Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading \& Learning Program pdfdrive com

A Supersonic Case Study
Before he discovered the Evelyn Wood method, our instructor Dan
Warner was a different person. As an English major in college, he
avoided classes which required term papers. He couldn’t take all the
extra reading he knew would be required before he sat down to write.
“Even if only four or five extra books were necessary, I actually felt
physically sick when I’d sit down to read the first book,” he recalled. “I
also knew I’d fall asleep trying to read.”
But after he took the Evelyn Wood course, his academic life, including
his paper-writing, was transformed. After spending a full day finding
information in the card catalogue and periodical guide, he ended up
with 104 books and 78 magazine articles as sources on his first post—
Evelyn Wood paper!
Then, instead of relying on the traditional index-card method of
recording information, he walked into the library with several legal-
sized notepads and a shopping bag. As he found information he needed,
he wrote his notes or recall patterns on the paper, ripped off each set of
notes when he was finished, and tossed the sheets into his shopping bag.
(As I’ve suggested in the previous section, he would always include a
complete reference on the paper for later footnotes.)
“If at any point in this process a thought came to my mind that
represented a developing personal opinion or insight, I’d jot it down,
write ‘Me’ on it, rip it off and throw it into the bag with everything else,”
he said.
Finally, when he had compiled all his research information, he

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dumped his research materials out on the floor in his room and began
sorting the notes and papers into clusters, according to the main topics
on the master recall pattern. Dan formulated a brief master recall pattern
so that he would have a clear statement in front of him of what the main
topics in the paper would be. Also, he determined the order in which he
wanted to discuss each topic.
When this clustering process was finished, he then lined up the
clusters in the order in which he wanted to present them in the paper.
Finally, he began stapling the papers to one another in their appropriate
sequence, with the top of each attached to the bottom of the one
preceding. (Clear tape would have done just as well.)
He placed several blank sheets of paper at the beginning and end of
the connected notes and also some blank paper between each of his
main topics. This way, he had space to draft a rough introduction and
conclusion and also to include transition sentences or paragraphs
between the main sections.
So what Dan ended up with was a continuous sheet of paper about
twenty feet long. Then, to make it more manageable and portable, he
rolled it up into a scroll. What he had as a result of this stringing
together of his notes was a kind of first draft of the manuscript.
Finally, Dan went through his note-scroll—i.e., he “post-viewed” it—
to see if everything was in order. At this point, he also jotted in an
introduction, his transitions, and a conclusion on the blank sheets of
paper he had inserted.
There are a number of advantages to this scroll technique. Suppose,
for example, that you forget to include any facts or observations. Or
perhaps you have discovered some material at the last minute, after the
scroll has already been constructed. In these situations, all you have to
do is take some scissors, clip through the scroll at the appropriate point,
and insert the new material with staples or tape.
Also, by using a scroll, you can put your research materials in
precisely the order you want for your first draft. In fact, as I’ve already
indicated, the scroll actually forms a kind of first draft.
Finally, when all one’s notes are attached in sequence, there tends to
be less rummaging around for misplaced materials as the drafting is
being done. Furthermore, it’s relatively easy to transport a scroll to a
library or some other facility outside your room and do work there.

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Now, with his scroll before him, Dan proceeded to type out his first
draft. He began at the top of the scroll, where he had jotted in the
introduction; unrolling the notes, he moved steadily through to the
conclusion. His draft of this term paper was forty pages long, complete
with footnotes and bibliography.
How long did it take him to write this first draft? Barely ten hours.
That’s four pages an hour—record time, when you consider that two to
three pages an hour is often considered a good pace by professional
writers.
“It was really just a matter of typing up what I already had on paper,”
he explained. “I didn’t have to worry much about organizing the paper,
inserting transitions or other such things. Those problems had already
been dealt with as I was stringing my notes together. That scroll really
did constitute a first draft for me.”
At this writing pace, Dan would have completed the first draft of a
twenty-page paper—the length that Beth wrote in our previous example
—in only five hours. Or a ten-page paper could have been done in two
and a half hours.
You can see the potential with this scroll approach, which is merely a
fine-tuning of the basic supersonic paper-writing techniques that I’ve
already described. In any event, whichever method you use, the main
idea is first to overview, preview and read the research materials at your
best speed.
Then, you should spend adequate time organizing your notes and
recall patterns in some fashion. The better job you do during this
reorganization and master recall pattern phase, the more quickly your
drafting will go. That was the beauty of Dan’s scroll technique.
Certainly, writing the paper requires time and thought. But effective
writing is much like effective reading or studying: The more thinking
and organizing you can do in advance, the easier it will be to reach
supersonic speeds, whatever the academic challenge happens to be.