Do you remember Clara, the kindly old woman in the
Wendy's commercial shouting at competitors
hamburgers "Where's the Beef?" She was very
entertaining and her message was memorable - and
obviously is still with me!
I think of this cry when readers ask me, "How do
I get what I need quickly without wasting my time?"
They really want to know "Where's the Beef?"
The proverbial "beef" or meat of your reading is
easy to find if you are reading non-fiction
(factual) material. This is the stuff that is
typically more daunting anyway such as your work
documents, internet research, policies and
procedures or academic textbooks.
So where IS the beef? The biggest chunk is
found in the first sentence (or two) of a paragraph.
What this means is if you want to get the main ideas
quickly without wasting time, read the title, the
first few paragraphs of introduction and then STOP
reading every word. START reading JUST the first
sentences of paragraphs (or if you have to, the
second as well), get the gist and move to the next
first sentence of the next paragraph. And continue
doing this until you either got enough or until the
last few paragraphs which you might want to read
more in detail.
Doing this will accomplish a few things:
- Help you to quickly weed out uninteresting
or not useful material
- Introduce you to the writer's structure so
you can choose which paragraphs to read in more
detail
- Build a mental framework which makes it
easier to remember
- And most importantly, save you time!
Tell your friends and colleagues about this one -
they'll be glad you did!
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