Got Chunking Yet?

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There are two elements to speed reading that are under your control.
Practice for just 15 minutes daily for 21 days will absolutely double your
speed and even increase your comprehension about 5%

To triple your reading speed and better – requires easy additional strategies.

Field-of-Vision

Our forward facing field of view is 180 degrees wide. Some animals can use all
360 degrees of their Field-of-Vision.

We have all been trained since the 3rd grade – to read using our narrow – hard focus of only 12 degrees wide. This hard -focus is technically called Foveal-Vision and permits us to see up to six-letters or one-word wide. It makes us reading-snailers.

We come equipped with another kind of sight called peripheral-vision, and it uses
a soft-focus, a widening of our vision up to thirty-six letters (six-words), wide.
Guess which one produces speed reading?

Compare our field-of-vision for ordinary reading (snailing), just 12 degrees wide,
containing six-letters – to a vertical vision, with its up to 72 degrees wide.

Speed ​​Reading uses both foveal (hard-focus), vision and peripheral (soft-focus) vision, to read up to six-words within our field-of-vision. Makes all the difference.

Chunking

When we group words together, section (unite, link), a series of words in a sentence – we are chunking. A synonym is a block, pile or hunk of information, verses reading one-word-at-a-time, which is the way we were all taught.

Think of it as combining small units (a single-word), into coordinated units.
When you chunk – you create more digestible sections of words (phrases), for
improved meaning (comprehension). You understand the writers ideas, and his / her
point-of-view – instead of merely isolated words.

You get the context, comprehension, and fluency of a sentence, instead of a broken-up, distorted, hard-to-understand version. Here's the kicker – chunking (using
your peripheral-vision), in your field-of-vision, permits you to quickly locate and
easily scan the page for improved comprehension and memory. You test better.

How do we learn to chunk?

First, change your Eye-Pattern-Movements – we call it Specific-Guidance versa
Random-Spacing. When you choose to use your soft-focus and peripheral-vision,
it requires a mental-decision; you break up sentences, paragraphs and pages
into chunks of words.

# 1, is called Indenting. Draw a line down the left and right sides of the page you are
reading, to separate the first two-words and the final two-words from the rest of
the sentences.

You focus on the upper-halves of the chunks of words in the middle, and let your
peripheral-vision pick up the indented words on your lateral-left and lateral-right.

The result is you are training your eyes to chunk, use soft-focus and your peripheral-vision. The secret is how you chunk in your field-of-vision, using your
Pacer (Rastermaster, Pen or Computer Cursor), and the Pattern-Movements of your eyes.

You do not have to be reading specialist to use indenting, or to switch to soft-focus from your 3rd grade hard-narrow, foveal-vision. All it takes is practice to start
reading from the third word in from the left, instead of the first, and to stop reading
two-words from the end-of-the-sentence.

Just let the indenting lines guide you and quit over-thinking the process.
All you do is use your Pacer to underline the words-of-the-sentence. It works
because our eyes are Motion-Detectors, and must follow a moving-object.

Key point: your eyes are playing catch-up with the movements of your Pacer,
which always moves about double the speed of your snailing. In the first 15
minutes of practicing with your Pacer, you will speed up with good comprehension
to up to 75% of your initial snailing-reading-speed.

Triple-Chunking

Take your pen and draw two-lines down the page in dividing the text into three separate chunks. Do not analyze it, it is baby-easy and does not require a ruler,
approximately chunk the sentences on the page into three-groups or sections of
words.

Now when you practice speed reading, you always imagine each sentence as if it
were grouped into three-phrases. You still focus on the upper-halves of the words
you are reading, and ignore looking at the beam or trace-mark of your Pacer.

The beam or trace-mark is picked up by your peripheral-vision because it is an
instinct of motion-detection – the way our eyes came hardwired.

Practice 15 minutes daily triple-chunking, and after 21 days, you will triple your
reading speed, with an increase of up to 10% in comprehension and long-term
memory.

Double Chunking

Take your pen and divide the page into approximate two-equal sections.
Come on, it is baby-stuff by now. You are grouping the sentences into two sections,
and mentally reading as if each sentence consistors of two-phrases.

Snailing is reading one-word at-a-time. Speed ​​Reading is chunking words for ease
of context, comprehension and fluency. Double-chunking is an improvement on
both Indenting and Triple-Chunking because you are learning to make less
eye-fixation-pauses per sentence, in your field-of-vision.

Each practice gives you greater mastery over your eye-pattern-movements,
and eliminates your 3rd grade training of reading just one-word-at-a-time.

Single-Chunking

Practice this one and you are a certified SuperStar. By the time you reach
Single-Chunking you have triple your reading speed, and doubled your memory.

Over 90% of graduates stop before Single-Chunking because they can read and remember three-books, articles and reports in the time their peers can hardly
finish one. We know you are capable of greater cognitive personal-growth.

Single-chunking is mentally underlining with your Pacer beam or trace-mark using
your soft-focus and peripheral-vision – but without dividing the sentences.

You are fully capable of moving your head-and-eyes gently left-to-right as you scan the sentences, and absorb the gist of the ideas. No chunking lines are necessary.

Here is the difference – your move across the sentences left-to-right, but move to
the next sentence right-to-left – Diagonally. You are reading forward of course –
as your eyes are creating a simple kind of eye-pattern-movement of chunking the
words.

Once more: you reading one-sentence as a single group of words (single-chunking)
and the following-sentence moving right-to-left – with your eyes moving to the
front of the second-sentence and scanning. The secret is the slanting, diagonal line.

Now you are ready to read the third-sentence, and your eyes single-chunk left-to-
right, and then move Diagonally (slanting), – right-to-left. Now do it again – Finnagin – down the page.

Practice all of the above, and finally choose the specific chunking style you find the
the most comfortable.

See ya,

copyright © 2006

H. Bernard Wechsler

http://www.speedlearning.org

hbw@speedlearning.org