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

Principle 4:
Understand the gestalt of what you read.
“Gestalt” is a German word meaning the shape, form or basic structure
of a thing—in our case, of a book, article or other reading matter. In the
Evelyn Wood technique for reading and learning, gestalt refers to the
whole of a text, or the big picture of what has to be absorbed by the
student.
The main idea is that before beginning to read, you should first get a
sense of what the entire book is about. Among other things, you should
determine such things as who the author is, the main purpose of the
book, the general range of the subject matter or content, the tone or
emotional thrust of the work (i.e., the extent to which the author is
trying to convey erudition, excitement, passion, or some other emotion
or message) and how the book fits into the course as a whole. You can
determine the gestalt simply by employing the overview method—the
first step of the layering technique.
Layering, or the Multiple Reading Process, involves five steps: 1.
overview; 2. preview; 3. read; 4. postview; and 5. review. Here, in more
detail, is what happens as you move through each step.
Overview:
This procedure involves looking the entire book over quickly
to determine its organization, structure and tone. The main goal is to
understand the gestalt—the main thrust or big picture—of the book.
Among other things, you should check what the cover and jacket copy
say about the contents and the author. Also, you should see if there’s a
preface and introduction, and if so, look them over quickly to get the
gist of the text. As part of this preliminary perusal, it’s helpful to note
the identity of the publisher and the date of publication. In addition, the
overview should include a look at the table of contents as an aid in
determining the organization of the book.
To complete the overview, flip quickly through the pages, at the rate
of about one second per page. (For example, with a three-hundred-page
book, this part of the overview would take about five minutes.)
During this flip-through, you needn’t worry about reading, but should
constantly be asking questions of the material:

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• How hard is the book to read?
• Is there any special or difficult terminology?
• Is there a glossary? (In technical books or texts that demand an
advanced vocabulary, it’s important to know if the author has
included a glossary. A listing and definition of tough words in the
book itself is generally easier to use than a large or specialized
dictionary.)
• Do the chapters tend to be short or long?
• Does each chapter have a helpful introduction or summary? (If so, it
would be wise to focus on those sections in later exposures to the
material.)
• Does the author pose questions at any point in the text?
• Are there maps, graphs, charts or other pictured materials?
• Does the author use subheadings? (If so, they may act as a useful guide
through the text.)
Finally, when you’ve completed your overview, you should step back
and set your goals for further reading. To this end, it’s helpful to pose
some other pointed questions, such as the following:
• What exactly do you need to learn from the text?
• What are you likely to be tested on (or be required to use for your
research paper)?
• How much of the book do you expect you’ll be responsible for—e.g., is
it a secondary text or the main one your teacher is using?
With a normal-sized book, overviewing will take no more than about
five to ten minutes.