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Reading is the communication of an idea via a certain channel, using a certain code. The decoding of the message involves perception and analysis of patterns - verbal and nonverbal; some people are better at this skill than others:
For example, try
printing this page and reading it upside down and see
if it makes any sense, or try reading it in a mirror;
then ask yourself if you have any difficulty adjusting to the
peculiar
text layout, which is known as right
aligned
For example, try printing this page and reading it upside down and see if it makes any sense, or try reading it in a mirror; then ask yourself if you have any difficulty adjusting to the peculiar text layout, which is known as right aligned.
[This is the same paragraph as the one above: the channel is the same {writing} but the code has changed.]
If you have difficulty reading any of this section, even if you have to dwell a pause and think twice, then have sympathy for others who do not read as well as you do - and if you do have to channel your communication in writing, consider different codes for doing it, according to the nature of the receiver.
In particular, remember KISS. All your receivers have much material to read and analyse - make it easy for them when they have to read your submissions or listen to you. Good graphic design - wide margins, effective use of headings, clear type on clean paper - logical flow of thought, clear enunciation - there must be many ways you can choose to overcome any barriers to your communications.
Effective reading as in speed reading, means controlling your eye movements. Speed varies according to your familiarity with the material. Some people can take in only a word at a time [they use a finger to run along the page sometimes], whereas others can take in a group of words, or a whole line. In the latter case, eye movement is vertical - fast readers move down the centre of the page and use peripheral vision to see words on the edges. If you are writing for others, bear in mind the advantages of a word processor in enabling speed reading: in some programs, you can assess the readablity of your work - look up Gunning Fog Index or Flesch Reading Ease in your reference books and see the examples below.
Comprehension is not always necessary, nor in detail. Depending on the level of comprehension required, readers may:
skim - as in a swimming pool - sweep the surface
scan - pick out particular leaves/twigs
summarise - vacuum the bits from the bottom, seek all the details.
Skimming will give the gist, show if a passage is relevant to their needs; scanning will give the main points, enable a broad brush review of the contents; summarising will enable a detailed report of the contents.
When readers pick up a manual, or SOP or leaflet, they first skim it to see what it is about; if it looks interesting, or if they have to work on it regardless, they scan it and note the main points; lastly, if necessary, they read it in detail. What you intended, as the writer, to be the key contents may not always be what the reader perceives - but if you are a good communicator, there should be no difference.
Talking of perception, many people cannot see the word on this page, and many see only an old woman or a young girl, not both. Two faces, or one vase? What do you perceive?
Listening is part of the communication process - and, as is usually the case, problems arise through differences in encoding and decoding. There are differing rates for speaking/listening: people can listen and assimilate material much faster than people can speak - how often do you supply ends to other people's sentences?
Boredom, frustration, and a rapid loss of concentration are the results when the listener is ahead of the speaker. So, whose fault is it if communication is not effective - the speaker's or the listener's ?
If you are the listener, then the following points apply; if you are the speaker, bear the points in mind for your listeners, and provide an environment that will enable them to listen effectively.
1. Preconceived ideas about the subject/person.
2. Distractions - `noise', movements, body language, information overload [being told more than you can cope with], conflicting priorities [being told something which conflicts with something else you have been told previously].
3. SEX [Sphere of Experience] - jargon, vocabulary, style of delivery; means that you and the speaker are not on the same level of knowledge - she is talking down to you [you know more than she realises], or she is talking above your head [she assumes you know more than you do].
4. Span of concentration - first 5 minutes are of great importance because interest level is high; people tend to concentrate in 20-40 second bursts, and then switch off for a brief spell [you are thinking of something entirely different whilst someone is talking to you]; speakers need
1. Remove distractors - irrelevant reading material, talkative friends
2. Listen for key points
3. Don't jump to conclusions, don't assume you will not learn anything
4. Jot down notes, whatever the subject, whatever your level of interest - pretend you have to give a review of the main points to a newspaper.
[As a talker. suggest your listeners do these things]
Computers not only have spelling checkers incorporated into their word processors, but they also have thesauri. Remember that, in your professional life, the person who signs accepts full responsibility for the contents!
And this latter point is most important - you have to choose how you want your work to look. You can use a spelling checker to check your finished draft, but you still have to make choices and to accept responsibility - for example, the computer is so stupid that it cannot recognise the fact that there are two tos - two toos - two twos ? Neither does it know the difference between their, there, and they're, nor even its, it's, and its'. [Do you?]
The thesaurus is very useful because you can look up vocabulary, when you have checked how to spell it correctly, and it suggests other words you could also use, such as lexicon, word-hoard, word-stock, dictionary, wordbook, language, dialect, idiom, terminology, jargon, cant, vernacular. Remember that your readers may not operate at the same level of literacy.
The words of any language can be divided into at least four parts:
1.the words you know - their meaning and how to spell them, the ones with which you are comfortable;
2.the words you recognise, having seen or heard before, but not sure how to spell or use correctly;
3.the words you rarely come across, might as well be in a foreign language!
4.all the rest - that you will never see or hear!
Whilst you are operating at the study level of comprehension, you will be bringing in many words from out of the cold, and moving them closer to the centre of your SEX.
You have to increase the number of words with which you are familiar, not only so that you can use them in the right place, but also so that you will not be fazed when you come across them elsewhere. And when you are writing, you will be able to use words that your readers will understand.
Readability is a combination of number of words/sentences/syllables and enables you to gauge roughly whether or not your work is suitable for the intended audience. Some textbooks describe time-consuming manual methods to work out the Gunning Fog Index or the Flesch Reading Ease Level - based on the average number of of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per 100 words.
Here are two summaries of the opening three paragraphs of this Vocabulary section - the first from Microsoft Word and the second from Nisus Writer, an excellent word processor for Macs.
Differences arise from the different ways these programs recognise 'characters','words', 'sentences' and 'paragraphs'. My manual count seems to indicate 8 sentences, and Claris Home Page, the program in which I am writing this page, says there are 172 words in the three paragraphs, so I am wary of the Word analysis. However, the final conclusion, which is what we are after, seems to indicate that a fairly high degree of literacy is required to understand the passage - because of the higher number of words per sentence, and the particularly long sentence of 44 words! There aren't many 'big' words - average length is 5 characters. I am pleased to see there no passive sentences.
The higher the Flesch Reading Ease, the easier the passage is to read on a scale of 1-100.
Work out the "SEX" of your audience, and write, or speak accordingly; as a general principle, use shorter words rather than longer ones, and keep your sentences crisp and your paragraphs to the point.
Check your "SEX" with regard to pronunciation and meaning of the following words:
aberration aesthetic aggravatealleviate ameliorate annihilate
assiduous augment bauble
benign malign burgeon
cantankerous circumlocutous circumventous
collusion allusion illusion
concur infer imply
connoisseur omniscient reminiscent
construe contend conject
consenus credulous covertous
dearth nadir decimate dependant dependent dissident
deteriorate derogate degenerate
digress regress egress discreet discrete disseminate
dissension dissident dissipate
dissuade persuade meld mitigate militate militant
eclectic elucidte eligible illegible plausible insatiable
embellish emulate encumber
enigma euphemism hyperbole
exhilaration exhortation exoneration
fulsome garrulous gregarious
homogeneous heterogeneous homogenised
hierarchy oligarchy monarchical
eminent imminent truculent
impropriety lucidity ostensibly
inculcate insinuate incinerate
rescind replete resonate
sonorous spurious superfluous
As you will no doubt have noticed, a few are not spelt [spelled?] correctly, and some do not really exist. You did notice, did you not?