Improve Your Reading

Ron Fry

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781504055253
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

Proven strategies for better reading skills—from comprehension, focus, and retention to overcoming challenges such as ADD. Whether it's for education or enjoyment, reading can be challenging. Understanding and remembering what you've read, and keeping focus and concentration when you have to read long or difficult texts, takes certain skills. Luckily, those skills can be learned and improved. In Improve Your Reading, education expert Ron Fry offers practical solutions to the reading-related frustrations all readers—and students—face. No gimmicks, no tricks, just proven techniques for any course, any academic level, any situation, and anyone in need of the essential tools to succeed in the classroom and beyond. You'll discover:

• Basic, necessary study skills
• How to read with a purpose
• How to focus on the main idea
• How to overcome the challenges of technical texts
• The art of becoming a critical reader
• Ways to retain information
• Advice on how to start building your own library
• Tips for reading with ADD or other challenges
• Ideas for parents to help their children
• Ways for teachers to encourage their students

Reading is the key to success—and this clear, simple guide is the key to reading!

CHAPTER 1
THE BASIS OF ALL STUDY SKILLS

I think you’ll find this is a book unlike any you’ve read before. And if you take the time to read it, I promise it will make everything else you have to read—whatever your student status, whatever your job, whatever your age—a lot easier to get through.

Why? Because I’m going to show you how to plow through all your reading assignments—whatever the subjects—better and faster… and how to remember more of what you read.

This book is not a gimmicky speed-reading method. It’s not a spelling and grammar guide. Nor is it a lecture on the joys of reading. It’s a practical guide, geared to you—a student of any age who isn’t necessarily a poor reader, but who wants to get more from reading and do better in school and in life.

Personally, I’ll read just about anything handy, just to be able to read something. But just because I have always loved to read, it didn’t make it any easier to face some of those deadly textbook reading assignments. As a student, you will inevitably be required, as I was, to spend hours poring through ponderous, fact-filled, convoluted reading assignments for subjects that are required, but not exactly scintillating.

You may love reading for pleasure but have trouble reading textbook assignments for certain subjects. You may get the reading done but forget what you’ve read nearly as quickly as you read it. Or you just may hate the thought of sitting still to read anything. Whatever kind of student you are—and whatever your level of reading skill—I’ve written this book to help you surmount your reading challenge, whatever it may be.

And that includes, for those of you long out of school, reading those nap-inducing business tomes, trade magazine articles, and other work-related stuff that’s rarely reader-friendly.

You’ll learn what you should read—and what you don’t have to. You’ll discover how to cut down on the time you spend reading, how to identify the main idea in your reading, as well as the important details, and how to remember more of what you read.

I’ll show you different ways to read various types of books, from dry science texts to cumbersome classics.

Who knows? I might even convince you that reading is fun!

When you’re a good reader, the world is your oyster—you qualify for better schools, better jobs, better pay. Poor readers qualify for poor jobs and less fulfilling lives.

Ready to Begin? Get Motivated!

Any attempt to improve your reading must begin with motivation. Reading is not a genetic trait that is written in your DNA—there’s no gene that makes you a good or bad reader like the ones that decide your hair or eye color. For the most part, reading is an acquired skill—a skill you can secure, grow, and sharpen. You just have to want to.

As the Nike commercial lambastes all of us weekend warriors—“Just Do It!” This attitude—not technique—is where the quest for improved reading begins. You must make reading a habit.

Good Reader vs. Poor Reader

Look at the following comparison of a good reader and a poor reader as if you were some corporate hotshot who could hire just one of the individuals.

Good Reader: You read for purpose. You’ve clearly defined your reason for reading—a question you want answered, facts you must remember, ideas you need to grasp, current events that affect you, or just the pleasure of following a well-written story.

Poor Reader: Yes, you read, but often have no real reason for doing so. You aimlessly struggle through assigned reading, with little effort to grasp the “message.”

Good Reader: You read and digest the concepts and ideas the author is trying to communicate.

Poor Reader: You get lost in the muddle of words, struggling to make sense of what the author is trying to say. You are often bored because you force yourself to read every word to “get the message”…which you usually don’t.

Good Reader: You read critically and ask questions to evaluate whether the author’s arguments are reasonable or totally off-the-wall. You recognize biases and don’t just “believe” everything you read.

Poor Reader: You suffer from the delusion that everything in print is true and are easily swayed from what you formerly believed to be true by any argument that sounds good.

Good Reader: You read a variety of books, magazines, and newspapers and enjoy all types of reading—fiction, poetry, biography, current events.

Poor Reader: You’re a one-track reader—you read the sports pages, comics, or Gothic novels. Current events? You catch updates about your world from TV news “sound bites.”

Good Reader: You enjoy reading and embrace it as an essential tool in your desire to better yourself.

Poor Reader: You hate to read, deeming it a chore to be endured only when you have to. Reading is “boring.”

Take a minute and ask yourself, whom would you hire? Yes, you might hire Mr. Poor Reader…in some low-paying job. But would you ever put someone with such low-level skills in a position of major responsibility?

At this point, I won’t ask you to evaluate your own level of reading skills. Characterizing yourself as a “good” or “poor” reader was not the point of this exercise. What is important is to realize that Ms. Good Reader didn’t spring full-blown from Zeus’s cranium quoting Shakespearean sonnets and reading physics texts for fun. She learned to read the same way you and I did—with “See Spot run.”

In time and through making reading a habit, Ms. Good Reader acquired and honed a skill that will open a world of opportunity to her.

Mr. Poor Reader, at some point, decided that being a good reader was not worth the effort and made poor reading his habit.

The good news is that being a poor reader is not a life sentence—you can improve your reading. The challenge is to find the motivation!

How Fast Can You Understand?

When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.

—Pascal

Are you worried that you read too slowly? You probably shouldn’t be—less rapid readers are not necessarily less able. What counts is what you comprehend and remember. And like anything else, practice will probably increase your speed levels. If you must have a ranking, read the 500-word selection that follows (adapted from American Firsts by Stephen Spignesi, published by New Page Books, 2004) from start to finish, noting the elapsed time on your watch. Score yourself as follows:

45 seconds or less	very fast
46–60 seconds	fast
61–90 seconds	high average
91–119 seconds	average
120–150 seconds	slow
151 seconds or more	very slow

The original incarnation of Coca-Cola contained cocaine, a common ingredient of patent medicines in the late 19th century. The drug was so beloved and believed to be so beneficial that the early ads for Coca-Cola pitched it as a “brain tonic.” Cocaine did what cocaine does: It made people more alert and focused; it elevated mood (to the point of euphoria); it eliminated fatigue and had something of an analgesic effect. Who knew it was addictive?

Eventually everyone did, and over the past century, the Coca-Cola company has worked very hard to eliminate any traces of cocaine from the beverage. However, cocaine is found in the cola nut (a seed of the coca leaf) and it is therefore impossible to remove it entirely. The amount of cocaine in Coca-Cola is so miniscule, however, as to be immeasurable; by any and all standards, Coca-Cola is cocaine free. It is not caffeine free, though, because this stimulant is also found in the coca leaf and no attempt is made to remove it for regular Coke. It is removed, though, for production of caffeine-free cola beverages.

Coca-Cola is the world’s most recognized trademark. Some estimates claim that 94 percent of the world’s population recognizes the Coca-Cola name and/or distinctive Spencerian Script logo. The original formula for Coca-Cola syrup was concocted by Dr. John Pemberton in his Atlanta, Georgia backyard in early May 1885. (Today, the secret formula of Coke is known as “7X.”) He used a three-legged kettle, and his bookkeeper Frank Robinson not only came up with the name, but also drew the first script version of the product’s name. The syrup was mixed with water and first sold to the thirsty at the soda fountain in Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1885. It was touted as a brain and nerve tonic, but Pemberton lost money in his first year selling the drink.

Legend has it that Pemberton saw one of his employees adding carbonated seltzer water to the “tonic,” and the Coke we know today was born. Today, Coca-Cola is the most popular beverage in the world. More than one billion Cokes are consumed every day, and it has become known as the quintessential American drink. Coca-Cola’s strongest competitor is Pepsi^®. There are differences between the two colas, though, and many people have a favorite. Coke has a heavier, more carbonated taste and feel, and an orange-based flavor tone beneath the vanilla and cola flavors. Pepsi is lighter and sweeter, and uses a lemon-lime flavor tone beneath its cola flavoring. Also, Coke has 47 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounce serving, compared to Pepsi’s 37 milligrams. Both have about 39 grams of sugar.

These days, there is also an enormous, worldwide Coca-Cola subculture. The Coke logo has been licensed for use on a slew of products, and there are collectors all over the world who seek out these items and often pay top dollar for them. A recent search for Coke products on eBay^® returned more than 30,000 individual items.

Now answer the questions on the following page without referring back to the text:

1. What stimulant besides cocaine is found in the coca leaf?

A. Ecstasy

B. Caffeine

C. Ephedrine

D. Cola

2. About how long has Coke been around?

A. 85 years

B. 185 years

C. 120 years

D. 88 years

3. What flavors are mentioned as existing in Coke (vs. Pepsi)?

A. Vanilla, cola, and lemon-lime

B. Cola and vanilla

C. Vanilla, cola, and orange

D. Orange and cola

4. Which has more sugar: Coke or Pepsi?

A. Coke

B. Pepsi

C. Both

D. Neither

A good reader should be reading fast or very fast and have gotten at least three of the four questions correct.

Answers to Quiz:

1) B;

2) C;

3) C;

4) C

You should only worry—and plan to do something about it—if you fall in the slow or very slow range and/or missed two or more questions. Otherwise, you are probably reading as fast as you need to and retaining most of what you read.

Again, the relationship between speed and comprehension is paramount: Read too fast and you may comprehend less; reading more slowly does not necessarily mean you’re not grasping the material.

What Decreases Reading Speed/Comprehension:

1. Reading aloud or moving your lips when you read.

2. Reading mechanically—using your finger to follow words, moving your head as you read.

3. Applying the wrong kind of reading to the material.

4. Lacking sufficient vocabulary.

There are several things you can do to improve these reading mechanics.

To Increase Your Reading Speed:

1. Focus your attention and ...