Personal Computer World 1995 June/pcw-0695.iso/share/datasaur/lamb/lesson.txt

Text File | 1994-11-09 | 10.9 KB | 445 lines

At school you will have learnt
to recognise letters and words.
Education tends to stop at that
point - a shame as you can
substantially improve your
reading speed and reduce wear
and tear on your eyes by trying
the following methods:

. Read an A4 line with only
two or three eye movements.
You'll find that you can retain
what you read.

. Use your peripheral vision to
spot punctuation. In a well-
punctuated document, you
will be able to read a
sentence in one fell swoop.

. When reading a column,
read the whole line without
moving your eyes.

Try not to let your eyes
wander back along a line -
it's rarely necessary.

With 'A Stray Lamb', no more
than two eye movements per line
should be necessary.

If you want to write something
that needs to be read quickly
use lines about 5 inches long. This
allows each line to be read with
two eye movements. This is the
quickest method - even quicker
than reading newspaper columns.
This is because it allows your
eyes three movements - which
is less tiring than just one.

You can make your work even faster
to read by adding an extra space
between words which end towards
the middle of the page. This makes
it easier for the reader to
assimilate what he is reading as
he does not need to make the
break in the line himself.

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Schools teach us to 'read aloud'.
Later we learn to mouth the words
without speaking them. Later still,
we make the sounds in our minds.
This is called sub-vocalisation. It
slows you down  and is rarely
necessary.

Try reading without the sounds - it
will speed up your reading quite
dramatically.

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When you have to read a long
document, you should choose the
way in which you are going to read
it. Do this by flipping through a
few pages. Consider the following:

.Is it relevant?

You do not need to read everything
that you receive. Filter it. If it
is of no use to you, do not read it.
That will save you more time than
any other technique!

.How will you use what you
read?

If you only need a smattering of
information, skimming might do.
Just look for headings and critical
words.

If you need to quote or paraphrase
then you will need to read slowly
and carefully. Speak out difficult
words in your mind or with your
voice. You don't want to
mispronounce a word when you're
making a presentation.

If you need a good understanding of
what you are reading, you should:

.Read with minimal eye
movement. Read either
sentences or blocks of text.
Avoid reading word by word.

.Do not speak the words in
your mind.

If you need only a moderate
understanding then add this
technique to the above: Read only
the key words - ignore filler words
like 'the' and link words like
'and'.

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Each of us develops our own
techniques for remembering things.
This is something that schools rarely
teach at all - though they test the
results! Here are some ideas:

.First, remember to forget
everything you don't strictly
need to remember. That'll
cut your workload.

Pause regularly - perhaps
after each paragraph and
think about what you've
read. This allows your mind
to incorporate what you've
just read into your 'structure
of knowledge'. You will then
be able to recall it later.
Isolated facts are usually
forgotten. Linked facts
become knowledge.

If what you are reading is
'alien' to you, you  may find
it useful to build a skeleton.
For instance, when looking
at history for the first time,
learn a few key dates. This
will give you perspective and
act as a skeleton on which
you can hang all the other
information you gather.
Asking the author of a
document to summarise it to
you verbally is a good way
of building your 'skeleton'.

If you find you are
struggling with reading
material at work, it may be
that you need to improve your
ability to cope with
'difficult' words and sentence
constructs. A painless way
of achieving this is to read
a paper like 'The Guardian' or
the 'Independant'. Or, if
you prefer, pick up some
Dickens.

Take notes as you are
reading. Notes can be
descriptive, iconic or use key
words & phrases. Experiment with
different types of notes. Try to
draw links between associated
ideas.

Test yourself. This will
embarrass nobody and will
increase self-confidence.
Testing can be done by
skimming a document after
you've read it and searching
for key words. When you
find one, try to remember
everything associated with
that word. This is easy in 'A
Stray Lamb' and other
electronic books as you can
use their 'search' facilities.

If you use some information
rarely, you'll need a 'crib'.
This should consist of a neat,
logicalised version of your
notes filed under a title that
allows it to be rapidly
retrieved. A shareware
product called WinPost
could be used for short
textual notes.

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The history of reading and its
instruction dates from the time
of the Phoenicians, more than
3,000 years ago.

The Phoenicians were great
traders, and it was from
their trading contacts with
the Greeks that writing spread
into Southern Europe.

The Greeks drew up an
alphabet that covered all of
the sounds in their language.
They taught their students to
read from this alphabet. It
is basically this method
that most young children use
today.

The Romans adapted the Greek
alphabet and gave each of the
letters a name. Usually the name
relates to the sound, but not always.

Christian missionaries devised the
first English alphabet, drawn in the
main from the Roman one. Letters
such as U, V, W and Y were added
later.

The hornbook, a paddle-shaped
piece wood was used in the 15th
century to teach people to
read. It had the alphabet, some
syllables and the Lord's Prayer.

The arrival of Caxton's printing
press in the 15th century widened
the spread of literacy and its
importance. By making the written
word cheaper, it enabled its use
to convey news, education and
entertainment to the middle class.

Literacy rates are often used as a
guide to the development of nations.
Europe, during the Dark Ages
had perhaps 1 or 2% literate,
and that was thanks mainly to
the Catholic church.

What constitutes being literate is
a matter of debate. Today, I would
say, it means being able to read and
write about contemporary events. In
the past a person would have been
considered literate if he could have
read the Lord's Prayer. This means
that the following literacy rate
should be taken with a pinch of
salt.

In the 18th Century the literacy
rate rose to 40%. Credit for some
of this rise should go to the Dames
Schools and Common Day Schools.
These were cheap, fee paying
schools led by people who were
usually unfit for manual work.
In addition to these, a number of
charity schools were founded to
educate the poor as Christians -
usually by making them learn the
catechism by heart.

To learn to read requires time.
Making children work long hours
in factories, on farms and in
workhouses naturally makes
clodhoppers of them. Many
philanthropists worked to
alleviate their lot and some
employers set up schools to educate
their employees' children. This was,
of course, more a question of
self-interest than of kindness.

The Factories Act, 1844 set a
minimum working age of 8 in
factories and workshops. In 1874
this was raised to 10 and then to
12 in the 1918 Fisher Act.

By 1850, as education spread wider
over the population and children
spent longer at school about 50%
were literate.

Standardisation in school provision
helps to ensure that minimum
standards can be met. The 1870
Education Act provided our first
attempt. This was improved by the
Conservatives in 1902 when they put
education under Local Government
control.

Mundella's Education Act, 1880
made education compulsory in
Britain for all children aged 5
to 10. By 1930 more than 90% of
Britons were literate.

The Butler Act, 1944, transformed
British education. It meant
compulsory, full-time schooling for
all children from 5 through to 15.
It has ensured that all children,
of all classes receive a basic
education. 98% of us are now
literate.

It is too early to say whether the
1988 Education Act with its
establishment of a National
Curriculum will aid or hinder
education in this country. The
same can be said about the moves
to take schools out of Local
Government control. The abysmal
handling of the National
Curriculum by the Government has
hardly helped its cause.

It is probable that the 1990's will
see more people illiterate in
Britain, given the growth of urban
poverty, the decline of the nuclear
family and the expansion of visual
media.

One measure of reading ability is
provided by the notional
'reading age' - that is the type of
material that a person of a given
age can comprehend. A reading age
of 15 is considered to be the norm
for a well-educated person. If you
can comfortably cope with a
newspaper like 'The Guardian', you
have reached this exalted height.

Newspapers such as 'The Mail'
have a reading age of 12 whilst
simpler ones like 'The Sun' sit
at 10. This does not imply that
'The Sun' is badly written -
it is deliberately written with
simple words and sentence
constructions.

When reading other people's work,
especially documents written by
technicians, concentrate on
the content and not the style.

Enjoy your reading, and help your
colleagues enjoy your writing.

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How fast you can read will
depend on these factors:

1 How difficult the material
is that you're reading.

2 How familiar you are with the
subject matter.

3 How interested you are.

4 How tired you are - the morning
is usually better for reading long
documents than the afternoon.

5 How much you need to retain.

6 What percentage of written words
you sound in your mind.

When reading 'A Stray Lamb', aim
for 800 words per minute. Use
the 'key' to turn on the
wordometer.

You should score better than 80%
in the retention test.

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I hope that you have enjoyed
your speed reading course, and
that you will be able to use what
you have learnt at home, on the
 train or in the office.

Please practice these techniques
Pick the ones that you like and
that are appropriate to the
reading that you need to do:

* Don't read bumph.
* Minimise eye movements.
* Read 'quality' papers or magazines.
* Pause to rest your eyes.
* Pause to digest.
* Question yourself.

Don't forget that there is
another side to the
reading coin - that's
writing! A course in
Modern Business Writing
will help you to write so that
others can read and digest
what you've written more
easily.

Why not try to speed read
something that you have
written some time in the past
and then test yourself on it.

If you want to learn more
about speed reading or
modern business writing
why not book a tutor-led
course, or contact
Datasaurus.

Have a nice day!

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