Chunking reading will turn you from a snail into a cheetah! Do you want to read like a snail or a cheetah? By learning to chunk read you will forget about reading slowly and learn how to put vast amounts of information together in a short period of time. The art of reading is always required, whether you are a student or in a specific career. Therefore, mastering the best and most efficient speed reading tips is critical to your success.
Chunking reading will require some practice. That is the bad news. The good news is that anyone with reasonable eyesight can learn how to chunk. Chunking refers to reading groups of words as one whole unit. The words are no longer separate, they are one group of information. This would be the opposite of reading one word at a time. Why do I mention eyesight? Well, as humans, we are able to see 180 degrees wide when we are facing forward. Why not use this ability in your reading? We have to re-train ourselves to use our 180 degree vision ability because we have been taught, since our early school days, to narrow and focus our reading vision to only about 12 degrees wide. For chunk reading we need to soften our focus and allow our peripheral vision to come in handy.
There are some basic speed reading exercises available for free here that might help you practice.
Start out slowly when learning to chunk read. Begin by selecting a page of writing and drawing two vertical lines down the page. These lines should cut off approximately the first two words and the last two words in each line of writing. In using this technique you will begin to train your eyes to focus only on the middle section of writing and allow your peripheral vision to see the ends of the writing. Imagine that the lines of writing are divided into three phrases. Don’t over-analyze the scenario, just read the middle section and ignore the outer edges. This method is referred to as triple-chunking and once accustomed to it, you will triple your reading speed!
Now that you are an accomplished triple-chunker, you can learn to double-chunk. This method requires similar tactics, only here, divide your page of writing into equal halves instead of three sections. Once again, think of each sentence as being made up of two phrases. Glance once at each side of the page, reading each half as a whole unit. With practice you will learn to focus on the middle line and your peripheral vision will have expanded to include the rest of the writing. Chunking methods will prevent you from struggling with eye-fixation problems. Fixation means getting stuck on words here and there in the sentence, slowing your reading down as you fixate for too long on specific words.
By now you may class yourself as a cheetah-reader! If you would still like to go further, there is the skill of single-chunking to master. Here you are reading the whole sentence as one phrase. The technique that you will need to practice is as follows. Instead of moving your eyes from left to right, move them in a diagonal direction. Read the right side of the first sentence and then the left side of the second sentence and so forth using a diagonal eye movement pattern. This is an excellent way to increase reading speed. Remember practice makes perfect and these methods are not achieved overnight. Persevere and you will succeed. Say good-buy to 3rd grade reading styles forever!
Speed Reading Tutorial 