Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I'm Lauren Smyth, and recently I was asked for tips on speed reading. For the record, I can speed read. At my maximum speed, I can read 1 to 2 hundred pages an hour, about 1000 words per minute, depending on how complex the topic is, and I can retain the information.

The key to this as best I can tell is turning off your internal narrator. Many people hear a voice inside their head as they read, which limits them to reading internally at about the same speed they would read aloud. Being able to read truly silently is a different skill than being able to read inside your head. Turning off that internal narrator involves seeing words as shapes rather than sounds. So basically you run your eyes across a sentence and determine from the contour of the letters the content of that sentence. Then, you run it through a little process in your brain that summarizes the sentence and turns it into a picture or a combined thought rather than a sentence with sound or rhythm. Basically, the key to speed reading is seeing a page as a whole picture and painting a visual summary in your head as you go.

I know that's very esoteric and hard to grasp. Truly, the key to speed reading is reading a lot and getting so familiar with English that you don't need to read a word aloud for it to make sense.

That's your Grammar Minute! Visit thegrammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.