Are you a good typist?

[FluffMeatsStory]

I learned in the 70's also. I had just learned about computers, and knew my career path would be in computers, and realized typing would be needed. So I took the typing class. I had two options: Personal and Business. I opted for business, since it would teach me useful stuff beyond how to type. I did 30 wpm copy, but I estimated I did 60 wpm creative. I know I control a computer so fast that I cannot train another if I am at the keyboard.
Keyboards really affect speed. QWERTY was designed to slow down the mechanical device of the day. Computers use all sorts of options. My biggest issue is laptop keyboards are so small, especially with hands able to palm a basketball. And those two-part keyboards? Neat idea, but I type 1/3 left, and 2/3 right, rather than 1/2 each, so that fails. A full sized keyboard, however, works well.

 

[Seadog777]

Depends on how accurate you want it to be

Some days I'm very good, some days I completely suck.

 

[jsmiam]

… The biggest issue I have these days with typing is the poor quality of keyboards. QWERTY aside, the ergonomics of the ubiquitous flat-key keyboards are seriously bad. There are "typist" keyboards out there (even Dvořák!), but they are expensive and occupy too much desk real estate. Will it ever improve? Nope - scant demand….

Gaming ironically made good keyboards a thing again. The market leading cherry Mx set of mechanical keyboard switches offer about ten types (named by color) with your choice of a bump/detent halfway down or not, stiffness, quietness, and activation distance. Gamers and typists have different preferences often. Many typists go for MX Brown.

Others exist too. The original IBM PC “buckling spring” keyboard has been recreated (some people still use their original)

Craigslist and letgo (used) can be your friend too. An obsessive gamer may go through ten keyboards searching for the right one, and one by one sell their nine old ones (used once, but for once it’s actually true.) Besides, mechanicals tend to last forever.

I THINK I type better on my good keyboard, whereas I KNOW I like it better. Whether I can prove the speed difference scientifically or not, I don’t know. On the first day, my speed tests were the same, but as time passed, I think I do type faster on my mechanical gaming keyboard.

 

[Demiurging]

I used hunt-and-peck two years ago. When I started writing as a hobby, it was such a damn burden that I looked up a touch-typing course for middle-schoolers and forced myself to learn it the correct way after cheating the tests back when I actually did it in middle school. These days I average a compositional speed of thirty words per minute, but closer to a hundred+ when I'm just copying something.

Dear teachers, if you're requiring your students to type the same thing over and over again for practice, not only is it so boring that they won't do any typing beyond what is required of them, they will learn to copy and paste while you're not looking.

 

[Wifetheif]

I learned as an adult for a job that required lots of typing. They put me in a side room for a few days with a typing training computer game/instructor. Now, I'm pretty fast and quite accurate. I find that being a decent typist is a key skill to being one who writes with ease and joy. Hunt and peck works for some people but I am glad that I left that "skill" behind,

 

[Comshaw]

How bad can a person screw up with two fingers and a thumb.

Am I a good typist? BAWHAHAHA! Oh hell no! This ↑ 20 WPM when I'm hot and on, 6 or 7 when I have to go back and correct all my FU's 'cause of a condition called sausage fingers. I am utterly jealous of those who can and wish to hell I could type faster. But I can't, so I plod along until I get er' done. Besides that from time to time I have to replace my keyboard because the letters on the keys are worn away. A lifetime of working with my hands, my fingertips are like sandpaper.

Comshaw

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Am I a good typist? BAWHAHAHA! Oh hell no! This ↑ 20 WPM when I'm hot and on, 6 or 7 when I have to go back and correct all my FU's 'cause of a condition called sausage fingers. I am utterly jealous of those who can and wish to hell I could type faster. But I can't, so I plod along until I get er' done. Besides that from time to time I have to replace my keyboard because the letters on the keys are worn away. A lifetime of working with my hands, my fingertips are like sandpaper.

Comshaw

I'm glad I had to learn word processing in high school, so I'm a pretty good touch typist.

I had the same problem with the keys fading. I went through so many keyboards because the keys were wearing out. Then I got a Logitech keyboard, and it's great. The keys never seem to wear out.

 

[stickygirl]

I'm tyoing at the moemtn and confess it is a pain when the fingers won't behave. The problem is when you type a word that is the wrong but is still a word, so the spell check doesn't notice. Like excepted and expected. Those are the ones you only notice a month after it's published and then cringe.

 

[Bisexguy70]

In tech school my instructors said wed never need to learn how to type. Most of the robotics equipment had various styles of keyboards and not set up as the traditional qwertyuiop format. However, i ended up working in an industry where i use a laptop. I love writing about erotica. Expressing my sexual desires. Im not a typist but use my 2 fingers very well. I cant spell and i suck at grammar. That doesnt hold me back, practice makes perfect. I wish id a learned to type faster in high school. If only theyd a had a erotic typing class in high school, it would have been an elective over drafting. However, my hand lettering is pristine! I may not be the best typist but i know how to use my hands in other ways to express myself.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Typically in the 90 wpm range, touch typing on QWERTY. Being able to read as I type is a huge godsend for me, but I really should work on improving my typing, as when the Muse gets to tapdancing in my skull my fingers can't keep up with the flow of the words.

 

[Bisexguy70]

I'm tyoing at the moemtn and confess it is a pain when the fingers won't behave. The problem is when you type a word that is the wrong but is still a word, so the spell check doesn't notice. Like excepted and expected. Those are the ones you only notice a month after it's published and then cringe.

As long as you can make people cry, laugh or orgasm, doesn’t matter about your typing skills. If you mistyped pusy, we know you meant pussy, etc etc…. Its the content that matters.

 

[Comshaw]

I'm tyoing at the moemtn and confess it is a pain when the fingers won't behave. The problem is when you type a word that is the wrong but is still a word, so the spell check doesn't notice. Like excepted and expected. Those are the ones you only notice a month after it's published and then cringe.

Yeah, I do that all the time with "from" and "form". Spell checkers don't catch it and it makes me cringe when I find it in a published story. A lot of cussing, sputtering and mental self flagellation ensues when I do find it.

Comshaw

 

[stickygirl]

Yeah, I do that all the time with "from" and "form". Spell checkers don't catch it and it makes me cringe when I find it in a published story. A lot of cussing, sputtering and mental self flagellation ensues when I do find it.

Comshaw

That's only to be excepted and I now where your coming form

 

[Comshaw]

That's only to be excepted and I now where your coming form

Comshaw

 

[oggbashan]

I recognise from and form, but also teh, nad, and thta as my most frequent errors. Form gets past my spell checker as does teh, but not thta and nad.

 

[NakedNymph]

I recommend Grammarly to catch errors like that. Also lets you press a button to fix them, which can be a help for worse typists.

 

[oggbashan]

I recommend Grammarly to catch errors like that. Also lets you press a button to fix them, which can be a help for worse typists.

I use Grammarly. It doesn't catch form for form, teh for the but does get nad for and a thta for that.

I also use Word365's editor.

But even with both I can still get typos.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I recommend Grammarly to catch errors like that. Also lets you press a button to fix them, which can be a help for worse typists.

It has been very helpful to me as well.

 

[FluffMeatsStory]

Grammarly is good.
LanguageTool is free and reasonably good. Works as an add-in for my browser, and also for LibreOffice. The biggest thing my editor marks up are commas, and the occasional d'oh wrong word. It does a lot of stuff, including correcting there vs. their vs. they're.

I'm not a touch typist, but more than halfway there, so most of my typing is close to 60 wpm. But before I publish, I wait at least a day, proofread it the first time, wait another day or more, proofread the second time, send to me editor, argue with editor on 5% of the non-comma edits, then publish. That has served me well.

Waiting and proofreading also helps the flow by getting a chance to see it with fresh eyes. [One of the few downsides of a good memory. Takes longer for it to be 'fresh'.] I often make some minor changes, rewording, and such as part of the proofreading.

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

I'm a male in my early 50s and WAAAAAY back in high school my father made me take a typing class. Dad knew best - because not only was it me and about 9 girls in the class ... I'm actually still a better typist than probably 90% of the people in my company (except the damn IT guys!)

 

[Blind_Justice]

I've had one of the strictest touch type teachers during my boarding school years. She (rightly) predicted that the ability to type (and, by extension, use computers) would be a very important part of the blind person's toolbox. So, from grade seven through to twelfth grade, we got typing drilled into muscle memory. We started on really heavy Triumph-Adler mechanical typewriters, then, after three years, we were finally allowed to upgrade to Brother electrical typewriters. Around that time we had to type all our tests (save maths). The final upgrade was to MS Word 5.0 in our final year - and the only time we had the ability to actually edit out our typos. Before the move to MS-DOS and Word, we were not allowed to use correction tape.

I have forgotten 95% of all my Latin grammar and vocab. I can't remember much of biology, physics or chemistry and my maths skills have deteriorated to basic arithmetics.

But wake me up in the middle of the night, put a keyboard in front of me and I'll type anything you need, quickly and mostly legible. It's been a while since I've had my WPM counted (most online tests require sight), but I could put down between 80 and 100, depending on language and caffeine levels.