Mp3 Script Critical Reading for Graduate Students Learning Strategies Development, Queen’s University, Kingston Presentation One: Reading Speed Reading at graduate school involves a number of functions and skills; for example, reading rapidly when the purpose dictates, comprehending complex text, critically analyzing arguments, and retaining and recalling what you’ve read. This presentation addresses the issue of large volumes of reading faced by grad students. We offer some strategies to increase your reading speed and manage your reading time. Our first reading concern is speed. The average university student reads 250 to 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials. A "good" reading speed is around 500 to 700 words per minute. Some people can read 1000 words per minute or more depending on the text. What Determines Your Reading Rate? 1. Purpose for Reading Is it understand information? Determine the value of the material? Or read analytically? To understand information, skim or scan at a rapid rate before reading for detail is advised. To read analytically, read at a moderate pace to permit yourself to interrelate ideas. To determine the value of material or to read for enjoyment, read rapidly or slowly according to your feeling. 2. Nature & Difficulty – depends on your background knowledge 3. Internal structure – You need to adjust your reading rate in accordance with the internal structure of the text. Imagine the internal structure like driving in the mountains. To drive well through mountains requires you to speed up, slow down, or cruise in neutral depending on the bends in the road and the weather conditions. What Slows You Down Common bad habits which slow readers down are fixating on each word in a sentence and allowing your eyes to regress or skip back to what you’ve already read. Other things that may slow you down are… Inability to distinguish important from unimportant information Fears e.g. fears can cause you to lose comprehension Poor attention and concentration Passive reading Habitual slow reading Vocalization: Vocalization is when you speak the words as you are reading or mumble them understand your breath. However, a note here on vocalization. For auditory learners vocalization has the advantage of helping them retain and perhaps comprehend information, too. The good news is you can learn to speed up. Try increasing the number of words in each block of text like the example shows. Let your eyes look at every 3rd or 4th word and let your eyes pick up the rest and allow your peripheral vision pick up the rest. Try reducing fixation time to about ¼ second per block or chunk of words. Try reducing regressing or skipping back to previously read text How can you do this? We recommend you use a Pacer. At first, not looking at each word might feel uncomfortable, so in the early stages use a guide or pacer to force your eyes to move ahead. Speed readers suggest using a very thinly pointed instrument, such as a kabob stick, as fingers are fat and can obstruct your vision. The pacer can be moved in different patterns depending on your style and the column width. Slide down the middle of the page for narrow column layout. For full-length sentences, point at 2-3 spots in a sentence. For more advanced readers, move in a zigzag pattern starting at one margin and moving to the other. This helps you target critical words and phrases and main ideas. Alternatively use a ruler under each sentence. This stops your eyes from regressing to sentences already read. SKIMMING is also a critical skill which can speed up your reading. Always skim read before you start to read for detail because it helps you get the big picture first. Lastly, increasing your vocabulary, especially in your academic discipline, will help with reading rate. But there’s SO MUCH to read… There’s no denying it: at grad school the reading never stops! So how can you keep from feeling swamped? Reduce the volume to the essential things and then to read them in the way appropriate to that specific task. Read for purpose e.g. get an overview; read to do an assignment; read for studying; read in-depth to figure out a theory or argument; or prepare for a seminar Don’t Panic Don’t let the reading list on the syllable scare you. There is usually no expectations that you need to complete the reading list given by the professor. Reading lists include additional reference, insights into the topic, etc. Managing your time and being organized will help to ensure that you get your readings done. You need to view reading as a priority task, i.e. schedule time for reading every day and schedule enough time. You also need to prioritize when the readings need to be done. If you have a pile of articles to read, mark on the top of each article the letters A = read now B = read in the near future C= read much later D= possibly don’t read This ends our presentation on Reading Speed.