Poor reading habits are a major cause of slow reading. Some of the habits include something called subvocalizing, which means you pronounce everything in your mind as you read it. Perhaps this doesn't seem like a big deal, but the extra thought it takes to form the words in your mind is enough to slow you down. Other readers have a fear of not comprehending what they read, so they will slow themselves down on purpose, believing that this will increase their comprehension level. Overthinking the situation often backfires, taking away not only the enjoyment of the material, but decreasing comprehension as well. Another problem, related to fear of not comprehending, is rereading something you've read several times. All of these elements work to decrease your reading speed and comprehension. Breaking these habits is the first step to reading faster and understanding more of what you read.
Avoid reading words one at a time. This is a habit we get into very early in life. Reading a word at a time forces you to read slower than you can. Block reading is simply looking at words and phrases as a whole rather than word by word. This technique allows your eyes to scan a page of text more quickly. Grab a newspaper and practice with it. Scan each headline, then read the body of the article, letting your eye move forward. Don't allow yourself to stop and focus on any single word. Concentrate on scanning each line of text in the article as a whole. You'll feel an improvement almost immediately.
One of the oldest techniques for increasing your reading speed is key-word reading. This technique involves only allowing your eyes to pick out important words in a sentence. Words like "a," "and," "the," and "but" are ignored. We all do this naturally to some extent. To refine this technique, try reading a page from your favorite book and scan quickly line by line, blocking out conjunctions, articles, and any other words that are common or meaningless out of context. You'll find this exercise easier than you think.
Use the speed-reading exercises above to read newspaper clippings and pages from a novel. Stop after each paragraph and summarize what you've just read. Use a recorder to capture each summary, then go back after you've finished your reading exercises for the day and check your verbal summary with what the paragraph actually says. Eventually, you will find that you're reading faster and comprehending more.