reading rate, here are some tips that can bring out the best in you:

1. Set aside a certain time each day for learning and practicing

2. Have focus

When you read, concentrate on reading. Do not let your mind wander. If possible, work where there are no distractions.

3. Put each new skill to use as soon as possible.

Consciously force yourself to use your new skills in reading books, magazines, newspapers, letters, or reports.

4. Know your purpose in reading

When you know why you are reading, you have a purpose for reading, a clearly defined reason for spending time and effort. Approaching any task with a plan increases the likelihood of directing the activity toward success.

Self-directed questions, or the way you plan ahead of time what you want to get out of a selection, are the best means of directing your thinking. Knowing what answers you seek helps you find them quickly.

5. Read explanations and directions carefully. They provide a foundation for what follows.

Indeed, improving reading speed is the key to open whole worlds of knowledge, people, dreams, facts, theories, and fun.