Writing V.S. Typing

[Mouse]

I would imagine that most people nowadays can touch type. You don't have to learn how to do it. If you use a computer enough, then you just end up doing it automatically.

Typing for me. I can type faster than I can write and the results at the end are legible.

 

[ratsy]

I consider myself a fairly good typist, but that test had me feeling like a snail. Who uses underscores???? I did 50WPM and 3 errors.

I never hand write anything, not only would it be way slower, I wouldn't be able to read it after

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I would imagine that most people nowadays can touch type. You don't have to learn how to do it. If you use a computer enough, then you just end up doing it automatically.

I wish, Mouse. Been typing for more than twenty years in one way or another, academic work and teaching basic ICT to even older folk, but I've never managed to learn to touch type. Perhaps I just started too late.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Typing, except for 75-word stories and occasionally a 300-word story, which I like to do on paper because I can note how many words per line and I know what the right amount looks like on paper.

Otherwise, my brain is faster than my handwriting and it drives me crazy, so I have to type. My dad was a typewriter repairman, so I grew up with a houseful of typewriters, and I took touch-typing in high school. My typing test there (dare I dethrone the speed queen? yikes!) came out to 90 wpm, which is about average; sometimes I can get to 95 if the copy is right and I'm in practice. Throw some numbers in there and I'm back to 80-85.

 

[crystal haven]

Typing for me. I don't write neat enough or fast enough to give creativity a chance, so I struggle to produce a decent page of writing. Typing is far easier.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm happy to be dethroned, TDZ. I know my speed, whilst good, is far from that needed professionally.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Oh, yours is quite a respectable speed, no doubt about it! And I don't think it slows you down.

One of my aunts, way back in the day, was over 100 wpm with her typing, and was slowed down only by the fact that the typewriter couldn't keep up with her -- this was when they had keys (not the keyboard, but the things that moved to make the letters) that would jam, and she'd get them all tied up in knots!

But typing speed is not as much a factor when you're writing -- if you can type as fast as your brain comes up with stuff, you're just fine. Anything beyond that is gravy. Speed is for copying. 90 wpm means I can write a 75-word story in one month, and sometimes a 300-word story as well.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

73 wpm with one mistake I didn't correct. But usually I don't actually type that fast; I would figure that I come along at perhaps 60 on average...

 

[tinkerdan]

I've used a smith corona in the 70's and, when they came out, I used a Commodore 128 and then the pc for all my writing. Some day my handwritten notes are going to be examined as some possible attempt at shorthand hieroglyphs. I can't decipher some of them so those secrets are safe.

In middle school I had an English paper with an A grade and another student, after seeing it, made the remark 'so that's how to do it, make it impossible to read and you get an A.'
I kept my mouth shut because that was probably the only English teacher who did not grade heavily on penmanship. I can remember turning most papers in late because of sweating over making it legible. The year they offered touch typing I jumped on it.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I got 59 with 4 mistakes but I know I can write faster - and with a lot more mistakes - when it is coming from my own mind. I also look at the keyboard a lot

Typing is dancing with your fingers; I therefore rock.

pH

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I start looking at the keyboard for numbers -- I never did quite get the knack of knowing where they are by touch.

But typing couldn't possibly be dancing with your fingers, or I'd have two left hands. And I'm right-handed, despite my parents' wishes.

 

[tinkerdan]

4 is somewhe4e nea4 r because it keeps showing up like that.

I start looking at the keyboard for numbers -- I never did quite get the knack of knowing where they are by touch.

But typing couldn't possibly be dancing with your fingers, or I'd have two left hands. And I'm right-handed, despite my parents' wishes.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Yes, I've often noticed that. And 5 is somewhe5e around there, too.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I usually get " for ! and sometimes get random £. I find a US keyboard slows me a lot as I'm not used to it.
I never get numbers for letters as my fingers can't reach that row when my wrists are resting on the laptop as it has over 10cm (about 4") of space in front of the keys, without a far stretch.

 

[mosaix]

I'd always typed a bit for my job (started in 1963) but in 1972 we started programming a computer system with VDUs (instead of paper tape or punched cards) and I've hardly done any hand writing since. So-much-so that my hand writing is practically unreadable.

At first I found the use of a typewriter difficult mainly because of error correction but then the IBM golf-ball came along with a correction ribbon - pure joy.

Composing with a screen was a bit difficult at first. Just getting used to using the screen as if it was a piece of paper was awkward but, with the added benefit of being able to move the cursor around and delete/correct so easily, it soon became second nature.

 

[Boneman]

Typing for me. My writing is so atrocious that even I can't read it next day. I can manage 100-120 words an hour some days... Should learn to touch type, still looking at the keyboard, but as Mouse points out I do actually know where most of the keys are...

 

[mosaix]

still looking at the keyboard, but as Mouse points out I do actually know where most of the keys are...

It's strange, Boneman, my fingers know exactly where the keys are, but if some one asked "where on the keyboard is the letter 'K'?" I would be hard put to be able to pin-point it accurately without looking.

 

[Boneman]

It's strange, Boneman, my fingers know exactly where the keys are, but if some one asked "where on the keyboard is the letter 'K'?" I would be hard put to be able to pin-point it accurately without looking.

I know what you mean: engaging brain definitely doesn't help if I do try to touch-type. Also helps if I whistle at the same time.

 

[Phyrebrat]

It's strange, Boneman, my fingers know exactly where the keys are, but if some one asked "where on the keyboard is the letter 'K'?" I would be hard put to be able to pin-point it accurately without looking.

I know what you mean: engaging brain definitely doesn't help if I do try to touch-type. Also helps if I whistle at the same time.

Which is called 'movement memory' and is an automatic but learned pattern of motion. It means you're both capable dancers my company's holding auditions in January

pH

 

[TheDustyZebra]

My husband and my son both hit about 50 wpm with their own versions of hunt-and-peck touch typing that use an average of two fingers. It's painful to watch, but it seems to get the job done. I do wish my son would learn touch typing, but I'm afraid it's probably going by the wayside for just that reason -- kids growing up with keyboards for many years before they might encounter actual typing lessons. By the time they do (if they do), their own method is too engrained.

I was probably in the last generation that encountered computers and typing class at roughly the same time. And we still had typing class on typewriters.