Hello everyone! Today we’ll talk about typing. Yes, you heard that right! You might be surprised, but there is a lot to talk about typing. In this text, we will focus on techniques and speed. Hey hey! Don’t run away yet! You will see that it can be interesting. Give me a chance. So, first of all, what exactly is typing? Well, it’s just that simple. Typing is pressing buttons on a typewriter, computer keyboard, cell phone, or calculator to input a text. It doesn’t have to be just letters, but also numbers and symbols.
People write in really different ways, which cannot be classified as good or bad. They just have various advantages and disadvantages. Of course, they affect speed and accuracy. The first way of typing can be named hunt and peck. This method involves using two fingers to enter content. The typist does not remember the order of the letters on the keyboard. They focus on finding each one every time. As you might have guessed, this method is not conducive to typing speed. It also doesn’t help you catch bugs quickly and accurately enough. The typist is focused on the keyboard and is not looking at the screen. Changing your eyesight from the screen to the keyboard, taking turns, and re-focusing on the activity you are doing also consumes time and makes it difficult to concentrate.
Another writing technique is in contrast to hunt and peck. I am talking about touch typing. This method is used by experienced typists and people familiar with the keyboard layout and developed muscle memory. This is essential when it comes to positioning your fingers on the keyboard. The typist focuses only on the document in front of them. They do not need to look at the keyboard to find each letter. They know the arrangement perfectly well. This way of writing requires you to use the home row method. It consists of keeping your fingers on the middle row of the keyboard, so after typing each letter that is not there, you always return to that row. Unfortunately, using this method often causes the wrong position of the wrist and spine can lead to health problems. To avoid this, you need to remember to keep the correct body position which means to sit upright with your body slightly tilted forward. The fingers should lie freely in the home row and be lightly bent. Many experienced typists use keyboard shortcuts. It allows them not to use the mouse and affects writing efficiency.
There is another method between hunt and peck and touch typing. This is a hybrid method. Sometimes a typist remembers the keyboard layout and still does not use all fingers to type. Often they also do not go back to the home row. These are usually people who neither take a writing course but learn by themselves. It is claimed that to be good at typing quickly with this method, you need to use the same fingers to type the letters. What’s even more fascinating is that some people use only two fingers to type, others from 3 to 6, and still, this does not determine the speed of their typing at all. It sometimes happens that self-taught write with the same pace and accuracy as trained people. The fastest typists do not move their hands all over the keyboard but rather keep them in one position.
One of the popular typing methods that you may have come across and have used yourself is buffering. It consists in memorizing a few sentences and then looking at the keyboard and typing them into a document. This method is not usually used in daily use, but rather when it is essential to gain time.
Thumb typing has also become a frequent method when devices with small keyboards, such as smartphones, have become commonplace. As the name suggests, this is about using your thumb or two to enter text. Are you good at it? Or maybe your friends are complaining that you are texting too slowly?
Why are we talking about all this? Because all these methods affect the result of the WPM. WPM stands for words per minute. It is an indicator showing the speed of our typing. This indicator is often used when recruiting for typing jobs. There is a standardized measurement of input speed because five letters or keystrokes count as one word. This way, the pace can be compared regardless of the language and the length of the used words.
How fast can you write? What method do you use? Could you get a quick-typing job? Or maybe you can become the fastest typist ever? By solving this test, you can check out how good you are. We hope you’ll enjoy it. Good luck and see you soon!
