My Advanced Reading love story
Lynda Harris | June 22, 2017
Image by lenm / CanStockPhoto
As much as I’m incredibly proud of my team’s ability to create perfectly pitched text, or to help others radically wrangle words into something brilliant, I have a confession to make. My all-time favourite workshop isn’t directly about writing. After 26 years in business I am still totally in love with our Advanced Reading (AR) workshop! I loved delivering it years ago and I love seeing the impact of others delivering it now.
Why such affection for a workshop? The AR workshop, together with a very basic writing programme, is where Write began! And it still works brilliantly. Some people call the AR workshop our best kept secret (it’s not meant to be!).
So why the long-standing love affair?
Easy. The AR workshop changes people. It’s a transformational experience that relies equally on long-discovered reading theory and the incredible, newly recognised powers of the human brain. We’ve always known it worked. Now neuroscience knows how it works.
The AR workshop makes people sparkle with amazement at their own cleverness and wish they’d done it sooner. Participants discover that they have an innate ability to gain knowledge faster and retain more. They discover that they can shed old slowing habits in a twinkle and be twice as productive.
And the before-and-after evidence is right in front of them on their own score card. Participants love it. They write about it and rave about it — and I love that.
‘Astounding! This course made me realise the bad reading habits I’ve had for years … and now I know how to overcome them and get more stuff read.’ (2017 participant)
Typical before-and-after scores on the Advanced Reading workshop
Typical before-and-after reading scores for participants on our Advanced Reading workshop. Participants’ initials are at the bottom. The light green columns show their word-per-minute (wpm) reading scores before the workshop, and the darker green columns show their reading scores after the workshop. Impressive!