Word Processing (Reading)

We are all word processors. We absorb, analyze, process, and digest words through reading. Reading is how we pass on knowledge and learn. Without it, we humans cannot go through further civilization and development. Its is also the reason we are the smarter species on earth beside possessing verbal reasoning. Therefore, reading can serve to improve general intelligence.

Reading can be differentiated into 3 categories, namely normal reading, speed reading and photoreading. Photoreading is a type of reading that cannot be done consciously. Here I will reveal how to use reading to improve your cognitive skills.

• Speed Reading - A normal mistake on speed reading is people scan and skim through the pages, leaving out unnecessary terms in order to grasp the whole meaning of the text. This method can increase your comprehension power but it does not improve your grammar and vocabulary. Instead, you should take in everything at your quickest pace while maintaining your fullest comprehension. Of course there will be confusion at first, but as your brain rewires itself to construct a shortest path to understanding, you will develop the ability to absorb information like a sponge.

• Higher Level Reading - Many people can be a fast reader. They can take in meanings in a flash. But still their initial intelligence don't go any further. Here is the fact. If you can read through a material effortlessly, it is too easy for you. I have friends who are fiction enthusiast, completing books after books in days. But they still have problems in their studies. What is happening is the level of difficulty in textbooks or any educational non-fiction far surpasses the everyday language used in fiction nowadays. The best way to improve your reading beyond your initial skills is to pick materials that you cannot read easily without stopping to think for a moment. Pick classics or literature for this purpose.

• Unconventional Reading - Read the text upside down. This does two things. Firstly you are reading from right to left. Secondly you are dealing with the words as if they are new symbols and translating it into known words. This simple adjustment takes you to a new approach to reading, thus greatly enhancing your word recognition when it comes to normal reading.
  

As your reading skills improve, anything academic or intellectual will feel easier. You will be literally 'upgrading' your mind's processor to run faster and better, i.e. increasing your intelligence.