Typing Skills - How Important Is It?

blog cover image
12
3.2K followers
Updated

Have you ever taken a typing skills test? Do you know how many words per minutes (WPM) you can type?

How important is typing skills when it comes to content writing? I think it is very important. If you can improve your typing skills you can write more content more quickly and more often.

Don't miss my challenge at the end of this post :)

There are three main types of typing methods:

Touch Typing

Touch typing is the proper way of typing. This is when you use all your fingers to type without looking at the keyboard. This is the method taught in schools. Your hands are placed as shown in the picture below.

Hunt and Peck Typing

Typing with 2 fingers while looking at the keyboard. You did not memorize the keyboard layout. Most self taught typists use this method.

Hybrid Typing

This is where you use 3 to 6 fingers to type. There are many combinations for this typing skill and can sometimes be a mix of touch typing and hunt and peck typing.

The Difference in Speed For All The Typing Skills

Touch typing is the best method to use and most people type faster with touch typing. Don't get me wrong, skilled self-taught typists can also type at a very good speed.

The Benefits of Touch Typing

If you can touch type or teach yourself to touch type it will have the following benefits:

  1. Increases the speed you type
  2. Therefore it saves you time
  3. Decreases fatigue, because you only need to concentrate on one thing and not the keyboard and the screen.
  4. Health benefits. Reduces Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). I suggest you do a bit of research on this.
  5. Job Prospects. This is a requirement for most jobs you apply for these days.
  6. Less mistakes. You will make less mistakes and if you do, you will see it immediately and not later when you proofread your sentence or paragraph.
  7. All of these benefits will improve and increase your productivity

What is a Good Speed for Typing

35 to 40 WPM is the average speed. If you type more than this, you can classify yourself as above average.

Very good typists can type more than 70 WPM and the excellent ones more than 100 WPM.

How Long Will It Take to Learn Touch Typing

You can learn touch typing within a couple of weeks and you will not be sorry in the end. If you can just get through those couple of weeks, you will benefit greatly in the end.

The Main Reason to Increase Your Typing Speed

For example, If you can type 40 WPM instead of 20 WPM, you can write twice as much content. It is as simple as that.

If you are new to WA and content writing and do not have any typing skills, this can become a nightmare. You will still be able to get it done, but at a snail's pace.

It can easily take you 4 x as long to get anything done.

Where Can I Learn to Touch Type

You do not need a physical teacher or have to pay anything. There are plenty of free typing tutors available online. Some are better than others.

I use www.typing.com . They are free and safe. This program is aimed at students and teachers, but anyone can use it.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU

  1. Tell me what typing method you use
  2. Visit the link and do a quick 1 minute typing test. You do not need to register if you don't want to.
  3. Post your WPM score on my post. If you want to, you can even do a print screen and attach it as an image. This is not a competition and will be a lot of fun :) If you are not good at typing, please still post your score and maybe the community can give you some advice and encouragement.

I am looking forward to your participation if you want to. If you don't feel like it, your comments will still be appreciated.

NOT UP FOR THE CHALLENGE?

I will still appreciate your comments.

Do you think it really makes a difference?

HERE IS AN IMAGE OF MY SCORES - I USE TOUCH TYPING

Rika

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training

Recent Comments

17

You're pretty quick, Rika. I'm sure I'm much slower than that, with, at best, some strange hybrid method. Or maybe it is closer to hunt and peck, 'cause I just noticed I'm doing this with my two index fingers. Your posts are fine-Just keep writing! :)

Thanks Rick. Maybe you could try the touch-type method in the new year. It will be strange in the beginning but you will never be sorry you have learned it. It will also save your poor index fingers :))))

I'm probably wearing them down to nubs! :)

Thanks, Rika. My typing needs help. I took a typing class in school and had to type 60 wpm to pass. That was a while ago. lol

I will look into the suggestions to speed it up.

Gregory

Thanks for replying Gregory. I have learned typing in school, but decided to practice some more. I want to reach 70 WPM by the end of next year. I only practice 30 min every 2 days:)))

I saw you post and just didn't take the time to do it. Today i typed 62 wpm at 99% accuracy, but I kind of stopped when I made a mistake because I was not sure now to proceed. I learned touch typing in the 8th grade many decades ago on one of those old boat anchors of a typewriter. The skill served me well through school.

Thanks Jim. I also learned typing in school and today I am very glad for that. I have decided I am going to improve on that and try and reach 70 WPM by the end of next year. In 2018 I want to go above 100 WPM:)))

I am not going to practice that often, but I am going to try and practice at least 30 min every 2 days.

While in college, I applied for a secretarial position. I was told that I had the best typing score of all the applicants but that the place wanted a woman in the position.

Typing isn't a problem for me I can only type as fast as I can think however writing content is the hard part for me. My typing speed is about 40 to 45 words per minute if I could only think of content as fast as I can type I would be doing good LOL

Thank you Gretchen. I agree with you. You can only type as fast as you think. It all depends on why you would need good typing skills.

In my opinion, you get two types:

1. You need to type from documents. This has an advantage if you have very good typing skills.

2. Content writing - You only need typing skills for how fast you can think as you said.:)))

The problem is if you still need to figure out the keyboard and try to type at the same time. It is also a problem if you type slower than you can think :)))

Rika

I have developed my own typing by memory skills even to the point of subconsciously back spacing and correcting

Thanks Mike :)

Hi Rika,

I also used typing. com (and nitrotype .com, which is owned by typing. com) to improve my typing speed. Here's a screenshot of my test results from a year and a half ago. I stopped practicing so much once I hit that speed, so I'm still about that fast. If I'd kept practicing for an hour or so per day like I used to, I'd estimate that I'd be in the 160 WPM range by now...anyway, here's the screenshot:

Thanks Ian. You have a great score. If I may ask, what was your score when you started and how long did it take you to improve?

I started out in 2014 typing 18 WPM. I practiced for about an hour (sometimes a lot more) each day on nitrotype. com, until I hit my goal of typing 120 WPM. It took about a year of consistent practice. :)

Thanks for your answers. Much appreciated :)

No problem. :)

See more comments

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training