Fact · Typing and writing speed
500words per minute
Brysbaert quotes Tinker (1958) as saying that even with easy material, 500 words per minute is very fast reading.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“even with easy material, 500 wpm is very fast reading”
How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate, Marc Brysbaert, Journal of Memory and Language, 2019, Section on early reading rate studies, quoting Tinker (1958, p. 219).
Open the original (DOI 10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047)- What it measures
- Tinker's remark is about reading rates measured in the early twentieth century, on passages chosen to be easy.
- What it does not show
- A single quoted remark from an older study, cited secondhand through Brysbaert.