Typing

 

Introduction

Can you type without looking at the keyboard?

Touch typing is an important skill that you will need in high school, college, and beyond. Unfortunately, some students manage to graduate from middle school without ever learning how to type properly.

Don't let this happen to you.

The Importance of Typing Properly

Having taught middle school for many years, I can tell you that 90% of the writing mistakes that I see are "stupid mistakes".

I'm talking about sentences like this one:

Almost certainly the student already knew that the "I" should be capitalized and the sentence should end with a period.

So why did the student turn in such sloppy work? For years, I assumed that:

    1. The student didn't care about their grade.
    2. The student was too lazy to proofread their own work.

Both of these things may be true, but now I'm convinced that a third reason is even more to blame:

    1. The student never learned how to type properly.

Trust me, when I write a sentence, I never have to think about capitalizing an "I" or putting a period at the end of a sentence—because my fingers do these things automatically. And that's because, at one point in my life, I decided that I needed to learn how to type properly.

Touch Typing

Typing properly means touch typing—and that means resting your fingers on the keys and typing without looking at the keyboard.

Can you touch type? Really?

If I sound a bit skeptical, it's because I am. Maybe you think you can type. You've grown up using computers, and maybe you've gotten quite fast at typing with three or four fingers, and maybe you think that's good enough.

It's not. Here's why: Writing is both easier and faster if you keep your eyes on the screen, instead of shifting your eyes back and forth between the screen and the keyboard. And if you're typing with only three or four fingers, I can almost guarantee that you're spending a lot of time glancing down at the keyboard.

And that's a bad habit.

So repeat after me: "This year, I will learn how to type properly. And at first it's going to be slow and frustrating, but in the end it will be worth it!

Key Point:

Learning how to type properly may well be the single most important thing that you will learn this year—if you are willing to seize this opportunity.

Lesson Steps

  1. Go back to Typing Club.
  2. For Typing Club, you don't need to remember a password, because you can login with Google.
  3. Do lessons 6–10. As frustrating as it may be at first, force yourself to type with the proper fingers, and never look at the keyboard!
  4. After you have finished, go to your Typing Club homepage and make a note of how many stars you have earned.
  5. Congratulations! You're done!