Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/educ/1630.zip/READFAST.DOC

Text File | 1989-06-16 | 20KB | 543 lines

                                 READFAST!



                Computer-Aided Reading Improvement Program

                                Version 1.4

                              Shareware Copy

                    (c) Copyright 1989 by Larry O'Rear

















                             TABLE OF CONTENTS


                                                            Page

         Disclaimer............................................1

         Distribution of Copies................................1

         Files Included on Disk................................1

         Introduction..........................................2

         Reading Roadblocks....................................2

         Strategy for Studying.................................3

         Changing Gears........................................5

         Continued Success.....................................5

         Other Resources.......................................5

         The READFAST! Program.................................6

         Registration..........................................6

         Registration Form.....................................8



DISCLAIMER

     Users employ this software at their own risk.  The author will not be
responsible in any way for any consequences of the use or misuse of the
program or of the documentation.  Your use of the program constitutes your
acceptance of these conditions.


DISTRIBUTION OF COPIES

     This software may be copied and distributed freely with these
restrictions:

       1. No price may be charged, except that a fee not to exceed
          $7 may be applied to cover the costs of copying and
          distribution.

       2. This documentation must be included in its entirety with
          any copies.

     I will appreciate your comments concerning this Reading Improvement
Program, and suggestions concerning features you would like to see in
future versions.  Please write to me at the address given at the end of
this documentation.


FILES INCLUDED ON THIS DISK

  READFAST.EXE   The main reading program.

  READ0.TXT      Message files presented at various places in
   thru          the READFAST.EXE program.
  READ5.TXT

  READFAST.DOC   Instructions for READFAST.EXE, and reading tips.

  READMARK.SHO   Instructions for marking a book for use in paced reading.

  READTACH.EXE   Flashes lines from text files on the screen, one at a
                 time, to force faster reading.  Used with eye-span
                 exercises and other text files.

  READTACH.DOC   Instructions for READTACH.EXE.

  READSYLL.BUS   Suggested plan for reading improvement.

  READCISE.TXT
      and        Eye-span exercises to use with READTACH.
  READSOLR.TXT

  DESCRIPT.ION   Description of program files; can be viewed by typing
                 READFAST GO.




                                  Page 1


INTRODUCTION

     Reading is fun.  Reading is work.  Reading is easy.  Reading is hard.
I love to read.  I hate to read.  I would read more if I could read faster,
but it takes me forever to finish a book.

     These are some of the attitudes that people have about reading.  Does
one of them fit you?  The way we feel about reading depends a great deal on
the way we were taught to read and the skills we have developed on our own.

     Most of us would like to be able to read faster and to retain more
information from our reading.  Of course, we might want to read in a
leisurely manner sometimes.  But it would be a definite advantage to be
able to read rapidly when we need to get information in a hurry.  Maybe you
have a lengthy business report to read, or a book you must finish before
the end of the week.

     In this course we will consider some of the causes of slow reading,
and find out how to overcome those obstacles.  You will be paced as you
read to force you to increase your speed.  Your reading speed will be
measured in order to show you the progress that you are making.

     READFAST.EXE, the computer-aided reading program, will present the
information needed to do the exercises without using this manual.  There
will be some repetition in the manual of material that will appear when you
run the program.  But the manual will go further in presenting suggestions
on getting the most from your reading time.

     READSYLL.BUS, on this disk, provides some guidelines for a systematic
reading improvement program.


READING ROADBLOCKS

     One of the major reasons for slow reading habits is the way we were
taught to read--word by word.  Of course that is necessary when learning to
read for the first time, but reading word by word will be at about the same
rate as your speaking speed.

     Look at a word near the middle of a line of print.  Without moving the
focus point of your eyes, you should be able to see one or two words, maybe
more, on each side of the word you are looking at.  So it isn't necessary
to look at each word individually.  By looking at two or three points on a
line of print, you can read the entire line.  You might even be able to
read a whole line with just one "look" (also called "eye fixation").  This
is very important, because it takes time to move your eyes from one point
to another and focus them on the new position.

     When you look at the first and last words of a line, you are wasting
about half of your eye span reading blank space in the margin.  You won't
usually find anything of great interest there!  So begin a line by looking
at the second, third, or fourth word, and when you get about that far from
the end, go to the next line.  (The instructions in the computer-aided
reading exercises tell you how to draw lines on the page to provide focus
points for your eye fixations.)

                                  Page 2


     Another obstacle to efficient reading is regressing--looking back at
something you have already read, because you didn't get it the first time.
This often happens because your attention was wandering.  Your mind can
take in thoughts at the rate of several hundred or thousand words per
minute. (The picture "experiment" in one of the exercises should convince
you of this.)  So it is easy to see why your attention would wander if you
are reading just a couple of hundred words per minute.  Your mind is just
loafing most of the time, so it strays off to other things!

     Some people move their lips as they read--again, because that's how we
learned to read.  If we didn't read aloud, the teacher couldn't know if we
were getting it right!  And even without moving the lips, sometimes we move
other parts of the speaking apparatus: the tongue or the vocal chords.  If
you are moving your lips or any other part of your speaking machinery, you
are obviously reading word by word.

     Forcing yourself to read faster by using the pacing provided by this
program will help to overcome some of these habits that slow you down.


STRATEGY FOR STUDYING

     It may be that a great deal of your reading time is devoted to
study-type reading.  This may be in connection with courses in a school or
college, or it may be study related to your job or a hobby.  Maybe you are
doing a kind of work that didn't even exist when you were in school, or
perhaps your interests have extended to subjects that you didn't study in
school.

     The ability to read efficiently makes it easy to continue learning
throughout a lifetime.  Of course education doesn't end upon graduation
from high school or college.

     To make study time more productive, here are some suggestions for
studying a chapter or a portion of a chapter in a book.  Some of these
remarks will apply to a textbook or similar book that is designed
specifically for teaching, with chapter summaries, review questions, etc.,
but the principles apply to any book which you read to learn something.

     1. First, become familiar with the book as a whole.  Look at the Table
        of Contents and the Index.  See if there are appendices; if so,
        what kind of information do they contain?  Is there a glossary, a
        list of terms with special meanings, etc.?  Sometimes there will be
        separate Tables of Contents listing maps, charts, or illustrations.
        Knowing about these sources can be helpful when you need to find
        some particular information in a hurry.

     2. The rest of these suggestions are for studying a chapter or
        section.  Begin by looking quickly through the chapter to get a
        general idea of what it contains.  Notice subheadings, charts or
        other illustrations, and end-of-chapter material (questions, etc.).
        This survey should take just a few seconds, maybe a minute.




                                  Page 3


     3. Now we will do things backwards.  Look at the end-of-chapter
        material.  Is there a chapter summary?  (It may be at the beginning
        instead of the end.)  If there is a summary in either place, read
        it.  This will give you an idea of the main points that you should
        know when you have finished the reading.

     4. If there are questions at the end of the chapter, read them.  As
        you read the chapter, you should find the answers to the questions,
        or at least information from which you can figure out the answers.

     5. Now comes the speed reading.  Read through the chapter as fast as
        you can, being alert for the answers to the questions you read
        earlier.  Don't stop to ponder over things that you don't
        understand; you might mark them with your pencil so that you will
        be sure to study them more thoroughly later.

     6. After the speed reading of step 5, you should have a fairly good
        idea of what the chapter is about.  Now read the chapter again.
        Use a dictionary or the glossary, if there is one, to find the
        meanings of unfamiliar words.  Use the index to find further
        explanations, elsewhere in the book, of points that are not clear.
        If there are still parts of the chapter that you don't understand,
        make notes in the margin so that you will remember to look
        elsewhere for more information.  Later you can ask your teacher, if
        this is a book for a class in which you are enrolled.  Ask a
        colleague, if it pertains to your work.  Look for information in
        other books.

     7. Now speed-read the chapter again to tie it all together.  Answer
        the questions at the end of the chapter.  Look over the chapter
        summary again to be sure that everything mentioned in the summary
        is now familiar to you.


     This might seem like a lot of work--maybe more time than you are
accustomed to spending--but the goal is to get the most from your study. If
you can read it the "old" way in less time, but don't understand the
material after you read it, the "less time" required is not really saved
time.  And with some practice you might learn to do this really thorough
study even more quickly than the "old" way of just plowing through the
chapter one time, hoping to pick up something.

     One thing accomplished by the technique described above is to make
your reading active rather than passive.  After your initial survey of the
material, you will be looking for certain things as you read--answers to
the questions, points mentioned in the summary, etc.  This will help you to
concentrate with less mind-wandering, and will help you to remember what
you read.








                                  Page 4


CHANGING GEARS

     It is probably obvious that you won't try to read all material at the
same speed.  At times you might just need to find a word or phrase.  To do
this, you will "skim" through the text without paying attention to the
meaning--you are just looking for a certain pattern of letters.

     If you are trying to master difficult ideas, you might need to read
word by word and think of each individual word.  See step 6 above.  Even in
this case, a rapid reading of the context (the part before and after your
point of concentration) can help understanding.

     If you are reading poetry or some other kinds of literature, you will
want to give attention to the sounds of words.  You might even read aloud.
We are interested in speed reading not as an end in itself, but as a
technique to help get the most pleasure and learning from the time that we
spend reading.


CONTINUED SUCCESS

     After you have paced your reading with the computer for a while, you
should be able to maintain your increased reading speed without this
mechanical assistance.  From time to time you will want to check your
speed, with or without the pacing clicks, just to see how you are doing.

     At first it will be necessary to give conscious attention to avoiding
the bad habits that slowed your reading previously.  It will be easy to
slip back into the old ruts if you are not careful.  That's one reason for
timing yourself with the computer program occasionally, even after you feel
that you have "graduated."


OTHER RESOURCES

     There are several books available on the subject of speed reading.
One that I have used in classroom teaching is "Faster Reading Self-Taught"
by Shefter, published by Pocket Books.  I recommend it for its presentation
of reading techniques and for the many reading exercises it contains.  It
would be a good book to use for pacing practice while you are improving
your skills with READFAST!.

     There are also some commercial computer programs available to teach
speed reading, but I have not tried any of them.

     And there are courses taught by colleges and by commercial reading
schools.  Some of them are good, and some are expensive!

     Better reading can contribute much to enjoyment, study efficiency, and
job performance.  It is worth the relatively small effort needed to build
this important skill.





                                  Page 5


THE READFAST! PROGRAM

     When you enter READFAST at the DOS prompt, you will see some
introductory screens and then a menu with five choices.

     The first choice presents some introductory information, including how
to print this manual on your printer.

     The second choice is a timed reading exercise to find your present
reading speed.  Be sure to do this before choices 3 or 4, so that you will
have a starting point from which to measure your progress.

     The third choice is a paced reading exercise with instructions for
marking a book to begin developing proper eye movements.  It is paced at
about 300 words per minute, which is probably faster than you have been
reading, but not too fast for you to keep up.

     Choice four is the main reading program.  It lets you choose the
reading speed for pacing, the number of clicks per line or just one click
per page, or no clicks.  Your reading speed will be calculated whether or
not you choose the clicks.

     Timing for choices 2, 3, or 4 is started by hitting the space bar
when you begin reading, and stopped by hitting it again when you finish.

     And choice 5 exits the program when you have finished.

     If (for some strange reason!) you want to start the program without
the classy opening screens, you will be able to do that with the registered
version of READFAST.EXE.

REGISTRATION

     This program is being distributed under the SHAREWARE concept.  If you
find the program useful and have not already registered, send $12 to

                                Larry O'Rear
                              703 Cielo Drive
                           Georgetown, TX  78628

to register for personal use.

     To use this program in any situation where tuition or any kind of fee
is charged, the registration is $25 and must be sent before the program is
used in such manner.  The instructor may review the program to evaluate it
before registering, but may not use it with the fee-paying group without
submitting the $25 registration.  Such use is a violation of the Copyright
Laws of the United States of America.

                        (Add 8% Sales Tax in Texas)

     The next page tells what you will receive when you register.




                                  Page 6


     When you register, you will receive:

         ∙ The latest REGISTERED version of this program, with
           any updates or corrections.  The registered version
           will not have the opening shareware announcement with
           the necessity of entering the access number.  It will
           provide the option of skipping all opening screens on
           both READFAST and READTACH.

         ∙ VIEW.EXE, a program for reading text files on-screen.
           Files will be displayed the way that instructions are
           shown in the READFAST program, and the way you are
           viewing this documentation file if you entered
           READFAST DOC to read it.

         ∙ A program to remove control characters from text files
           and expand tabs for cleaner screen display.

         ∙ PRC.EXE for sending printer codes to your printer
           from the DOS command line.

         ∙ Four programs for printing text files with several
           options of type size, page headers, etc.

         ∙ A label-printing program.

         ∙ Perhaps other reading aids to be developed in the
           future.  Give me your suggestions!


     You will find a registration form on the next page.

     Thank you for trying this program.  I wish you great success in
improving your reading speed and comprehension skills!  As I have said in
other places, I will appreciate very much your news about your success with
the reading improvement program.

     And please send me your suggestions:  how you would like to see the
reading program improved, other features you would find helpful, other
programs you would like to see.  I can't promise to be successful in doing
everything you suggest, but I do promise to consider it.  And if you find
any un-squashed bugs, please let me know so that I can try to smash the
little critters.

     Thanks again.

                                                   Larry O'Rear









                                  Page 7



                             REGISTRATION FORM



Mail to:  Larry O'Rear
          703 Cielo Dr.
          Georgetown, TX  78628




    REGISTRATION FOR COMPUTER-AIDED READING IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM


Registration for Personal Use................................$12.00

Registration for Fee-charging User...........................$25.00

                   8% Sales Tax if in Texas..................(  .96
                                                            or 2.00)
                                                        ____________

                                                   TOTAL


Your name:  _______________________________________________________

Address:    _______________________________________________________

            _______________________________________________________

            _______________________________________________________



                                THANK YOU!



















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