[stylist] Speed reading audibly

Sat Jan 7 22:34:41 UTC 2012

Vegas,
Never have I agreed more than in what Robert has just told you.
I took Braille for just two years and had to give it up because of
peripheral neuropathy in my hands. But those two years were a miracle of
learning things I had only subliminally been conscious of before. The very
way things are presented teaches one so much about how words are formed,
spelled, and it reinforces everything you might know about capitalization
and punctuation.
Keep at it while you have those young and sensitive fingers.
Jackie

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Robert Leslie Newman
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 9:32 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Speed reading audibly

Vejas 

I too read Braille as you describe. And hey dude! Don't be giving up your
reading by Braille; if anything, increase your speed. Sure, doing the audio
is an okay method for reading, but the person who reads only that (not
saying that you were talking about giving up Braille and not saying that
Bridgit and Chris do not read some braille), but the audio reader loses much
that is important about writing. Like knowing about format, never seeing how
words are spelled, don't learn about proper placement of punctuation, and
--- well, in reading Braille and print, you get all the detail about the
presentation of the written word. (Sure, reading by means of a computer with
speech output, you can, with a lot of work, learn about formatting,
spelling, punctuation, and all that. 

And there is something to be said about active verses passive
reading/learning. Active is reading by sight and/or touch, there is more
mental processing in these two methods. Audio is passive, you make little to
no effort. 

Think about this, before the written word, we had what was called the oral
tradition. That was all audio, someone speaking stories aloud or whatever,
and the learner just listened to it. 

Oh my --- enough on this for now!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Barbara Hammel
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 10:06 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Speed reading audibly

Vejas, actually you are reading the correct way.  However, many of us are
lazy Braille readers and read with only one hand.  I can read much faster
the way you describe but I'm a right-handed reader.  I am a lefty so I
usually say my left hand is the doer and my right hand is my eyes.  I use it
to read, to see if food is done to texture, to see details in an object
handed to me.
Barbara

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. --
Max Lucado -----Original Message-----
From: vejas
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 8:13 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Speed reading audibly

When you read Braille, what hands do you use to read with?
I start off and read the first few words with my left hand, then finish off
with my right hand and put my left hand in the beginning of the line.  I've
heard it's more proficient to read with your left hand, but it's hard for me
because I'm right-handed.  It's funny how I didn't really think about what
hands I'm reading with, until in fourth grade one of my teachers asked,
"Which fingers are you using?" Does it really matter? I guess, to people who
read with their eyes, they have no idea.
Vejas

----- Original Message -----
From: Bridgit Pollpeter <bpollpeter at hotmail.com
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 19:14:27 -0600
Subject: [stylist] Speed reading audibly

Jackie, Chris and others,

Chris, like you, I listen to most books on an accelerated speed.
With my
Victor Stream, it's usually set on speed 6 or 7, though I too will slow it
down if I really want to absorb material.  When sighted, I was a speed
reader and could finish print material quicker than most.  After losing my
sight, it was an adjustment at first especially since I'm a kinesthetic
learner, but eventually I adjusted to taking in info audibly.  I do know
Braille, but again, like you, Chris, I'm a slow Braille reader, sadly, but
also, so much more is available in audio formats instead of Braille.  We see
this more and more.  My first semester back to school, I had to slow any
reading material down whether it was narrated audio or electronic.  I
learned pretty quick though especially considering my major was creative
writing, and the majority of my homework was reading as well as writing.  I
can now read through things at a pretty good clip even with JAWS.  I
currently have JAWS set on 60% with the speed, though I know a few who have
it set even higher.
I still
will slow things down a bit when really trying to absorb material especially
when editing.  I heard a blind student from Canada once explain that, much
like everything done nonvisually, speed reading audibly is no different than
speed reading visually; you are just using a different medium in which to
read.  I guess it's like reading a newspaper to get the news compared to
watching television programs geared towards the news.  Same info, different
medium.  All I know for sure is the more you use and do something, the
better you will become.
Not everyone will read audio at accelerated rates, or at least not as high
of speeds a some, but the same goes for sighted people; I once could read
print faster than most people I knew, and absorb what I had just read, but
again, not everyone could read at a similar rate.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 13:31:03 -0700
From: "Jacqueline Williams" <jackieleepoet at cox.net
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [stylist] what I've been reading...
Message-ID: <DE206D8045B54F31BCC9E3DD0B779D11 at JackiLeePoet
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Chris,
I get Choice magazine, and just got my new copy.  I find it has excellent
selections.  Your book list is varied, and exciting.  I do not know how it
is possible to be such a prolific reader to finish so many books.
Are
they all recorded or digital books? That is to say do you listen?
Or do
you have enough sight to read them.  The reason I ask is that even if I am
listening to a riveting
book, I fall   asleep after forty minutes or so.  How can you be
a speed
reader with a taped selection.
Your books are exciting enough to keep most on the edge of their seats.
Admiration abounds.  Jackie

Message: 8
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 16:05:24 -0500
From: "Chris Kuell" <ckuell at comcast.net
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [stylist] what I've been reading...
Message-ID: <C5427CDDC16143D59CCEAEA33FB7E384 at ChrisPC
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Hey Jackie,

No, I'm totally blind, and read exclusively by audio books.  I know braille,
but read at a snails pace.  I have both a tape player and digital book
player in my kitchen, so I listen to magazines primarily when I'm cooking
and cleaning and eating lunch (Newsweek, Choice, Braille Monitor, The
writer, Dialogue).  I have a VR Stream for downloading books from NLS, and I
listen when doing housework, gardening, sometimes in the evening if my
family is engaged in stupid TV, and every night before bed.  I'm also a bit
of an insomniac, so it's not uncommon for me to lay in bed listening to a
book at
4 in the morning.  I do read a bit faster than the average person would like
to listen, but not so fast I can't pick up all that's going on.
And with

non-fiction, sometimes I'll go back and re-read sections to be sure I
understand what's been read.

Having free audio books and the time to read them is number one on my list
of benefits of being blind.

Chris

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