With the vast resources of information available to everyone on-line at the click of a mouse, the ability to quickly assimilate and process vast amounts of information can well be the difference between success and failure – or between rapid advancement up the corporate ladder or a slow and tedious climb to the top. Consider even the uses that speed reading can be put to in the world of business.

If you happen to be a lawyer, for example, and master speed reading, you could go over your cases in half the time or less, and make decisions on each that much faster. And it’s the same in any sort of business. The ability to work more efficiently, to comprehend projects faster, to absorb information quicker –  this is quite invaluable.

These days there are quite a few speed reading systems out there that use both simple and advanced methods to greatly increase your reading speed, allowing you to greatly increase you ability to both read and comprehend the written language. There are definite reasons why a person’s reading speed might be slow, and most good systems of rapid reading will help you understand where you’re going wrong, and help you to correct where you are at fault.

Correcting the way your mind processes reading, for example, can greatly improve the reading process. Most slow readers actually ‘listen’ to their inner voice reading the words on the page, thus taking twice as long to read text as a rapid reader who simply does not do this.

However, a small warning. Reading and understanding are two quite different things, and you cannot master one while neglecting the other. In other words, there’s absolutely no point in taking a course in speed reading if, for example, you are taking an advanced university course and do not completely understand the subject you are studying.

Similarly, speed reading will be of limited value to you if you don’t have a large vocabulary. Generally speaking, you should be able to capably read and understand a subject for speed reading to be of use to you – and if you can do this, then speed reading will be of immense value. In other words, speed reading is a tool, a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Now most people can take in about three hundred words per minute – but this speed can easily be doubled or even tripled. Advanced speed readers have been known to absorb two thousand words per minute. This is done using various highly effective speed reading techniques. One of the simplest is to merely trace the words you read with your finger, to prevent yourself from re-reading words or even sentences. This simple method alone can increase your reading speed, but there’s more.

There are visualization techniques that can enhance your reading ability, and, for shorter documents, you can even read ‘out of order’ to quickly absorb the gist of a page. And did you know that it is possible to read lines alternatively forward and backward as you read down the page, eliminating even the small time your eyes take to skip to the beginning of each line on the page.

Everything takes practice, of course – but with the right training (7-Speed-Reading is an excellent program) there’s no reason why you should become a true citizen of the information age.