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Post by cmc413 (aka Chrissy) on Jul 11, 2010 21:07:17 GMT -5
My typing speed is about 35 WPM, but that's when I go back and check for mistakes. I began to learn how to touch type in Elementary school, but I only learned how to type four letters and use the space bar. Basically, I can touch type fjfuf fjj fur fj jfjfj rufj and so on and so forth. I use a hybrid method of six fingers that move all around the keyboard. It's probably not the best way, but it works for me.
I think that kids should learn at least a little bit of typing, but it should be included with projects that are done on the computer, rather than as a separate topic.
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Post by low on Jul 12, 2010 8:23:19 GMT -5
That doesn't make any sense. Typing vs. Hunt and peck has nothing at all to do with clarity and the reason speed is relevant is because it's about how quickly you can get your work done on a dead line. If two people are typing out the same assignment the person who types the fastest is more likely to get said assignment turned in on time while a slower typist is more likely to fall behind on their work and even the possibility of never getting anything finished at all. It just seems to me like it would be easier to get faster at something that already comes natural than to try to get faster at something that seems awkward and slows you down. I mean just because you're using all your fingers doesn't actually mean it's faster than if you only use two. There are allot of variables to make things faster or slower not just how many fingers you're using to type with. I agree with all that you said, except, "the person who types the fastest is more likely to get said assignment turned in on time". Only if your assignment is typing an impossibly large amount of words, then are you absolutely right, but, the point I made isn't that typing well is unimportant, but that getting your point across is far more important. That's the reason I used very fast speeds in my example. Someone who types impossibly fast as opposed to someone who types reasonably well is only inherently better if they're a secretary. Otherwise, the language they use is a far more important factor. |
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Post by click3tyclick on Jul 12, 2010 8:34:46 GMT -5
What the hell.
I had never heard of any sort of typing classes. I can still get to 63 wpm if I'm trying to type fast, so I guess that typing classes aren't that useful.
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Post by zAkAtAk on Jul 12, 2010 8:42:35 GMT -5
I had a typing class in 9th grade.
I can type well.
People that type with their two index fingers piss me off. It's not that hard to learn how to use a computer.
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Post by rialvestro on Jul 12, 2010 16:28:17 GMT -5
I had a typing class in 9th grade. I can type well. People that type with their two index fingers piss me off. It's not that hard to learn how to use a computer. We're not talking about learning to use a computer, we're talking about learning to type. You do know typing has been around longer than computers have right? I don't think anyone has used one in the last 30 years or more but even at 24 years old I still know what a type-writer is. |
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Post by nickgreyden on Jul 12, 2010 18:01:09 GMT -5
I learned typing in 9th grade on an electric typewriter. It sucked but I was finally able, after a semester of work, to get about 35 WPM. Next year I took a class called Adventures in Supercomputing. Keyboards rock what with the backspace key and all. When I was able to use it, I shot up to around 60 WPM and by the end of my senior year I was doing around 80WPM. Now I'm back down to 60 or so. My AiS teacher though was self taught using his index and middle finger and thumb on each hand... 50WPM and typed without looking at the keyboard.... pissed me off lol
However, when you do learn to type, you don't "memorize" the keys, you don't do anything from memory. You instead type the words, not letters. This is the cause of typos. The most common I see is teh instead of the (hehe i just did it too) as the movement from t to e is a quicker reflex than t to h as you are typing the word, not the letters.
Also once you master this form of typing, you go from spelling a word out to speaking what you are saying and your fingers just doing the work that they need to do as reflex. As you write you are looking at the screen not at your fingers so you can usually catch typos if you are paying attention and care.
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Post by rialvestro on Jul 13, 2010 0:40:01 GMT -5
I learned typing in 9th grade on an electric typewriter. It sucked but I was finally able, after a semester of work, to get about 35 WPM. Next year I took a class called Adventures in Supercomputing. Keyboards rock what with the backspace key and all. When I was able to use it, I shot up to around 60 WPM and by the end of my senior year I was doing around 80WPM. Now I'm back down to 60 or so. My AiS teacher though was self taught using his index and middle finger and thumb on each hand... 50WPM and typed without looking at the keyboard.... pissed me off lol However, when you do learn to type, you don't "memorize" the keys, you don't do anything from memory. You instead type the words, not letters. This is the cause of typos. The most common I see is teh instead of the (hehe i just did it too) as the movement from t to e is a quicker reflex than t to h as you are typing the word, not the letters. Also once you master this form of typing, you go from spelling a word out to speaking what you are saying and your fingers just doing the work that they need to do as reflex. As you write you are looking at the screen not at your fingers so you can usually catch typos if you are paying attention and care. That didn't make any sense. Of course you're using memory otherwise how would you know where the keys are to hit them? And the thing about typos is if you're looking at the key board you won't make as many. There may still be typos caused by a sticky key board or other computer related errors but there's no chance for human error. When you're looking at the screen you don't know you're hitting the wrong key till after you've hit it and I find myself hitting multiple different wrong keys before I actually hit the right one. I could hit the right key the first time if I was looking to see where it was but no in typing you can't look at that so I gotta hit like 5 different keys before I find the right one, 10 if I hit the wrong key while looking for backspace. Really, proper typing is a stupid pointless waist of time. It just makes typing harder than it needs to be. Who the hell cares if you use 10 fingers or 1 or weather or not you look at the keys. All that actually matters is the final product and no one is going to know how you typed your paper unless they saw you or you tell them. It's kinda like teaching someone to walk on their hands while blind folded instead of walking normally. What is the point? Who cares, it's a useless talent. So to answer the question. Unless you're planning on being a secretary, no typing is useless. |
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Post by jmejia1187 on Jul 13, 2010 1:01:03 GMT -5
They dont use their pinky fingers... HUH?!?!?!?! How do you not use your pinky fingers? they hit all the important letters/keys such as 'a', "'", '"', "/", and most importantly "Enter". Also important for capitalization, and tabbing. I have big hands and a small keyboard. my ring fingers encompass the areas of qwaszx, and ][';/., so they also hit tab and enter... and caps lock. I hope this helps. not everyone has the same sized hands, so teaching a standardized method of typing is difficult for some people... |
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Post by nickgreyden on Jul 13, 2010 1:01:49 GMT -5
Nope sorry but you are dead wrong on that one. Typing is not useless. You may find it so, but others, myself included disagree and say that is quite the reward.
Also, do you tell your brain to think bend knee. Lift foot. Arch forward. Place it down. Feel for support. Bend opposite knee. Lift opposite foot. Arch forward. place it down. No you don't think about it, you just do it when you walk. The same is true for typing. You don't think about it, you just do it. Yes, in the back of your head you know where are the keys are and you just do it, but when I hit a word I have to think about how to spell my typing goes very very slowly because instead of typing the word, I am typing letters.
Just because you have not gotten to this point does not mean it is useless. If that were the case I would say that it's useless to go to school to learn how to direct, shoot, and produce movies because all you have to do is pick up a camera and go. I would say art is useless to study because it is just people painting pictures. Books are useless to study because they are just dumb stories and math past the fourth grade is pointless because you already know how to add subtract multiply and divide and that is all you ever do in math.
Acquiring a new skill is never useless. Acquiring a new degree is never useless. It is that many more opportunities that are open to you. After all, life extremely rarely goes as planed. The more options you make for yourself, the better.
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Post by James McClelland on Jul 13, 2010 4:17:48 GMT -5
Typing is not useless. You may find it so, but others, myself included disagree and say that is quite the reward. Also, do you tell your brain to think bend knee. Lift foot. Arch forward. Place it down. Feel for support. Bend opposite knee. Lift opposite foot. Arch forward. place it down. No you don't think about it, you just do it when you walk. The same is true for typing. You don't think about it, you just do it. Just because you have not gotten to this point does not mean it is useless. It is that many more opportunities that are open to you. After all, life extremely rarely goes as planed. The more options you make for yourself, the better. Indeed. |
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Post by rialvestro on Jul 13, 2010 13:53:52 GMT -5
Nope sorry but you are dead wrong on that one. Typing is not useless. You may find it so, but others, myself included disagree and say that is quite the reward. Also, do you tell your brain to think bend knee. Lift foot. Arch forward. Place it down. Feel for support. Bend opposite knee. Lift opposite foot. Arch forward. place it down. No you don't think about it, you just do it when you walk. The same is true for typing. You don't think about it, you just do it. Yes, in the back of your head you know where are the keys are and you just do it, but when I hit a word I have to think about how to spell my typing goes very very slowly because instead of typing the word, I am typing letters. Just because you have not gotten to this point does not mean it is useless. If that were the case I would say that it's useless to go to school to learn how to direct, shoot, and produce movies because all you have to do is pick up a camera and go. I would say art is useless to study because it is just people painting pictures. Books are useless to study because they are just dumb stories and math past the fourth grade is pointless because you already know how to add subtract multiply and divide and that is all you ever do in math. Acquiring a new skill is never useless. Acquiring a new degree is never useless. It is that many more opportunities that are open to you. After all, life extremely rarely goes as planed. The more options you make for yourself, the better. Just because you're not consciously thinking about it doesn't mean you're not using memory. You're still subconsciously thinking about it otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it. You don't think about breathing or making your heart beat either but it's still controlled by your brain. As for opening up new opportunities. There aren't many jobs that require typing skills. Just secretary really. I mean there are more titles than that but it's all basically the same job. Example there's a person in the court room who has to type out everything everyone says, I can't remember what the job title is but it's basically the same as being a secretary. As far as learning a bunch of different things so you have more opportunities, well, it's good to have back up plans but you can't learn everything. The idea of learning a bunch of different things is just to try things out and see what you like, what you're good at, and narrow it down to the things you're already naturally good with. Then you practice and get better. You're not suppose to try to get better at things you hate doing, it just takes time away from other things you could be doing. |
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Post by James McClelland on Jul 13, 2010 14:57:14 GMT -5
Pretty much 75% of jobs require email. Employers and employees all across America use email for work. Hospitals, Schools, Office workplaces, Police Department and Criminal Investigations, to even companies like Weyerhauser. In the modern workplace, typing is a necessity.
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Post by Benyamin on Jul 13, 2010 17:00:04 GMT -5
I learned in 3rd grade and could type about 40wpm, but then i didn't need another computer for 3 years and now im at 29wpm  |
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Post by fredrik on Jul 13, 2010 18:04:32 GMT -5
As I have spent a lot of time in front of my computers in the latter half of my life, I have gotten pretty good at typing, and many people comment on my typing speed, which is 75 words per minute.
But knowing how to type fast isn't exactly useless, it just makes it easier. If you have a good technique, everything becomes easier. Even if you could do it without knowing anything about it, it just becomes easier with a good technique.
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Post by rialvestro on Jul 14, 2010 12:44:58 GMT -5
Pretty much 75% of jobs require email. Employers and employees all across America use email for work. Hospitals, Schools, Office workplaces, Police Department and Criminal Investigations, to even companies like Weyerhauser. In the modern workplace, typing is a necessity. Again, e-mail and computers have nothing to do with typing. You can still use that stuff without knowing how to type. Allot of jobs do require e-mail now days but that's different from requiring you to know how to type. Even in Theater I use e-mail to keep in contact with people and typing was never a job requirement. Have you even seen my posts on this site? See how long some of them are, and they're all hunt and peck and none of it takes me any longer than 10 min. to type. It takes me longer to read your posts then it does to type a reply. It's kinda late to do it now but next time I post a reply in here I'll put the time at the start and end of the post. |
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