Ways to Practice Speed Reading

The sweep
Use your hand to draw your eyes across the page.  Slightly cup your dominant hand.  Keep your fingers together.  With a light motion, sweep your fingers from left to right, underlining the line with the tip of your middle finger from about an inch in and an inch out on each line.  For example, you can pretend you are dusting off salt from the page.  I haven’t tried this tip yet, but I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to try it.

The hop
This tip is similar to the sweep except that with this tip, you lift your fingers and make two even bounces on each line.  Each time you bounce, you are making a fixation, which hopefully catches sets of three or four words.  Using this method makes it easier to keep a steady pace.  This tip is a lot like tapping your fingers on a desk.  This is another tip that I haven’t tried yet.

The zig zag or loop
This tip is a scanning technique.  Take your hand and cut across the words diagonally about three or four lines and then slide back to the next line.  The point of this tip is to scan the entire text so you can figure out the main idea of what you are reading.  You shouldn’t use this tip if you are reading important things.  This tip is to help you get a general idea of what you’re reading.  I think I am going to practice this tip.

These are all the ways to practice speed reading.  Feel free to practice all of the tips to see which one you are comfortable with doing.  I can’t stress enough that you have to practice these tips to speed reading.  The tips will only work if you practice them.