Chapter 6 Chapter 4 The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional Reading

Inspectional reading is the real level of reading.This is quite different from the previous level (fundamental reading), and also very different from the next level (analytical reading) that comes naturally.But, as we emphasized in Chapter 2, levels of reading are cumulative.Therefore, basic reading is included in inspectional reading, which in fact is included in analytical reading, and analytical reading is included in thematic reading. In fact, unless you are proficient in basic reading, you cannot advance to the level of inspectional reading.You have to be comfortable reading an author's work without stopping to check the meaning of many new words, and without being hindered by grammar or structure.Although it is not necessary to read every sentence and every word thoroughly, you can already grasp the meaning of the main sentences and chapters.

So, what exactly is included in inspectional reading?How can you develop inspectional reading skills? The first thing to understand is that there are two types of inspectional reading.Originally, this is a matter of two sides, but for a beginning reader, it is best to distinguish the two as different steps and activities.Experienced readers have learned to use both steps at the same time, but for now, let's keep them completely separate. ※ Inspectional reading one: systematic skimming or rough reading Let's go back to some of the basic states we mentioned earlier.This is a book, or any reading, and that is your mind.what's the first thing you do

Let us also assume that there are two other fairly common factors in this case.First, you don't know whether you want to read the book or not.You also don't know if the book is worth analytical reading.But you feel that, or if you can dig it out, the information and opinions in the book will at least be useful to you. Second, let's assume—as is often the case—that you want to discover it all, but have limited time. In this case, what you must do is to "skim" the entire book, or what some people call a pre-read.Skimming or rough reading is the first sublevel of inspectional reading.The goal in your mind is to discover whether the book is worth the extra time to read it carefully.Second, even if you decide not to spend any more time reading the book carefully, skimming can tell you a lot about the book.

Reading a book with this quick glance is like a threshing process, helping you filter the real nutritious kernels from the chaff.As you browse through, you may find that this book is only useful to you right now.This book is worth nothing more than that.But at least you know what the author's important claim is, or what kind of book he is writing.So the time you spend skimming this book is by no means wasted. The habit of skimming shouldn't take too long.Here are some suggestions on how to do it: (1) Read the title page first, and then read the sequence if it is in order.To look over quickly.Pay special attention to subtitles, or other relevant instructions or purposes, or the author's particular angle of approach to writing the book.Before completing this step, you already have an idea of ​​the book's topic.You pause, if you will, and place the book in a certain genre in your mind.And within that genre, which books are already included.

(2) Study the table of contents page and get a general understanding of the basic structure of the book.It's like looking at a map before setting off on a trip.It's amazing how many people don't even glance at the table of contents unless they really need the book.In fact, many authors spend a lot of time creating catalog pages, and it's sad to think that all this effort is often wasted. Usually, a book, especially some expository books, will have a table of contents, but sometimes novels or poetry collections will also write a full-page outline table of contents.For example, when writing (Paradise Lost), Milton (John Milton) wrote very long titles for each chapter, or what he called "arguments".Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published by Edward Gibbon, has a long analytical outline for each chapter.These days, while you still occasionally see some analytical compendiums, it's not common anymore.The reason for this decline is that the average person doesn't seem to enjoy reading catalog compendiums as much as they once did.At the same time, publishers also feel that the less revealing the outline of the content is, the more attractive it is to readers than a book with a completely open and honest table of contents.As for readers, they find it more attractive if a book's chapter titles are somewhat mysterious—they want to read the book to find out what those chapters are about.Even so, the table of contents outline is valuable, and you should read the table of contents carefully before you start reading the entire book.

Speaking of which, if you haven't read the table of contents for this book, you might want to go back and read it. We've tried to make it as complete and as clear as possible.Take a look at this catalog page and you'll see what we're trying to do. (3) If there is an index in the book, check it too - most expository books will have an index.Do a quick assessment of the range of topics covered in the book, the kinds of books and authors mentioned, etc.If you find any of the terms listed to be important, at least look at some of the pages that cite the term. (We will talk about the important issue of vocabulary in the second part. For the time being, you must first rely on your common sense and identify the important vocabulary in a book according to the first and second steps mentioned above.) What do you think? The passage read may well be a gist—the pivotal point of the book—or a new way of relating to the author's intentions and attitudes.

As with the table of contents, you may now want to check the index for this book.You'll recognize some of the important terms we've already discussed.Can you find some other terms that are also important? - For example, how many cited pages are listed under the heading? (4) If it's a new book in a book jacket, read the publisher's introduction.Many people have the impression that advertising copy is nothing more than bragging and exaggeration.But this is often biased, especially for some expository works. Generally speaking, the promotional texts of many books are written by the authors themselves with the assistance of the corporate publicity department of the publishing company.It is not uncommon for these authors to try their best to summarize the main ideas of the book correctly.These efforts should not be ignored.Of course, if the promotional copy doesn't mention any key points and is just bragging, you can easily see through it.However, it also helps that you get to know the book a little bit more, maybe it has nothing important to say about it at all - which is why their promotional copy has nothing to do with it.

After completing these four steps, you have enough information about a book to judge whether you want to read it more carefully, or if you don't want to read it at all.In either case, you're probably going to put the book aside for a while right now.If not, now you're ready to actually skim a book. (5) From your rough or even vague impression of the table of contents of a book, start to pick a few chapters that seem to be closely related to the theme.If the chapters have summary notes at the beginning or end (and many do), read those notes carefully. (6) The last step is to open the book, flip through it, and read a paragraph or two.Sometimes read a few pages in a row, but not too much.Just go through the book in this way, looking for the signal of the main argument at any time, paying attention to the basic pulse of the theme.Most importantly, don't ignore the last two or three pages.Even if there is an epilogue at the end, the last two or three pages of a book cannot be ignored.Few authors resist the temptation not to restate in the concluding pages what they consider to be both new and important ideas.Although sometimes the author's own opinion may not be correct, but you should not miss this part.

You have now systematically skimmed a book.You have completed the first type of inspectional reading.Now, in a few minutes, maybe an hour at most, you've learned a lot about this book.In particular, you should know whether this book contains content that you want to continue to dig, and is it worth your time and attention?You should also be clearer than before, which category this book should be classified in your mind, so that you can refer to it when you need it in the future. On a side note, this is a very active read.A person cannot do inspectional reading without being flexible enough to concentrate on reading.How many times have you read a good book, flipped through several pages, but your mind fell into a daydream state, and when you woke up, you had no idea what the pages you just read were talking about?If you follow the steps we propose, this will never happen - because you will always have a system that follows the author's line of thought.

You can think of yourself as a detective looking for clues to a book's theme or idea.Being sensitive at all times makes it easy to make everything clear.Heeding the suggestions we have made will help you maintain this attitude.You'll be amazed at how much more time you've saved, glad you've grasped more points, and relieved that reading is easier than you thought. ※ Inspectional reading 2: superficial reading The title of this section is deliberately provocative. The word "superficial" often has negative associations.But we take these two words very seriously. Each of us has had the experience of setting high expectations on a difficult book, thinking it will inspire us, only to struggle in vain.Naturally, we come to the conclusion that it was a mistake to try to read this book in the first place.But that's not a mistake, it's just that you expect too much from a difficult book from the start.As long as you find the right direction, no matter how difficult the book is, as long as it is originally intended to be read by general readers, then there should be no reason to be discouraged.

What is the right direction?The answer is an important and helpful reading rule, but one that is often overlooked.The rule is simple: when confronted with a difficult book for the first time, read it from cover to cover, without pausing to look up or think about something you don't understand. Pay attention only to what you can understand, and don't pause for something you don't immediately understand.Keep reading, skip the parts you don't understand, and soon you will read the parts you understand.Concentrate on this part.Read on like this.Read the entire book without being held back or discouraged by a chapter, note, comment, or reference that you don't understand.If you allow yourself to be trapped, if you allow yourself to be tied down by a stubborn passage, you are defeated.In most cases, once you get entangled with it, it is very difficult to get out.You may know a little more about the place on the second reading, but before that you have to read the book at least once from cover to cover. What you understand after reading it cover to cover—even if it’s only 50% or less—will help you improve your understanding later when you reread sections you skipped the first time.Even if you don't reread it, knowing half of a difficult book is better than knowing nothing at all—if you allow yourself to stop at the first difficulty, you may end up feeling really good about the book. I don't know anything about it. Most of us have been taught to pay attention to what we don't understand.We are taught that when we encounter a new word, we look it up in the dictionary.We are taught to look up an encyclopedia or other relevant source whenever we come across a metaphor or statement that we do not understand.We are taught to look up footnotes, scholarly notes, or other secondary sources for help.But doing these things when the time is short will only hinder our reading, not help it. For example, reading Shakespeare's plays, will get great pleasure.But generations of high school students have been forced to read "Julius Caesar," "As You Like It" (As YouLike) scene by scene, word by word, and scholarly footnote by footnote. It) or Hamlet, the joy is spoiled.The result is that they never actually read Shakespeare's plays.By the time they read to the end, they have forgotten what the beginning was, and they have no insight into the meaning of the whole play.Rather than forcing them to accept this stilted erudite reading, encourage them to read the entire play in one sitting and then discuss what they have gained on their first quick read.Only in this way can they be considered ready to study the script carefully and attentively.Because they already know a lot about it, they are ready to learn something new. This rule also applies to expository works.In fact, the rule of superficial reading the first time you read such a book is quite self-evident when you violate it.Take a basic book on economics, such as Adam Smith's classic The Wealth of Nations (we'll pick this one because it's not just a A textbook, or a book for economists, which is also a book for general readers), if you insist on understanding the meaning of each page before you read any further, you will not read much.When you try to understand the finer points, you miss the big principles that Smith articulated so clearly: the factors of wages, rents, profits, and interest included in costs, the role of markets in pricing, the role of monopolies harm, the case for free trade, and so on.It is impossible for you to read well at any level. ※ Reading speed In Chapter 2, we talked about inspectional reading as the art of fully understanding a book in a limited amount of time.In this chapter we will take this matter further, and there is no reason to change this definition.Both styles of inspectional reading require rapid reading.When a proficient inspectional reader wants to read a book, no matter how difficult or long the book is, he can use these two methods to finish it quickly. Regarding the definition of this method, a question will inevitably arise: So what is speed reading?Now that there are speed-reading courses in both business and academia, what is the relationship between the level of reading and the many speed-reading courses? We've already said that those courses are mostly remedial—because what they offer is mostly, if not all, instruction at the basic reading level.But that's a little bit more. The first thing we need to understand is that we can all agree that most people should be able to read a little bit faster than they do now.What's more, there are many things that are not worth our time to read.If we can't read faster, we are wasting our time.It is true that many people read too slowly and should read faster.However, there are also many people who read too fast and should slow down.A good speed-reading course should teach you different reading speeds, rather than blindly trying to be fast while ignoring the level you can currently master.It should allow you to read at different speeds according to the nature and complexity of the reading material. Our focus is really simple.Many books are not even worth skimming, and others just need to be read quickly.There are a few books that require a certain speed, usually a fairly slow one, to be fully understood.Reading a book that only needs to be read quickly but reading it slowly is a waste of time, and speed-reading techniques can help you solve the problem.But that's just one type of reading problem.To understand a difficult book, the barriers involved are not comparable or even covered by the so-called physical or psychological barriers.These obstacles arise largely because the reader is completely clueless as to what to do when confronted with a difficult—and worth reading—book.He does not know the rules of reading, nor does he know how to use the powers of mind to do it.No matter how fast he reads, he won't get more, because in fact, he doesn't know what he is looking for, and even if he finds it, he doesn't know whether it is what he wants. The so-called reading speed, ideally speaking, is not only to be able to read fast, but also to be able to read at different speeds-to know when to use which speed is appropriate.Inspectional reading is trained speed reading, but not just because you read fast—although you do—but because you read only a small portion of the book when you inspect it, and It is to read in a different way, with a different goal.Analytical reading is usually slower than inspectional reading, but even if you get a book to read analytically, you shouldn't finish it at the same pace.Every book, no matter how difficult, can be read a little faster in the insignificant breaks.And a good book will always contain some difficult content that should be read slowly. ※ Stay and retreat Over half a century, speed-reading courses have led us to one of the most significant discoveries: Many people will use the "semi-vocal" (sub-vocalize) way to read for many years after they first learn to read.In addition, filmed eye movements show that young or untrained readers "fix-ate" at five or six places while reading a line. (The eyes cannot see when they are moving, but can only see when they stop.) Therefore, when they read this line of characters, they can only see single characters or combinations of at most two or three characters at intervals.To make matters worse, after reading two or three lines, the eyes of these unskilled readers naturally "regress" to the original point-that is, they will regress to the previous sentence and line. went. All these habits are not only wasteful but obviously slow down the speed of reading.It's a waste because our minds, unlike our eyes, don't need to "read" one word or sentence at a time.Our minds are amazing tools, capable of grasping a sentence or a paragraph "at a glance"—as long as the eyes provide enough information.The main lesson, therefore--and all speed-reading courses need to recognize this--is to correct the habit that many people "linger," "backwards," while reading, which slows them down.Fortunately, it's fairly easy to break this habit.Once corrected, the student is able to read with the speed of the brain rather than the slow motion of the eyes. There are many kinds of tools for correcting eye lingering, some of which are complicated and expensive.In any case, any complex tool is actually not as useful as your hands, which you can use to train your eyes to move faster and faster from chapter to paragraph.You can do this kind of training by yourself: put your thumb, index finger, and middle finger together, and use this "pointer" to move along the lines of words at a faster speed than your eyes can feel.Force your eyes to follow the movements of your hands.Once your eyes can follow your hands, you can read the words.Continue to practice, continue to increase the speed of hand movements, and before you realize it, your speed can already be two or three times faster than before. ※ Problems of understanding But after you noticeably increase your reading speed, what exactly do you gain?Yes, you saved some time, but what about comprehension?Is the same enhanced, or is there nothing to gain in such progress? ．As far as we know, there is no speed reading program that does not claim that as reading speed increases, comprehension also increases.On the whole, such a statement does have some basis.Our hand (or other tool) is like a timer, not only responsible for increasing your reading speed, but also helping you focus on what you are reading.Once you can follow your fingers, it's hard to doze off or daydream.So far so good.Concentration is another name for active reading.An excellent reader reads actively and attentively. But concentration does not necessarily equal comprehension—if everyone has not misunderstood "comprehension".Comprehension is a little more than answering some simple questions about the content of books.That limited comprehension is only the degree to which elementary school students can answer questions such as "What is this talking about?" A reader must be able to answer many further questions correctly to show a higher level of comprehension, and This is something that speed-reading courses do not require, and there is little guidance on how to answer this type of question. In order to make it clearer, use an article as an example.Let's use the Declaration of Independence as an example.You may have this article handy, so take it out and have a look.The article was less than three pages long in print.How quickly can you read the entire text? The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence ends with: "To prove this, furnish the just world with some facts." The next two pages are some "facts."It seems that some parts seem quite suspicious, so you might as well read it quickly.We don't need to go in-depth to understand what the facts Jefferson quoted, of course, unless you are a scholar, you are very concerned about the historical background of what he wrote, which is naturally another matter.Even the last stanza, which ends with the famously just statement that the singers "recite to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our divine glory." This, too, can be read quickly.That's some rhetorical flamboyance, and deserves rhetorical attention alone.But reading the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence requires more than just a quick read. We doubt anyone can read the first two paragraphs at a rate of more than twenty words a minute.Indeed, some words in the famous second paragraph, such as "inalienable", "right", "liberty", "happiness", "consent", "power of justice", are worthy of repeated pondering, scrutiny and contemplation.To fully understand the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, read correctly, takes days, weeks, or even years. In this way, the problem of speed reading lies in comprehension.In fact, the so-called comprehension here is the comprehension beyond the basic reading level, which is also the root of the problem.Most speed reading courses do not include instruction in this area.It is, therefore, worth emphasizing here that it is this reading comprehension that this book seeks to improve.You cannot understand a book without reading it analytically.As we said earlier, analytical reading is the basic requirement for understanding (or knowing) a book. ※ View the summary of reading The following short sentences are the summary of this chapter.There is not only one speed of reading, the key point is how to read different speed senses and know what speed to use when reading a certain reading.Superfast speed reading is a dubious achievement, it just means you're reading something that's not worth reading at all.A better recipe is this: in reading a book, should it be too slow to be worthwhile, or too fast to be detrimental to satisfaction and comprehension.In any case, the speed of reading, whether fast or slow, is only a small part of the reading problem. It's always a good idea to skim or roughly read a book.Especially when you don't know whether a book at hand is worthy of careful reading (which often happens), you must skim it first.After skimming it, it will be clear to you.Generally speaking, even if you want to read the book carefully, you should skim it first to find some ideas from the basic structure. Finally, when reading a difficult book for the first time, don't try to understand every word.This is the most important rule.This is also the basic concept of inspectional reading.Don't be afraid, or worry that you seem to be reading superficially.Read even the most difficult books quickly.When you read it a second time, you'll be ready to read the book. We have fully discussed the second level of reading—inspectional reading.We will discuss the same topic again in Part Four, and we will mention how important inspectional reading plays in thematic reading.Thematic reading is the fourth and highest level of reading. In any case, you should keep in mind that when we discuss the third level of reading—analytical reading—in Part Two of this book, inspectional reading still has an important function at that level.Both steps of inspectional reading can be regarded as preparatory actions before starting to do analytical reading.The first stage of inspectional reading—what we call systematic skimming or rough reading—helps the reader analyze the questions that must be answered at this stage.In other words, systematic skimming is preparation to understand the structure of the book.The second stage of inspectional reading—what we call superficial reading—helps the reader enter the second stage of analytical reading.Superficial reading is the first necessary step for readers to understand the content of the book. Before we start discussing analytical reading, let's pause for a second and consider that reading is an activity by its very nature.To read well, an active, self-demanding reader, takes some action.In the next chapter, we'll talk.