Why Speed Reading Software?

Reading uninteresting text can slow down many readers. Unfortunately, you can't get out of reading what's required. Many people wish they could read faster to save time at work, school or home. There are people out there who possess a natural talent for spreed reading.  They're able to enjoy the extra time doing what they want to do and reading what they want to read, rather than the boring documents they have to read.

With effective speed reading software, average and slow readers can learn to increase their reading speed while maintaining a high rate of reading comprehension.

What to Look for in Speed Reading Software

A good speed reading program will offer several general features. The program should track a reader’s progress to prevent accidentally repeating the same exercises and tests from a previous session. For multiple users, password protection can be important to protect readers' privacy. The option to change the program settings are also useful to choose specific texts, set reading speeds and choose the types of exercises to take.

Exercises and Tests
Effective speed–reading software will include comprehension tests for reading exercises and/or speed tests. Learning to read faster doesn’t accomplish anything if the reader fails to comprehend what they read.

The software should also require readers to take a speed–reading test the first time they use the program to establish a base speed–reading rate to track readers’ progress. Based on this rate, the program will automatically set the reading speed for exercises and tests. The option to manually adjust reading speeds is also important in the event a reader doesn’t feel they are ready for a particular speed.

Types of Exercises
Speed–reading software should include different methods to teach speed–reading skills. Many programs refer to the same teaching methods by different names; they are essentially: Flash, highlighted word groups and keyword focus. Since many people learn in unique ways, readers can try out all these methods to find out what works best for them.

The flash method focuses reader’s attention at the center of their computer screen while one or more words are flashed at certain speeds. This method eliminates the need for readers to move their eyes back and forth, which saves time, prevents accidental re–reading of the same text and reduces eye fatigue.

For highlighted word groups, the full text is displayed on the computer screen while groups of words are highlighted. The highlight moves left to right along the text at a specific speed, which mimics a reader’s eye movements. This method focuses readers’ attention to specific groups of text, which eliminates accidental re–reading and readers are trained to speed–read without the use of a computer.

The keyword focus method trains readers to concentrate their attention on words that relay information and ignore words that exist only for grammatical reasons. For example, the meaning of the following sentence can be understood the long way by reading every word: “We walked along the path and saw many other people enjoying the day” or the short way by focusing only on words that convey information: “We walked saw people enjoying day.”

Reading Levels
A versatile speed–reading program will include texts for children and adults as well as beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert readers. For programs with a limited amount of texts, children with intermediate reading skills can manually slow down the reading speed.

Types of Texts
Successful speed–reading programs will include large libraries of stories, essays and other documents on a variety of subjects for speed reading exercises and tests. Some programs also allow readers to copy and paste text as well as import their own documents into the program.

Change Text Format
Some programs make speed–reading easier on the eyes by allowing users to change the text format such as the font color, size and style. Large text that is colored stands out from the background and reduces eye fatigue. Additionally, readers can focus on increasing their speed instead of trying to make out what the text actually says.

Technical Help/Support
Companies that offer speed–reading software should provide customer service contacts through phone or email and technical help for problems users may have installing or using the program. The company should respond to emailed questions within a few days.

For the best speed reading software that we could find, see The Reader’s Edge.

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