How to choose a comfortable word-by-word reading speed
Choose a word-by-word reading speed in Fastreader, adjust extra pauses, and check your understanding before trying a faster pace.
A comfortable pace depends on your task and the passage itself. It makes sense to read a familiar note differently from a new set of work instructions. In Fastreader, words per minute refers to the display; you check your understanding yourself.
What reading speed should you start with?
Paste two or three paragraphs you have not read before. For a first attempt, you could try 150–200 words per minute. This is a starting setting, not a standard or a recommendation for everyone. The application offers values from 100 to 750, in steps of 25. Change the pace with the “−” and “+” buttons beside the number or with the slider in settings.
Send the report on Thursday. Attach the original calculations and list separately any assumptions that still need to be checked.
Add the example as your own material. Open settings, choose 150, close the dialog, and start word-by-word display. Stop after the first sentence. State the deadline and the two requirements for the report, then check them against the context. This is a small check of a particular passage, not an assessment of your abilities.
Change one setting at a time
- Read a short passage at your chosen pace.
- Pause and describe the main idea without looking at the text.
- If you lost the meaning, reduce the pace by one or more steps and reread.
- To try a faster display, use a different passage of similar difficulty. A familiar passage may seem easier because you have already read it.
Use extra pauses
Expand “Pauses between words” in settings. Delays at sentence endings, paragraph breaks, and long words are added to the base interval. A displayed value of 200 therefore does not mean exactly 200 words read and understood each minute. Try changing the sentence-ending pause first while keeping everything else the same.
If a word does not fit on the screen, the reader pauses. On a computer, read the word in the context below the word display; on a phone, open it with the “Context” button. Continue after reading it; do not try to compensate for the stop by increasing the pace.
When to switch to the full text
Definitions, exceptions, and chains of conditions are easier to check together. Switching to “Text” keeps your place. Reading research associates higher speed with a trade-off in comprehension; there is no universal number that guarantees a result.
Source: Rayner and colleagues, 2016.
Try this technique with your own text.
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