Evelyn Wood, a school teacher, was the pioneer of this early speed reading technique that is still as effective as ever. She noted that visual guidance of the eyes led to more efficient reading.

Any object that can work as a pointer can act as the guide for your eyes. You could use your finger or a pen to trace the sentences across a page as you read them. The motion focuses and directs your vision which leads to faster reading speeds. The pointer is mostly used to ‘underline’ the sentences as you read them but you can also ‘draw’ other patterns with it. The ‘invisible shapes’ you draw over the text help in expanding your visual span. However, even if you just lightly brush your hand downwards as you read down a page, it’s enough for your eyes to maintain focus and progression. Even though you can often see exaggerated depictions of people using pacers as they fly through books (quicker than most of us can turn pages), there has definitely been documented proof of the benefits of metaguiding- especially for speed reading beginners.

You can also use a pacer (such as a piece of paper or cardboard) to cover words as you read them and move it forward as you read on. The pacer will not only cover previous words (and therefore avoid regression- a speed reading obstacle discussed in the next lesson) but also act as the visual guide for your eyes. Supporters of the metaguiding technique also claim that it prevents subvocalizing (another barrier to speed reading).

If the material you are reading is on a computer screen, you already have a good enough pacer at your disposal: Your mouse.

Trace your mouse across the screen as you read text and it will guide your vision as well as prevent you from losing your place.
Pacers are also useful in many other speed reading techniques.

In fact, there is an exercise in this very course where you will use a pacer to assist your task.

While there are many supporters of the metaguiding technique, there are also a number of educationists who see it only as a useful tool for beginners. They argue that it ceases to improve your reading speed after you get to a certain level.

Nonetheless, using the metaguiding technique has worked for a number of speed reading hopefuls and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t for you as well. At any rate, its benefits for speed reading beginners are well documented.

With enough practice you can improve your following reading metrics: