Quotes about Comprehension

Many persons believe that they know how to read because they read at different speeds. But they pause and go slow over the wrong sentences. They pause over the sentences that interest them rather than the ones that puzzle them.

intelligent action depends on knowledge. Knowledge

The questions answered by inspectional reading are: first, what kind of book is it? second, what is it about as a whole? and third, what is the structural order of the work whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter?

Some writers have excellent "control"; they know exactly what they want to convey, and they convey it precisely and accurately

you have to discover the meaning of a word you do not understand by using the meanings of all the other words in the context that you do understand.

your primary obligation is not to become competent in the subject matter but instead to understand the problem.

Francis Bacon once remarked that "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Reading a book analytically is chewing and digesting it.

Unless you read it quickly you will fail to see the unity of the story. Unless you read intensely you will fail to see the details.

Ask questions while you read—questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading.

You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, I understand, before you can say any one of the following things: I agree, or I disagree, or I suspend Judgment.

A good speed reading course should therefore teach you to read at many different speeds, not just one speed that is faster than anything you can manage now. It should enable you to vary your rate of reading in accordance with the nature and complexity of the material.

One reader is better than another in proportion as he is capable of a greater range of activity in reading and exerts more effort. He is better if he demands more of himself and of the text before him.