Selective Reading Skills

Good reading is one of the important skills. Reading selectively is like buying goods; we always tend to look for the best of them all. Generally, people read to understand concept, some read for fun. While we read, we understand the concept but only remember the important points. These points are like keys. We need one key to open the locker; likewise we just need one key word to get the bunch of information.

Principle for selective Reading

Here are the some underlying principle need to improve reading skills.

1. While reading, as the amount of information increases in the given area, there is an increasing need for the ability to scan that information at a high level and to be highly selective of the areas you choose to study in detail.

2. Instead of remembering the complete paragraph, on should understand the message behind that big paragraph. However, you can explain about the topic with your own words if you got the message/concept.

For example, imagine arriving at the large lake and somebody told you that there is a buried treasure somewhere in he water. TO find that treasure, you could either put on your swimming suite or go for swim, or use high speed boat with radar programmed to detect the presence of anything resembling the treasure. This would allow you to do a fairly quick pass over the entire lake. You are mush more likely to find the treasure because you will have eliminated huge portions of the lake very quickly than the person who swims into the water to search the treasure.

3. Now when it comes to reading, your subconscious mind (the part of the mind of which one is not fully aware but which influences one’s actions and feelings) is your radar, and it is “programmed” when you invest time “self-communication” the outcome you are trying to create.

4. It often takes discipline to finish the complete scan before stopping at an extremely promising location. It is strongly encourages for the inventors not to jump at the first solution because sometimes the really elegant solution is right around the corner.

Best Strategy for Selective Reading

Layered Reading

To effectively use your subconscious mental radar, you can read books more selectively by using a layered reading approach. Here are four phases that commonly show up in layered reading strategies:

Overview: Look over the entire book at the rate of 1 second per page to determine its organization, structure and tone. Try to finish the overview in 5 minutes.

Preview: If you decide to read further, preview the first chapter at the rate of 4 seconds per page. Pay particular attention to introduction and conclusion, and the first sentences of paragraphs and sections. Mark key sections with yellow marker.

Read: If any part of the chapter needs closer attention, go back and read it at whatever speed seems appropriate.

Review: Doing short reviews periodically after reading new ideas can significantly increase the amount of detailed information that makes it into long term memory.

Saying that someone has one reading speed is like having a care that only goes one speed. Different material calls for different speeds. Layered reading is about being flexible in the strategy you use to extract useful ideas from written material.

Here are some additional suggestions for reading more selectively:

1. Focus on key words and ignore filler words.

2. Skip what you already know. As you transfer more and more knowledge from an area into long term memory, the section you can skip will become larger and thus accelerate your journey along the compound learning curve.

3. Skip material that does not apply to you.

4. Skip material that seems mostly confusing and come back to it if necessary after reading other sections. Books are linear while their subject matter is often multi-dimensional.

I hope these steps will help you for selective reading.