How is incremental reading different from reading in your browser?

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From: Jakub
Country: {{{Country}}}
Sent: Jan 28, 2013
Subject: SuperMemo Adventures Blog

Question:

I've tried to read something about incremental reading but I didn't really get how it's different from just reading an article in my web browser, highlighting important points and then making flash cards out of them: http://supermemoadventures.blogspot.com/2013/01/incremental-reading-video.html

Hints

There are many differences. You cannot use your method easily if you have hundreds of articles, or if you read a very long article. You may employ various tools for bookmarks, highlights, read points, etc. However, you won't easily prioritize, sort, organize, schedule, re-prioritize, search & review, etc. The whole SuperMemo "engine" in the background is the most important component. For a larger volume of material, you will probably be just 5-10% as effective as with incremental reading (in the long run).

One advantage of using the browser: if you have to copy&paste your flashcards, you will create fewer of them and you will be more selective, which is always a difficult skill in incremental readers :)

Answer:

tools

In incremental reading you can use the following tools:

  • article prioritization
  • article scheduling
  • article sorting
  • read points
  • cloze deletions (simpler, faster and more accurate than multiple copy, paste and edit)
  • extracts that leave the trace of prior work, set read-points, schedule and prioritize most important pieces of information
  • search & review
  • many more (see: Minimum definition of incremental reading

In short, superficially, incremental reading may seem like a fancy way of reading in SuperMemo. However, on closer scrutiny, incremental reading is to browser reading like jet travel is to walking.

habit change

Incremental reading is likely to reduce your tolerance for:

  • texts with low information content (high prose, low fact)
  • poorly structured texts
  • texts with referential ambiguities
  • texts with low context reference
  • texts with poor information anchoring (needed for speed-reading)

Incremental reading will sharpen your skills in:

  • text selection
  • text prioritization
  • semantic/structural processing
  • mnemonic processing
  • speed-reading

see also