Comments on: Typing Skills - How Good/Bad Are Yours?!

By: Patrick Mead

Patrick Mead — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:55:59 +0000

I learned how to type when I was in fifth grade. My dad had a bunch of 45s from Smith Corona — a “learn at home” typing course. I decided to teach myself and did so on an old “punch the key hard enough to crack a walnut” manual portable that weighed about thirty pounds. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

Now I type around 90wpm and don’t make that many mistakes. I love that MS Word has help with spelling but don’t care for its grammar tips since I write so much dialog and dialog usually isn’t grammatically perfect.

By: jel

jel — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:40:21 +0000

don’t type that much ya know that

huggs

By: cwinwc

cwinwc — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:31:41 +0000

1. The slow but classic method.
2. Don’t know but I’m sure it’s not very fast.
3. That would probably be about every other word.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:06:41 +0000

I know the correct typing method but never really gleaned my typing skills till the computer and windows came out! I am a really fast typer but would be typing Greek if it weren’t for spell check as my mistakes per minute are probably more than my actual words typed!

I don’t text much but my brother told me that I should probably just stick to the using the phone!

By: John Roberts

John Roberts — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:56:05 +0000

Does it seem ironic that I would misspell “misspell”?

By: John Roberts

John Roberts — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:53:18 +0000

I’ve always said the single most useful class I have ever taken was 9th grade typing. We started on manuals, and had two electrics up at the front of the classroom that you had to work up to getting to use. My mom typed term papers and theses for college students in our dining room, so I was always around a typewriter, and was always fascinated by them. By the end of that 9th grade year of typing I was typing 90 wpm (faster, but you had to deduct for mistakes). And I have typed constantly since then, so I’ve probably kept or increased the speed.
Computers and word processing were made for the way I think and compose - in fact, I’ve gotten to where I can’t think and compose with pen and paper anymore - I have to be on a computer to compose. (If I want to decompose - now that’s another matter!)
And the one word I consistently mispell because of fumbled fingers is Christ, which 70% of the times comes out Chirst (before auto-spell corrects it). Yay for computers!

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:51:15 +0000

I learned to type in high school. We took turns using the computers and typewriters. I believe the word processor was WordStar. I type the “correct” way, but am not as good with the numbers and symbols at the top. Back then, I believe I typed between 40-60 wpm. I have no idea how fast I am now, but don’t think I’m more slow, since I have worked as a programmer and used to type all day.
I am painfully slow at texting because I don’t do it much. I think it has its place, but think kids should be able to write in clear English, too.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:04:43 +0000

I had two years typing in highschool and one year in college. I learned on manual and electric typewriters. It has been a while since I have been timed. Last time was after a few years where I was pretty rusty and then it was about 55 I think. Think it is a bit better than that now. I type a LOT on one job and just use a cash register keyboard on the other. I often find that “the” ends up as “hte”. It has to be because our left hand just doesn’t get the “t” hit as quickly as our right hand does the “h”. Are you right handed? Who has the time luxury to compose with pen and paper then merely type it?

By: mmlace

mmlace — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:25:35 +0000

Typewriter? What’s that???

J/k…I remember those…I think my grandpa had one that I used to play on when I was a kid!

When I was in junior high, I lived in Arkansas, and was required to take a semester of keyboarding in the 8th grade. The very next school year, we moved back to Texas, where the semester I took in 8th grade didn’t count for anything, and I was required to take another year in the 9th grade. (I had already learned to type in the 8th grade class.) My sophomore year, my high school changed the graduation requirements, only requring a semester, rather than a whole year, of keyboarding, for graduation.

So, in essence, i was bored outta my mind for THREE semester of keyboarding, when I only ended up needing ONE to graduate!!!

However, as a result, I type really quickly, sometimes up to 100 wpm. I don’t know if there are any particular words that I always misspell…but alot of the time i get lazy and don’t capitalize everything that I should.

By: Judy

Judy — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:23:25 +0000

I learned to type beginning on the old upright Royal manual typewriters, the ones they would cover the keys with little metal thingys. That was to make you learn to type by “feel” and not by looking at the letters. That was in 1965/66. By the next year when I graduated, we had some electric typewriters.

After the first six weeks’, I loved it. During that first six weeks, though, I went home crying every day, begging my mother to let me quit. She told me if I’d hang with it ’til the semester ended, if I still hated it, I could drop out. By then, I’d forgotten hating it. I ended up spending my entire adult life at a keyboard of some kind……….and am still there.

I’ve had a number of typing tests through the years. Accuracy is pretty good, and I think my best recorded speed was somewhere between 80 and 90 wpm.

No trouble composing or thinking while clacking on the keys. At least, I don’t think so!!

Joy to you and yours!!