There are a number of bad habits which poor readers adopt.
Most of these involve using extra body movement in the reading process. In
efficient reading, the muscles of the eye should make the only external
movement. Of course there must be vigorous mental activity, but extra
movements, such as pointing with the finger or moving the lips, do not help
reading and often slow it down.
A fault that is often seen when readers are trying to
concentrate is pointing to the words with a finger or pen. While marking the
line might be helpful for beginning readers, it is certainly unnecessary for
normal readers. Besides, slowing down the reader, pointing at lines or words
tends to cause the reader to focus his attention on the wrong thing. The
important thing to concentrate on while reading is not the location of the
words on the page but the idea that the author is trying to communicate.
