Speed Reading
In her studies, Wood discovered readers capable of reading 1,500 to 6,000 words a minute, often sharing the traits of reading down the page rather than left to right, reading groups of words or complete thoughts rather than single words, avoiding involuntary rereading of material and applying their efficiency to varied material. After discovering that faster readers were also more effective readers, she began developing her programs, ultimately developing a methodology of using a finger or pointer to trace lines of text while eliminating sub-vocalizing (reading under one's breath or aloud in one's head).
Her book Reading Skills was published in 1959 and she and her husband subsequently started the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics business. Classes were heavily advertised on television in the 1960s and '70s; Steve Allen was one of the highest-profile celebrity endorsers. Until the late 1990s her classes were taught on college campuses in the United States.
Among those whose reading habits Wood studied was US President John F. Kennedy, an avid reader. Subsequently White House staff members in the Kennedy, Ford, and Carter administrations took the course.
One of Wood's speed reading students appeared on I've Got a Secret, claiming she could read the 689 page novel Gone With the Wind in less than one hour.
Read more about this topic: Evelyn Wood (teacher)
Famous quotes containing the words speed and/or reading:
“Spig Wead: I’ve been thinking what a heel I’ve been about you and about my own kids. I don’t know, when I do something, I go all the way. Living. Gambling. Flying. I tap myself out. I guess that’s the way I want it to be. Maybe even the way I am.
Minne Wead: Star-spangled Spig. Damn the martinis, full speed ahead and don’t give up the ship.”
—Frank Fenton, William Wister Haines, co-scenarist, and John Ford. Spig Wead (John Wayne)
“Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.”
—William Penn (1644–1718)