10 Tips to Improve Your Reading Comprehension

Hi! Brian Dempsey here, and I just wanted to make a quick video to address a couple things that came up in a discussion on Facebook about reading and becoming a better reader and so as we kinda went through this thread online we were sharing some tips and ideas about how to improve our reading comprehension and so I thought I would share a few things that I do and maybe this will be a help to you. Number one when you read a book, and by the way we will title this video 10 tips to improve your reading comprehension, and so number one is from Benjamin Franklin himself and what he said was never read a book without a pen in hand and so on what took that to heart I hardly walk to a mailbox without having a book and a pen and so on if you have a pen in your hand no matter what you're reading you have the opportunity to underlined, highlight...personally I like to scribble, circle, argue with the author. If you read in the in columns in my book sometimes I write, well that's a great point or you're a blooming idiot or whatever. But I I really interact with the author as I write in book. And some people I know it makes your skin crawl to just think other writing a book but if you want to improve your reading comprehension the very first thing that i would do is take benjamin franklin's advice and never read a book without in your hand on another thing we talk about reading comprehension %uh number two is read a whole paragraph or a whole section before you go to highlight or underline something I'll I know sometimes I can get ahead of myself then all be reading through a book and utmost to the kinds of books that I read are not up they're not novels and nonfiction books and so their their little bit more %uh technical or or unit 4 study so long so sometimes we will begin reading and a very first line that you see that's interesting you want to highlight that and what I found is if you read the entire paragraph first a lot of times there may be a summary statement or there may be I'll %uh a little better information for you to highlight down in the paragraph a rather than just %uh breaking up your train of thought I'm so you may want to read a whole section first and then go back and find what you want to highlight and I think that'll help with the same reading comprehension another thing a bit I do I in fact I do it a lot is I read out loud and on if you read out loud you will read more slowly then if you read silently but there are times where up by reading out loud by reading with inflection you were able to job to have more sense is engaged in what you're reading so you're not just saying it but you're also I'll hearing what you're reading and that simply helps with reading comprehension is well and by the way iris study just today about I reading out loud and the study gave some great insights love the things that it mentioned was on if people read a list you like a list the items and one of those items was different than the rest maybe there was a list of 10 things and it was ten times and birds and lot or nine times byrd's and one was a sport people we tend to remember the sport and they would forget the other nine and so what it shows is those things that stand out those things that are somehow different tend to make up more than impression in our brain so a lot of times well do is if I'm reading I come across the paragraph that you is just a really solid something I really wanna get I'll stop an hour we that out what held and it really helps the set it apart in my thinking so %uh so there are times where you can read out loud so never read a book or yet never read a book without up in your hand read a whole paragraph per section before you go through and highlighter underline at times readout while and then also I read silently you know if we're gonna read out loud sometimes some tomfoolery silently and I'm I would encourage you if you do this we're talking about reading comprehension %uh read with a pencil read with a PN and simply check you to as you see something that stands out you see something interesting simple will check in the margin and that way you can keep reading this gives you the big picture a book and then you can go back through and look in and pay attention later to some other things that you you checked but I'm that will help improve your comprehension this next one I think is %uh something a lot of people just don't do and win your you're reading to study when you're reading and it's something that you really want to comprehend its not just enjoyment I'm something that I do %uh often in fact it probably makes you look pretty silly for somebody looking in my office or maybe I'm driving down the the road but if I read something I'll stopped into the paragraph written into the section at all went through it in my mind and sometimes I leave it hot through it out wild as if I'm explaining what I've read to someone I if you can formulate your thinking and not to be able to communicate that to someone else then it's just gonna increase your comprehension and if you do that throughout the book if you do that throughout your I study its its going to help us significant significantly so on so never read a book load up in your hand read the whole paragraph first at times readout while other time three silently and simply check things that are important explain what you re and then I'm this comes from a chapter in a book that I'm going to recommend here just a moment but learned X-ray book when we were talking about reading comprehension on recognize that it's okay not to read the entire book I in fact there are lots of books that i buy that I skim through the table of contents II look at the things that are going to be important to me especially if it's a compilation and them and I pick and choose the the sections of the book that I'm going to read and I it took me awhile to not feel guilty about not reading the whole book and only reading parts so it but doing bad debt by being more selective I was able to benefit much more then if I simply labored through on some things that presented information that at the time I just wasn't interested in so learn to pay attention to the table of contents and really pick out the areas that you want to read I'm also something that I tend to do is pay attention to summary words and summary words are things like a therefore or as a result or in conclusion I'm and make sure that when you see that you were able in your mind to know what his argument was what the author's argument was before he got to a summary because if you see a summary word and you don't understand the previous argument then you're not really comprehending mezzo I usually mark those Thomas summary word I'll underlined noun and I'm I'll go back and make sure that I know what the points are that are leading up to the authors conclusion and sometimes thought we find that you know he's made some kind a logical fallacy and really the points that he's brought forth can lead to other conclusions or maybe it's it's simply not conclusive on also something that I would encourage you to do isn't use highlighters or circle and underline key craze is in a book I'll take it I do that here here's an example love a book that I read just this past week and you can see bit boy I highlight and then you know I was reading and this particular book is on pluralism and so I'll right here's the word tolerance and then I will underline the key phrases are the key words within a sentence and I'm that really helps to to stand out it also helps when I highlight my underline when I finish a book up before I simply put it down to move on to the next thing I'm I typically pick it back up and go page for patient just look back through it and I will read what I've highlighted on I just don't understand folks personally who can read a book and they they don't mark in it they don't ride in it and then you know maybe but 1 keep all her maybe one thing that really stood out it simply lost in there two or three or four hundred-page book and i cant open it up and go back and find that and so I would encourage you eyeliner and p.m. I'm also when it comes to reading comprehension mark words that you don't know this is something that in some %uh is one to help increase your vocabulary I recently read Justin absolutely outstanding book called professor and a madman and if you can see the subtitle here the subtitle is I'll a tale of murder insanity and making at the Oxford English Dictionary so it is a book about the making up the dictionary so on I wasn't too surprised when there were 35 or 40 words in the first you know however many chapters of this book that I didn't know but I went through and circle every single solitary were denied it now and I was done up because this is not only Kendall on I simply went to dictionary not common spent spend a little bit I'm and looked up some of these words and have added a couple to my vocabulary a few days or a little archaic I'm bad I'm anyway fantastic thing to do circle words that you don't know finally up the last yet is read this book how to read a book and on more for Adler and charles van doren I absolutely outstanding and not love the things that this does is it it helps you %uh to be able to read local pool works and to compare them it hands the tip about X-ray notebook annual kinda understanding the authors on purpose in Golan not being able to evaluate a book to see if it's something that you want to read to begin with solana was this review no such intense real quick then number on throughout number one never read a book without up in your hand number two I read a whole paragraph before you go through and Highline or underline anything and that what you get the bigger context in sometimes can find the conclusions I'm at times when you need to read out loud your read more slowly but it will help you to remember that as you engage your senses I'm also reads I would and as you read silently simply use it a pencil in just check %uh key paragraph C you want to go back and read later explain what she really did learned too extreme book and realize that you don't have to read every single chapter on pay attention to summary words therefore as a result in conclusion circle and underlined key words and phrases in a sentence or in a paragraph um mark words that you don't know and look them up again if you have to take it is double clicked and it pops up the dictionary there and then finally read how to read a book I hope these tips are helpful to you and I'm my happy reading

Channel: 40SomethingStyle

Views: 989,668

Rating: 4.8587027 out of 5

Keywords: Book Reviews, Reading Comprehension, Become a Better Reader, Writing in Books, How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler, Charles Van Doren, Improve Reading, How to Improve Reading Skills, Reading, Reading Skills, Tips for Better Reading, How to Read, Learning to Read, Learn to Read

Id: WgbG5lo5Usg

Length: 12min 46sec (766 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 22 2012