In the first half of 2022, on the eve of World Book Day, Yu Minhong and writer Yin Ye held a reading dialogue, discussing that "the role of reading is to make us not afraid of the unknown". In this in-depth conversation, Yu Minhong shared the benefits of reading: even if he is on the verge of collapse, as long as he reads, he has hope for the future in his heart, and he can persevere and achieve better results.
Everyone knows the value of reading. However, in an "era of double speed", in an environment of time fragmentation, huge information quantification, and work pressure, how should we read? No matter how busy he is at work, Yu Minhong insists on reading 100 books a year, and he shares three secrets of reading in "What You Do at the Right Time": enlightenment, intensive reading and extensive reading.
So, how do we master these three secrets? In fact, they correspond to different reading methods. There are many books on the market that introduce intensive reading and extensive reading, some talk about intensive reading, some talk about extensive reading, and some talk about both.
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In the last issue, I recommended the first book in the "Reading and Writing" series, "Learning to Read". Today I would like to introduce the second book in this series, Effective Reading: Flexibility, Strategies, and Techniques. The book introduces the methods of extensive reading, intensive reading and scanning, especially adding critical thinking at the end of each chapter, leading readers to think, comprehend, and form their own understanding.
"Effective Reading" is written by McWatt, a well-known American communication scholar, especially for college students and professionals. Together with its sister stories "Learn to Read", "Deep Reading" and "Reading and Writing", it has helped about one million students and professionals improve their reading, writing and critical thinking skills.
As we all know, to be successful in college and in the workplace, we must be able to understand a variety of reading materials and be effective. Because the more efficient you read, the richer and more accurate information you can get in the same amount of time than others.
The book has been selling well in the United States for 30 years and is now in its 10th edition. Compared to previous versions, it is more practical, providing comprehensive reading comprehension, memory, vocabulary development, critical reading, visual charting strategies, and scoring skills that have proven to be very important for professionals.
The book is divided into four modules, from shallow to deep, layer by layer, "forced" you to think, and it is very challenging to read.
01 What is effective reading?
Is reading effectively meant reading fast? This is not the case. In particular, the author emphasizes: "The way you read it is more important than how fast you read." ”
For example, if you read a 10,000-word reading material in 10 minutes, you only grasp 60% of what you read, while if you spend 20 minutes, you master 98% of the content. Well, you might as well spend 20 minutes reading it to be more productive. After all, the goal of reading is to get information, not to stop at "reading".
Therefore, efficient reading is to read fast and well, and master more content in the shortest possible time. In traditional Chinese culture, there are many idiom stories about reading, such as the idiom story "One Eye and Ten Lines".
This story takes place during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, when Emperor Wudi of Liang's third son, Emperor Jianwen Xiao Gang, was a gifted child when he was a child, and he was able to make good articles at the age of 6, which was praised by everyone. Xiao Gang is particularly good at reading, and he can read extremely quickly, and can "go down in ten lines". The "reading ten lines under the book" in the "Liangshu Jianwen Emperor Ji" is the source of the idiom one glance and ten lines.
When others need to understand word by word, Xiao Gang can see the main point at a glance. Therefore, "ten lines at a glance" means: being able to see ten lines at a glance, describing the speed of reading a book is very fast, and the effect is also very good. Because of his efficient reading, Xiao Gang has read all kinds of books and is very knowledgeable.
Some people may say that only gifted and intelligent people can achieve "ten lines at a glance", ordinary people cannot. In fact, after special training, ordinary people can also read efficiently.
02 Two strategies to help you improve your reading efficiency
American professional basketball player Byron Davis famously said, which translates to Chinese: "Along the old map, you can't find the New World." "It means that if you use the methods of the past, you can't get good results. This also clarifies that the goal determines the direction, and the direction determines the result.
This principle is used here to mean that in order to read effectively, you must use the right method. Reading strategy one: building a foundation for reading and learning.
There is a Chinese proverb: "Ten thousand tall buildings rise from the ground." "The meaning is that even the tallest buildings must be built from the ground and the foundation must be solid. It can be seen that we must first build a foundation for reading and learning in order to read effectively. The author summarizes from the following three aspects.
★ the principle of improving reading efficiency and improving reading flexibility; ★ Change from passive receiver to active reader: first understand the reading material, then think, question, challenge the author's point of view, and finally try to turn the reading material into your own material; ★ Increase vocabulary and enhance vocabulary comprehension, especially the ability to infer the meaning of new words based on contextual clues.
With the basic ability to read, the next step is to officially start reading the article. This is where a second reading strategy comes in: improving reading comprehension.
"Jianning Fu Jianyang County Long Beach Shecang Ji": "Although the beneficiary knows it, he may not know the reason. This is the origin of the idiom "know what you know and know why". When we read an article, we must first understand what the article is written about, and then we must know why the article is written the way it is.
"Effective Reading" summarizes the methods of reading and understanding the text and improving reading comprehension: ★ understand the paragraph, determine the theme of the paragraph, find out the topic sentence and primary and secondary details, and discover the hidden meaning behind the paragraph; ★ Textbooks, essays, articles, and technical materials all have different focuses; ★ Good at reading and interpreting visual diagrams.
To read effectively, strategy is not enough, we should also adopt corresponding skills. In this way, reading can achieve a multiplier effect with less effort.
03 Two tips to help you understand and evaluate the reading
Tip 1: Critically analyze and evaluate online data. In the face of a huge amount of reading materials, no one dares to guarantee that all of them are correct and fair. Therefore, we must have the ability to discern and discern.
The specific operation steps are: ★ inference based on the content of the reading, distinguish between true statements and different opinions; ★ Identify the author's tone, identify the author's goals, preferences, and biases; ★ Evaluate the authority, structure and layout of the reading materials, and determine whether there are logical errors in the reading materials.
The strategies and techniques discussed in Effective Reading are accompanied by detailed conceptual solutions and explanations of examples. More importantly, at the end of each chapter, in the Critical Thinking section, the author takes the reader to question whether the examples are feasible and whether the explanations are objective. This is what sets this book apart from many other reading books.
Few authors are willing to direct readers to question their own opinions in the book. The exercises attached to each chapter also help readers better digest what they have learned and master the method of effective reading.
After learning intensive reading and comprehension, the last module in "Effective Reading" briefly introduces extensive reading. This is also the second biggest technique in this book: skimming and scanning.
Skimming is reading only the sections or excerpts in an article that contain the most important information. Reading techniques vary depending on the reading material. In order to better understand skimming, the book also provides three reading materials, the author circles what should be read when skimming, you may wish to compare, whether you read these contents or not.
Scanning means reading only specific information, information that interests you. Similarly, for scanning, the author still lists all the scanning steps, accompanied by examples and reading exercise explanations, and teaches readers to master scanning by hand.
04 Write at the end: Reading is a process of self-practice
Warren Buffett, the world's top investment guru, loves to read books and reads a lot of newspapers and books every day. Reading keeps him sharp, and he rarely loses in the face of major investments. The same big coffee in the investment circle, Navarre's big name, knows a lot less people.
Nawal doesn't come from a wealthy family like Buffett. His family was poor and could not even continue his education for a time. When he immigrated to the United States from India, he had no money for his family and had to live in an unsafe area. So every day after school, Nawal went to the library to read and did not return home until it closed.
Navarre started working part-time at the age of 15, studying in the library and earning tuition while working. Reading enriched his knowledge, enriched his soul, and did not go astray in that negative region. Moreover, through reading, he rose from the bottom to the top and changed the fate of his life. There is a novel "There is a Tree in Brooklyn", and the protagonist in it is not a true portrayal of Navarre.
Reading books may not make us a top investor like Navarre, or a big entrepreneur like Yu Minhong, but everyone can be wise and sensible through reading. Life is a process of practice, and only by reading effectively and efficiently can we keep ourselves awake and have the confidence to face everything.