Four Easy Steps to Touch Typing by Adam Fort offers tips to improve typing skill for adults and children alike. In a day when efficiency can make the difference between success and failure, you can ill afford to be a less than proficient typist. With these tips, all you need is the commitment to practice.

Adam Fort

• Adam is an education strategist at ratatype.com. This project helps children and adults to learn touch typing via an Online Typing Test and lessons.

Introduction

• Fed up with how long it takes you to type an email or a document? Does your amateurish typing leave a lot to be desired? If typing efficiency is costing you valuable hours in productivity, maybe it’s time you start working on improving your touch typing efficiency. Computers or laptops have become an integral part of day-to-day life. From emails to presentations, from college assignments to office presentations, everything requires the skill of typing. Typing fast and accurately is a skill that proves absolutely invaluable for nearly every job. Follow these four easy tips to boost your touch typing speed and become a typing whiz.

Use correct techniques and position

• The first step is to use correct sitting position and keyboard positioning. It goes without saying that you work better when you are in a comfortable position. The same thing applies to typing. Choose a comfortable chair and sit straight with your back upright, and your eyes firmly fixed on the computer screen. If you slouch, you will get fatigued easily. Also, make sure the room has sufficient lighting and ventilation. (Doug: Also consider standing up like I do. You can now buy desks that go up and down so you can change positions while you work.)
• Position your keyboard in the correct position and use both of your hands for typing. Position your fingers on the home row keys. You should be able to move your fingers across the keyboard. With proper finger placements, you should be typing with all ten fingers including your pinkies. The goal of this proper hand placement is that you do not have to move your hands while typing. This way you can focus more on your touch typing accuracy and speed.

Avoid looking at the keyboard

• After you have positioned yourself comfortably, start typing. Assess your current typing skills so as to understand your typing speed and accuracy. This will also give you a fair idea about how much effort and time you need to put in improving your typing speed. The next step is to resist the urge to look at the keyboard while typing. While riding a bicycle, do you look at the pedals or road? Initially, it is hard not to look at the keypad. But, no matter how difficult it is, you need to eliminate the habit of looking down while you type. Adopt military level of discipline and look at the screen. Familiarize yourself with finger placements and let your mind guide your fingers to type correct keys.

Practice, Practice and Practice

• Just like in any other field, practice is the key to success. You need to remember that you can’t excel your typing speed in just one day; but you can definitely improve it drastically. However, it is important to practice in the right way. Practice as much as possible and do it with extreme patience. Make your practice more interesting by writing emails, chatting with your friends, or playing interactive typing games on internet. By the way, average typing speed is only 41 words per minute.

Use online typing tests

• The best way to practice your typing speed is by taking online typing tests. These tests are developed by typing experts and professionals for making your typing process smooth and fast. Some of these tests add extra remedial measures based on your assessments. These remedial lessons are individually tailored to focus on learner’s individual progress, and therefore speeding up and focussing the learning process. These online tests can be taken according to your comfortable timings. Ratatype.com, TypingTest, and TypingWeb for iPhone typing offer convenient ways to test your touch typing speed and accuracy. They also offer extra remedial measures that are tailored to individual’s progress and performance. These remedial measures are easy to understand and also help in keeping a track of progress. This allows the learner to speed up and focus the learning process.

Acquire the Skill

• Typing is not an inherent skill. It is an acquired skill, and with proper techniques and tools, one can improve his typing speed as well as accuracy. Apart from saving money and time, fast and correct typing offers several benefits. When your typing speed is good, you stay in a state of flow. This allows you to focus your energy on words and message, rather than on typing skill. Your mind works faster when you are typing without interuption. So, try the above mentioned four easy steps and you too can type like a professional.
• Doug: I may be hard to shift from the hunt and peck two finger approach, but it will pay off in the long run. An added benefit to typing faster is that you will end up writing more, which will improve your writing skill. The only other thing you will need is a skilled editor who gives honest feedback. This is the best way to lose bad writing habits. Thanks Adam.

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