Definition: Comprehension Reading Strategy

A lot of reading strategies is adopted by the speed reader to accomplish his goal of reading fast. Among many of the strategies are word for word, fast reading, reading faster and so on. However, the most effective strategy to accomplish speed reading is the thought unit. In this strategy, the reader reads group of words simultaneously as singular ideas. He forms the habit of mentally grouping words as ideas and concludes reading in an amazing short time span. He does not read word for word, instead uses his eyes to scan the material and comprehend on what the writer is saying instead of reading the letters of each word.

How are these people able to accomplish this? They practice on a daily basis to read that fast. In using the thought unit for speed reading, a lot of flexibility is required. While many have tried using other strategies to read fast, however, the though unit is the most efficient way of achieving a speed reading ability. This is because perfect understanding of the material is accomplished in a fraction of the time a regular reader gets the details across.

You may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the idea of reading fast with the thought unit strategy. If that is the case, it is likely that you just want to know how to read fast. Then you must learn to practice reading as fast as you can and see how much you are able to comprehend. You may try using visualisation to speed read, if it doesn't work, continue practicing and you will see that the more you practice the more likely you will improve.

When you are starting out, set goals. But set goals you can easily accomplish within a short time span. Try taking it one at a time and you will see that as you force yourself to adopt a fast reading pattern, you will start getting used to it and start improving on it.

To aid you to appreciate how the thought unit method works let's check out the passage below:

The Thought Unit Strategy:

Peter and Janet has been in love for some time now. However, Peter is allowing enough time to pass by so that he will see if Janet is compatible with him and willing to stick with him for life before he can propose marriage to her.

For a speed reader who is using the thought strategy to read, he will separate the statement with slashes to represent an idea. Thus the reading goes like this:

Peter has made a decision/ He will propose to Janet at the right time.

Did you notice how the statement was compressed? You can use similar patterns to speed read. But you will do this in areas your are interested in otherwise the exercise may be boring to you. As you learn to use the thought unit strategy to learn speed reading, you will become comfortable with it and simply improve over time. Then you can take up challenges by venturing into other unfamiliar subject areas.