Eliminating regressions
The covering-card technique and the no-going-back rule, to recover ten to twenty per cent of speed.
What regressions really cost
An average reader rereads about one fixation in eight. It is not only lost time: every backtrack breaks the thread of the sense, which causes further backtracks. It is a spiral.
The covering-card technique
Equipment. A card, a folded sheet, an opaque ruler.
Place the card above the line you are on and move it down at the pace of your reading, so that it covers what you have just read.
This is the opposite of what most people do, which is to cover what is below. Covering below achieves nothing; covering above makes regression physically impossible.
The typical feeling the first time: discomfort, a sense of missing things. It disappears within two or three sessions, and comprehension climbs back above the starting level, because you are forced to stay attentive first time round.
The no-going-back rule
The rest is part of the Speed Reading module
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