I type like Charles Barkley swings a golf club.

December 22, 2009 9:05 AM

I can touch-type relatively well (typing tests usually score me at about 75wpm) but I don't use the right fingering. If you were once me, and you learned to touch-type properly, can you describe your experience?

What tools did you use? How many hours did it take to learn how to type correctly? Did you fail in learning the correct method (before succeeding)? How did you keep yourself from reverting to your old habits? Etc.

Also...I'm curious... how common is this?

Thanks for your help! The reason I can type relatively well, but incorrectly, is because when I was just a youngin, my dad bought his kids a computer, as he anticipated that the age of computers was coming -- and, busy with work, he left us kids to figure out on our own, the way this newfangled thing worked. (That's also why I learned at a young age how to fix computers =D )

posted by demagogue to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

I am old enough to have had a typing class in my middle school. Had an old time matronly lady who was a secretary to some big wig before she got into teaching. There was some sort of method to her madness. It took me all year of middle school, but I did finish second with 67 wpm. This was on a Smith Corona Selectric or something like that model.

I still use the correct keys but for the number keys above. I use what feels best.

I like the visual of the Round Mound of Rebound swinging his club. It works for him. If you can type 75 wpm, why do you want to change your methods?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:18 AM on December 22, 2009

I type faster than you do and there are certain ways in which I don't finger correctly. (Most notably, I never use the right-side shift key.)

I don't think you should worry about it. As long as the text comes out right, why does it matter?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:22 AM on December 22, 2009

I learned to type the same way you did. Then I took a typing class in high school which was great. We mostly used the Mavis Beacon program, in addition to some old typewriter textbooks.

The benefit of learning to type properly is that you can look at the screen (or your source material) while you're typing and not at your hands. We used to have to cover our hands and the monitor with paper so we couldn't see what we were doing. It was challenging at first just like anything, but now I don't give it a second thought.
posted by amethysts at 9:25 AM on December 22, 2009

I learned from a book. This one, or one like it. Not the most exciting few hours I've ever spent, but it worked and now I type like Charles Barkley [insert basketball reference I can't be bothered to look up and probably wouldn't understand anyway here].
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:36 AM on December 22, 2009

asdf jkl; Seriously. Just always make sure your fingers remember to return to the home keys and you can correct your right fingering. I don't know why it matters, though. You type fast enough as it is. And correcting it will actually slow down your typing speed for awhile until you reprogram. If I typed 75 wpm, I don't think I'd mess with things. If it ain't broke . . . .
posted by dchrssyr at 9:40 AM on December 22, 2009

I am like you. I taught myself to type at the age of about 18 when I worked at a newspaper and just had to get stuff out there fast - no time for lessons or classes. I use all my fingers (and thumbs, for the spacebar) and I don't look at the keyboard.

Despite my lack of a formal system I'm one of the fastest typists I know. Occasionally I've thought about going to get real touch-typing instruction, but I'm not sure why I would want to unlearn a system that is working exceedingly well for me and spend years working up to a new system only to arrive at the WPM I have now. Do you think you could expect improvement? If not, I wouldn't bother. It hasn't been any kind of disadvantage.
posted by Miko at 9:49 AM on December 22, 2009

Like you, I learned to type with 2 fingers per hand when I got my TRS-80 CoCo in 8th grade. One day, when I was about 35 years old, I was sitting at work, hunting and pecking at 60wpm or so, and I said "Fuck it, I need to learn to type properly."

I downloaded a demo version of a learn to type program. I don't remember which one it was. I also forced myself, no matter how difficult it was, to type everything with the proper fingers. Email, IM, Word documents, whatever. It was really hard at first, and really frustrating, but after a week or two I could type just as quickly as before, only now I was using the proper fingers and didn't need to look at the keys. It's one of the best things I ever learned to do.

For some reason I still type my passwords with the two finger method. I think I'm still paranoid about getting locked out.
posted by bondcliff at 9:50 AM on December 22, 2009

I was not exactly like you, but i spent about ~15 years as a four-fingered typist before using Mavis Beacon (I think) and about two weeks to become an orthodox touch typist.
posted by rhizome at 9:50 AM on December 22, 2009

I type at 121 wpm, and I don't use the "correct" fingering method because of the exact same reason (with me, it was a TI-99/4a -- the kind that you'd plug the cartridges into, or record BASIC programs on audio cassettes and then hit "play" to load them back in!), but I really don't think it matters.

I'll agree with dchrssyr that I'd suggest you not mess with things. The reason why you're an excellent typist is because of muscle memory; your fingers don't have to think about where they're going on the keyboard; you say to yourself, "I want to type a 't'" and your brain has done that action a few million times by now, so it's thoughtless.

It sounds to me as if you're thinking you can "transition" that muscle memory to a new location, and I'm no expert, but I really don't think you can. What I think, should you want to do this, you'd end up having to do would be to essentially start from scratch -- except that, unlike a fresh typist, you'd have the habits you'd built up over the years working against you. By now, entirely apart from your brain, your muscle memory is used to the methodology by which you go to type a "t", etc.

Now, if your unique typing methods were somehow restraining you from reaching a typing speed other people were requiring of you, that'd be one thing. But your typing speed lets you get up to 75 wpm.

So, frankly, for all of the above, I'd just not mess with it. Layman's opinion is that it's not likely that adopting the "proper" methodology is going to increase your speed; it's most likely just going to set up a muscle memory conflict that will actually slow you down.
posted by MikeHarris at 9:52 AM on December 22, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'm at 106wpm, less than 1% error and I type 'wrongly' enough that I can't use a split-in-halves ergonomic keyboard.

I had six months of 'formal' instruction in in 8th grade via an ancient training cassette ("A TYPE, S TYPE, D TYPE, F TYPE...") They made us cover our hands with a piece of paper and close our eyes. It was useful only to help me memorize where the letters were.

Anyway, I completely agree w/ MikeHarris re: muscle memory. If you want to learn to type faster or more accurately, learning the "right" way to do it will be like reinventing the wheel so you can change a tire. Just practice the way you know how.
posted by griphus at 10:39 AM on December 22, 2009

I too, learned to type in high school. I didn't want to but got shuttled into the class as a sort of a punishment for not towing the line in my other, smarter classes. Many years prior to that, my dad used an old manual Royal typewriter to teach me to spell.

I hated typing class. It was very regimented, and taught by a crabby woman who didn't like me or my attitude. Nonetheless, I learned to touch type. And the less I look at my fingers today, the better I do. It was hard to make the leap of watching the keyboard as I typed, to just doing it while watching the screen. But it is like playing golf for me, the less hard I try, the better I do.
posted by chocolatetiara at 11:00 AM on December 22, 2009

I have the same problem as Chocolate Pickle, never using the right Shift key, but I don't think fixing the problem would really improve my speed significantly so I haven't bothered.

Typing of the Dead is still the most fun method of measuring and improving your typing speed, IMO.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 11:02 AM on December 22, 2009

I use my left hand way more than my right hand for typing than I should (for instance always hit the "b" and "y" keys with my left hand instead of my right) but I have been typing this way since I was about 10 and type around 100wpm with like 2% error rate.

So, yeah, if you're happy with your technique and don't need to get a ton faster, why change?
posted by jckll at 11:53 AM on December 22, 2009

I don't know exactly how fast I type, but it's decent. I don't use correct fingering either, as I just learned to type by spending time in a teens chat room on AOL growing up. My problem is that I don't use the pinky on my left hand at all. It sits off to the side of the caps lock key. This makes typing words with Zs and Xs hard, and will often make my pinky hurt after any extended session of typing (research paper writing) due to being stretched out. I've tried to learn to use correct fingering and returning to the home row, but overcoming the habit has proven extremely difficult.

So I'd say it might be worth the investment in your time if you have an issue like this (it really does get uncomfortable, even if I can type fast). But if it's mostly working for you, overcoming the muscle memory you created will be a lot of work and take time, during which you'll slow wayyy down before you get better.
posted by troutforbrains at 12:08 PM on December 22, 2009

I agree with some of the posters here when they say why change it? I have the exact same story you do except that I can type >100wpm and i use only my thumb, index and middle fingers and i dont need to look at the screen. if it aint broke, dont fix it!
posted by postergeist at 12:27 PM on December 22, 2009

I have returned to alter my original answer. I was one of the "if it ain't broke, why fix it" folks. I agree with most of the posters that it is about muscle memory. Muscle memory is very hard to change. But with Tiger Woods in the news lately for reasons having nothing to do with this thread, it got me thinking. At the top of his game, Tiger changed his swing. A golf swing is ALL about muscle memory. I think if you are dedicated and practice enough you can change your typing. You could increase your wpm or simply help your fingers. I think it is worth trying.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:53 PM on December 22, 2009

Touch typing makes a lot more sense when the home row can type a lot of common words. I was an "advanced hunt-and-peck" QWERTY typist, but when I switched to Dvorak I took the opportunity to learn proper technique. It's what I would recommend -- if you are going to retrain yourself to type, then at the same time you should also switch to a layout that works better. The speed benefits of Dvorak are marginal and vary a lot from individual to individual, but your fingers move a lot less, which, if your job involves computers, may literally save your career in the long run. Another good alternative layout is Colemak.
posted by kindall at 3:05 PM on December 22, 2009

Me! Me! That was me! One summer vacation I forced myself to break the old habit and learn to touch type properly. I used this weird book I bought at a second hand store, which was designed for secretaries in the 1950s, and was hinged along the top.

It hurt my brain to re-learn how to type. I consider that a good thing, and well worth the effort in and of itself.

At first, my typing speed dropped dramatically, as you would expect. Then it began to pick up speed. After about six months, I was typing twice as fast as I used to. There is a reason that the standard method of touch typing is so popular: it's really fast.

I used to type about 50WPM, and I can now top out at about 110WPM if I've properly warmed up first. If you learn how to type properly, you could probably double your current speed too.
posted by ErikaB at 3:34 PM on December 22, 2009