"Skittering" for faster reading

Skittering is a suberb technique for both reading faster and activation of materials that you have PhotoRead. While it was developed by Mike Bennett and incorporated into our Four Powers for Greatness: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening andPhotoReading courses, I've used a variation of it forever. I found it more useful than any speed reading technique. And even after learning PhotoReading, I use it for material that I typically do not PhotoRead. PhotoReaders who have strong preference for analytical thinking have reported they prefer skittering over "super reading and dipping" as an activation technique. I use them both, however I do tend to use skittering more on technical and instructional material. The term skittering describes a wild, dancing-about movement like that of a water bug on the surface of a pond. It involves rapid, erratic movement of your eyes through a paragraph to give your brain an opportunity to look at all of the words that support the paragraph's main premise. Here are the steps to use skittering as an activation technique. Play with it on other material, too.

• Read the first sentence of the paragraph you are going to skitter.
• Move your eyes in a rapid pattern over all the words in the paragraph, except those in the first and last sentence. Notice words that seem to support the premise in the first sentence.The movement of your eyes can follow a zigzag from top to bottom or bottom to top. It can follow circular pattern clockwise or counterclockwise and move from the center out or from the edges into the center. There is no set pattern, but you will discover a preference for one of them. Play with them all to find what works best for you. This movement gives your brain a chance to spot ideas that augment or add to the main concept in a paragraph.
• If the meaning of the paragraph remains unclear, read the last sentence. Continue this process through each succeeding paragraph until you near the end of the reading selection.

If you are a PhotoReader, when I said "read" up above, use the rhythmic perusal style of reading you do while "dipping." Now practice on a bunch of the bog posts! Pete