Focus Reading is a new Jamworks feature that can help you to remain focused when reading text. Reading is an essential skill for all university students. Assignments and exams require you to not only read texts but also to understand, analyse and interpret them. From textbooks and research articles to lecture materials and notes, there’s no shortage of reading material. But, what if you struggle to simply focus on reading?
What is Focus Reading?
Have you ever used your finger or mouse to guide yourself when reading? Focus Reading is a tool for guiding your eyes along the text as you read. Simply put, the first few letters of a word are emphasised using a bold font. This acts as an artificial fixation point to draw your eyes to the next point of focus. Unlike other reading methods, such as speed reading, Focus Reading is an intuitive skill that can be achieved instantly without any prior training. It’s a simple typographical change that facilitates reading and helps you stay focused.
If you find reading text difficult or overwhelming, Focus Reading could be a game changer. It can be difficult to reach the stage of critical reading, thinking, or analysis if the text is hard to get through. Focus Reading provides a helping hand for a distraction-free reading experience. This reading method could also be particularly helpful for students with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The Theory Behind Focus Reading
This simple typographical change works because your brain reads faster than your eyes. Your brain, or more importantly, your memory only needs the first few letters to fill in the gaps. The bold font highlights what your brain needs to complete the word. These artificial fixation points act as a guide that allows you to read faster. Your brain can easily identify the next point of focus before your eyes have moved from the current word. Reading features like Focus Reading use this information to support your reading flow.
Your eyes do two things when reading, these are known as fixations and saccades. A fixation is where you take in information to identify the current letter, while saccades are eye movements between fixations. Research has shown that our visual attention actually shifts before eye movement occurs.
This is exactly what this reading method is based on. The fact that our brains are reading faster than our eyes are moving, that’s our visual attention. Your attention is allocated to one word or a portion of a word at a time to help you identify the letters. Although this is a simplified explanation of how visual processing works during reading, it matches the theory behind Focus Reading. You’ll also come across the terms ‘fixations’ and ‘saccades’ when using these reading tools, which we’ll share more about below.
Try it for Yourself
Naturally, having a better focus while reading can help you to get through the text faster. But more importantly, it helps you to actually progress through the text itself. The amount of information in academic papers and textbooks can be overwhelming and easy to lose track of. Those fixation points can provide you with a guide to keep your eyes and mind on track, like a gentle nudge in the right direction. The good news is – this reading format is so simple, quick to implement, and customisable, that you can just try it for yourself. Does reading this feel easier?
If this sample has sparked your curiosity, read on for some free tools that can help you to use this reading method. We’ll also outline how Jamworks utilises Focus Reading to make note-taking and studying accessibility friendly.
Jamworks for Focus Reading of Lecture Notes
Focus Reading is one of the many accessibility-friendly features offered by Jamworks. The power of Focus Reading in Jamworks is that you can now read your own personal notes, lecture transcripts, and AI-powered summaries using Focus Reading. There’s no need to take the extra steps of converting your notes using an additional extension.