JACK'S BLOG
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BloggingPRESIDENT JOHN KENNEDY read three newspapers every day: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun, all from cover-to-cover. This was in addition to countless briefings and reports submitted by his staff and Administration. I believe that he also read a few novels, too. He credited his ability to consume and retain thousands of words per minute to Reading Dynamics, a scientific approach to “speed-reading” commercially developed by Evelyn Woods. The popular tale is that she accidentally discovered that she could read faster by brushing her hand across a page. I doubt it. I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. However, inasmuch as I was a poor college student when Kennedy was President and didn't have the time, money, or patience to take her course in Reading Dynamics, I haunted the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore until I came up with the extant scientific research on the subject and duplicated her system for myself. It worked. I didn't attain Kennedy's skill, but I improved my reading speed and comprehension significantly.
In later years, when I was studying typography, I wondered how I might apply the same principles to make text more readable. There were only three of them:
Obviously, the first two principles were not applicable to my goal. There's no way to “help” a reader avoid subvocalization or point to words dynamically just by some special arrangement of the printed text on the page. However, the third principle could. I could arrange the text in narrow columns to help readers “see” an entire line in a single glance even though they weren't trained. Now you must have guessed why I chose a format for my website wherein the text is set in a narrow column. No, I'm not claiming to have invented columns. Newspapers have been using them for decades, but for different reasons. Newspaper columns facilitate the process of pasting up multiple stories on the same page. In the event you come across a website with text stretched across the screen (most are), you can make it easier to read. This is especially important if your computer monitor, like mine, is a wide-screen television scree. You can force the text to appear in easily read bite-sized phrases. Just reset your browser width to force the text to appear in a narrow column. Click the "Restore" button in the upper right corner of the browser - the one between the "Minimize" and "Close" buttons - and stretch the browser window to a narrower width. Go ahead and try it. Open another web page (don't navigate away from mine, please) and experiment. You're back? Good. I hope you could see how much easier it is to read that way. Which brings me back to my golden rule of typesetting: That which is easier to read is more likely to be read. Oh yes, when you can read an entire line without moving your eye, place your finger in the center of the page (or column of text) and draw it straight down. This will guide your eye to remain in the center of the page taking in the whole line using your entire field of vision. Experienced speed-readers using this technique claim to read upwards of 10,000 words per minute with at least 50% comprehension! (No, I never got that good and I don't believe they did either.)
3 Comments
7/2/2012 02:20:08 am
Great advice, Jack. You have a genuine understanding of those little things, especially in typography, that makes a difference in the way we writers present our words to the public. I'm glad you're willing to pass them along.
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7/4/2012 10:25:31 pm
Great advice, thanks Jack! I never knew about the column/narrow width advantage, it makes sense!
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