Learn to Type- Part II- Know the Basics

Many of us find it very boring to learn the basics of touch typing which will help us to write the piece of text more accurately and faster. Therefore I am just going to make a few points to be held in mind while trying a hands on the keyboard.

In the most basic position, your fingers should rest on the middle row of the keyboard – also called the “home row”. The home row is the base from which all other keys can be reached.

Left hand fingers on keys A S D F and Right hand fingers on keys J K L ;

You can use any of your thumbs for the space bar, but stick with it. Never use both thumbs.

Keep Your Eyes on the Monitor

Try as much as you can not to peek at the keyboard while typing.

Keep Wrists Up

Keep your wrists up and straight while typing. This will prevent any kind of strain or injury.

Say the letters

Saying the letters in the mind will help to memorize the key positions and type accurately.

Relaxed Posture

Sit up straight, elbows close to the body. Relaxed arms and shoulder will avoid tension and discomfort.

Taking Breaks

While typing for long period, break is a must to regain the concentration.

Now these are some of the basics which is not a must criteria to be followed. Some of us may agree or disagree with the argument.

"Following the basics is not important, Gaining the skill is important"

Learn to Type- Part I- Motivation for Beginners

Learning how to type is very discouraging at first. You don't know how to use all the 9 or 10 fingers effectively. You start to feel the pain or strain on your fingers after a while of typing. You get frustrated by your typing speed because initially it is much less than average.

But this is the time when you should be patient and work on your ability to increase the accuracy as well as speed. For this scenario, there is an example which you can consider as a motivation in the way of your learning.

"When an infant starts to talk, his pronunciation, grammar, speed, accuracy and many more aspects which we adults have excelled is not a matter of concern for them. The child just tries his/her best to express himself/herself. It is matter of practice that made him/her a fluent speaker." We all were once a child and learned many things by just hit and trial method as one may call it "broader sense of view".

Now lets return to our topic, does this example motivate you in any way. Learning new is the habit of children, adults feel that they should not devote their time in learning something new. But the case is there's no restriction on age to learn something new. Typing is skill or ability which is required in many fields of work.

Professionals can give much more experience of how typing is important as they have to reply a whole bunch of e-mails. Programmers write long codes in as few time as possible as they are time bound by their position. Stenographers are professional typist required in many fields of work. So improved typing skill may give a slight greater chance of being recruited for a position where competition is intense.

I would say that typing is a skill which can developed at an age of 8 years or 60 years. Because age is just a number. It just require a whole lot of practice with right fingers on right keys, right posture and time of course. I would request you all find an example by yourself that motivates you to make your typing better.

A new skill is an ADD ON with the existing plan.

What is Typing!

In a developing country like India, students don't know the exact meaning of term Typing. Most of the schools and colleges have got computers but there is no one to teach how to give input using keyboard correctly. In a world where Information Technology is leading from the front nowadays, it becomes compulsory for anyone interested in it to be able to satisfy its basic needs.

Before: Hand and Peck method

Most people use hunt and peck method to type, i.e., they use only two fingers to type by usually finding the keys by sight. The true meaning of typing goes something like this: "The Action or Skill of Writing something by means of Typewriter or Computer". Here, computer simply stands for Keyboard.

After: A touch typist using 9 to 10 fingers

It is good practice, to type using 9 to 10 fingers. Try to do online courses available. There are several offline typing tutor available. Don't give up and find a reason to learn the correct way to type. It may be annoying at first but I guarantee you all that it'll be advantageous in long run.