How to Improve Your Reading Skills

Many people find reading a very hard and a demanding task that can take most of your time. It is a great exercise for the brain since it requires translating symbols into a language you understand. These steps my help improve the reading skills for the readers.

1. Find something to read. Examples include a children's book, a newspaper article, a short story, or something on on the internet.

2. Go to the library and pick up lots of books. Pick books depending on your reading level, no matter what your age. It should be something that you find interesting. Otherwise, you will not feel like sticking to it. Reading is about enjoying the experience while learning something.

You could choose interesting and easy-to-read books such as comic books, or more complex books like epic novels and non-fiction.

3 Find a place to read where you can concentrate. This may be someplace secret where no one will bother you, or simply your home at a time when it is quiet.

4. Schedule a time to read. Any time is a good time to read. But if you can set aside some time everyday, that will help in developing a reading habit.

5. Begin your reading by looking at the pictures in the book and maybe, listen to some music to set the atmosphere.

6. Start with titles, names, and other introductory sections in the book.Some books have a section with principal characters listed and some information about them. Or there could be maps depicting the place described in the book. Be sure to look at all that.

7. Read the page carefully. If you cannot speed read, then do not push yourself to read faster. The whole point of reading is to understand what the author is conveying. No sense in skimming through the content.
Ask yourself the five Ws- Why, What, Who, When, and Where. This will guide your reading.

8. Listen to audio books and follow the text at the same time. This can aid good pronunciation and word recognition.

Sound out each word as best you can based on what you hear. Remember, pronunciation of English words could be different depending on what type of English it is (American or British) and depending on the context (like heteronyms- project can be both verb and noun) and you will notice they form some sort of word.

9. Read as much as you are able. When you start getting bored or need a break, take one. Reading should be fun and enjoyable, don't force it. After your break, return to where you were, and continue.

10. Reread the material. It is okay to reread something if you do not understand it fully the first time.

11. Use context clues to find out a word's meaning. Context clues are when a person figures out the meaning of a word by seeing how the word was used in a sentence. For example, you were reading the following sentence and wanted to know what 'pessimist' means:My mother is always happy and optimistic, the total opposite of my brother, the pessimist. So from the sentence, you can gather that 'pessimist' means the opposite of happy, so pessimist means being moody and angry.

12. Memorize a text. Read that portion out in front of a mirror, out loud. Memorizing can improve your confidence with reading.

13. Reread. If you don't understand what you are reading, read the sentence(s) again. Try reading the words out loud to yourself. If you still don't understand something, ask a good reader nearby to explain the sentence(s) to you, or simply pick up a book that is easier to read and more appropriate to your reading level. Feel free to use your finger as a pointer. It will keep your eyes focused on the line you are reading, improving your understanding.

14. Keep reading. Try to read as much as you can in your free time. Reading will help you in lots of ways; your vocabulary will become larger and more sophisticated and you will notice your grades change for the better in school. Have fun reading!

Finally, I want to add that it is very common to not understand what you are reading. Give the reading your undivided attention. When you read concepts over and over again, it will enable you get detailed information you need. Write notes in your own words to clarify your understanding. Read a lot to improve your reading skills, including fiction which will usually reassure you that you have no problems understanding, it's more about the difficulty level in textbooks and scientific papers. Have breaks during reading, to give your eyes and mind a rest. Learn to evaluate yourself after every reading, to go over what you did and didn't understand. Most of all, don't feel you have to understand things immediately -- for most people that is unrealistic and it is in the struggle to grasp the meaning that real gains are made and even new insights.