Eliminate vocalization or sub-vocalization as you read (sounding out the words either out loud or in your head). Vocalization will dramatically reduce your reading speed as your lips need time to sound out each word. However, while eliminating vocalization will increase your speed, it will most likely decrease your comprehension, so there is a small trade-off initially (until you grasp some of the other techniques). Instead of reading word by word, read in chunks of words, or even full sentences. The longer you spend on each word the more slowly you read, so it is important to read phrases of multiple words so as to increase your speed. Slow readers often take long pauses between words, thus slowing them down. Try practicing on a newspaper with columns that are four or five words wide, so as to get a better sense of reading in chunks of text. Try to lightly skim the text either before or after reading it. Read only a few words per line and try to glean a general meaning out of the text. Skimming before reading will help introduce you to the topic and the author's purpose and will help you read faster. Skimming after reading will allow you to draw key points out of particularly dense or hard to read material.
Belinda