Before you make your guesses, let me clarify that I am not going to give you some necromancer’s mantra on how to read without actually reading! There are no absolute shortcuts to skip on reading when you want to learn something. But today, we are going to talk about a way to make this situation slightly better for you!
Imagine having to present a paper on your favorite book, let’s say Harry Potter TOMORROW. You will obviously start by historically placing it into the genre of fiction and the sub-genre of fantasy. You are expected to know all this, but you don’t have a lot of time on you.
Reading about the concept, and trying to understand it- is the first step towards retention and making an impressive presentation. However, we can all agree that sometimes with theoretical things, the information is awfully lengthy and often tends to become tedious.
The question is, do you know about a way to navigate through this repetitive pattern of information without wasting your time and energy on something that can happen in a jiffy? This is where Speed Reading might come to help you out!
There are many ways to speed read, but all would agree that you don’t have to get into the root of the matter and hear/pronounce each word out loud. It requires you to skim through the text, in a way that gives you enough of an idea to elaborate on the thing.
1. USE A FINGERTIP OR FINGERNAIL IF YOU MAY
Following what you are reading with the use of your finger makes it both a physical and a mental task. Not only are you able to moderate the speed of your finger with the speed of your mind, you are likely to process better.
2. USE YOUR PEN
Using a pen to track what you might be reading while it still has a cap on not only allows you to progress through the text but also gives you the chance to stop at what seems important and underline or outline it. This way you can go back to it.
3. X-RAYING IT WITH YOUR VISION
If you have followed point number two, you can easily skim through or scan through the page and retain everything you want to.
So now you know, that for your presentation you can gather information quickly and short it down to — fiction is a popular genre amongst children, which borrows elements from reality, extends those with some fantastical and almost magical narratives and gives you a story. Using your Harry Potter reference, you can substantiate it in your presentation.
Read quick, read smart and stay tuned for another fun technique!
- Tanishqa Saraf
Content Team
Zuperly
