This muscle memory is also harnessed to type common letter patterns in English and is why typing high frequency English words tends to be easier and faster than low frequency vocabulary. When you learn to touch type you memorize the position of the keys on the keyboard using muscle memory in the fingers and hands. Touch typing may give you an advantage when it comes to spelling as well. Learn more about increasing typing speed. Most people type at around 40 to 50 wpm so reaching 75+ wpm is considered a good speed. TOP TIP: Keep in mind not everyone has the finger dexterity to type this quickly. With touch typing you can achieve speeds of up to 120 words per minute (wpm) - and the faster you type, the easier it is to match the speed at which you think and “get your ideas down” before they go. This is because keeping your hands still and making use of all eight fingers and thumbs on the space bar is more efficient than moving them around the keyboard in search of individual keys. Touch-typing is also generally faster than hunting and pecking. Speed in writingīecause with touch typing you do not need to look down, this method is less tiring for your eyes and much better suited to transcription and taking notes from the board.
the mechanics of recording it in electronic format. This frees up cognitive attention and processing power for the content of the task, so writers can focus on the work they are producing vs.
Over time the series of movements required to type English words is automatized and typing becomes a fluent transfer of thoughts into language. However, in touch typing, the hands rest on a designated set of keys (the home row) and each finger moves in a systematic way to reach the letters nearest to it. When you type with two or more fingers, also known as the “hunt and peck” approach, your attention is split between visually scanning for keys, looking at the screen and/or looking at any additional materials you are reading or copying from. It might be difficult at the start to use all fingers, but as you spend more time practicing, it becomes easier and faster.One of the main differences between the touch typing method of keyboarding and two-fingered typing is in how you allocate your attention while you work at the computer.
Practice bringing your fingers into the basic position without looking and then away. Learning the position of the keys and which finger is responsible for each key is critical to learning touch typing, but the daily practice will do the trick, to the point where you won't have to think about it. The thumbs are responsible for pressing the grey keys (the SPACE key and the two adjacent keys), little fingers are responsible for pressing the yellow keys, ring fingers are responsible for pressing the blue keys, middle fingers are responsible for pressing green keys, and finally index fingers are responsible for the red (left hand) and violet (right hand) keys. The following picture shows which keys are responsible for each finger, depending on the side they are on the keyboard. Right hand: little finger on key, ring finger on key L, middle finger on key K and index finger on key J.ĭepending on the key to press, we move the responsible finger to that position, press the key, and then return it to its basic position. Left hand: little finger on key A, ring finger on key S, middle finger on key D and index finger on key F. The other fingers should be placed on the keyboard as shown in the figure, but they should only lightly touch the keys. Place your left hand index finger on the F key and the right hand index finger on the J key. Those bumps are there to guide you to position your fingers on the keyboard without looking at all.
To know where to place your fingers, feel the bumps of the F and J keys. When no typing or after pressing a key your fingers should always return to the basic position.
It also requires that your fingers are placed in a specific position, which is usually called basic position. The essence of this method is using all ten fingers to type, and to achieve that, each key on the keyboard is associated with a specific finger. Ten finger typing relies on the memorized position of keys, but once you have practiced enough, your fingers will type without you even thinking about where your fingers are going or about the position of the keys.