Lesson 6: Writing Styles

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Using fixation, skimming, and scanning, you can now take advantage of some common writing styles to read even faster. Writing styles contribute to writing structure, and the better the style, the better the structure. That’s especially good news for speed-readers since reading rate increases with good structure, i.e. predictable text. When you know what to expect, you’ll read faster hands down. So let’s investigate what you can expect (and consequently skip since you know it’s already there)!

Cause-and-effect and Compare and contrast. In cause-and-effect writing, an author will first introduce a phenomenon and then explain what caused that phenomenon. In compare-and-contrast writing, an author will introduce an idea and then follow up with a contrary idea. To speed-read these styles of writing, skim for phenomena in the first sentence of each paragraph and then scan for signal words that indicate an explanation or a contradiction is coming up.

Some common cause and effect signal words are “as, because, consequently, since, therefore, and thus.” Common comparison signal words are “and, by comparison, likewise, similarly, etc.” Common contrast signal words are “although, but, conversely, despite, however, instead, in opposition, on the other hand, etc.”

You may find these signal words through skimming or scanning. Use them as decision points once they’re found, and then decide whether the information following them is necessary to read. Chances are you may already know or not particularly care about what follows. Save time by skipping it.

Chronological. In chronological writing, an author presents material in time order. Speed-reading this type of material is a breeze when you scan for time oriented signal words such as first, second, next, etc.

Division-and-subdivision. In division-and-subdivision writing, an author will introduce a series of topics and then break those topics into subtopics. This style of writing is most identifiable when it uses headings and subheadings to introduce accompanying topics and subtopics. When present, you can use the headings and subheadings as scanning or skimming material. Without headings and subheadings, you’ll have to skim the first and last sentences of the paragraphs to glean important information.

Examples and the Conclusion

Examples. With examples, an author makes a point and then attempts to prove that point with a number of relevant illustrations. You can skip these as well as long as you fully understand the author’s points. Some common example signal words are “as an example, for example, for instance, etc.”

Conclusion. In the conclusion, an author wraps up all of his or her ideas in a condense summary. If you understood an author’s point up to this part of the writing, there’s no need to re-understand it all over again. Some common conclusion signal words are “as a result, consequently, finally, in short, etc.”