1 of 12

Write now Article Tools

Typing is a very mechanical skill. In order to type quickly and accurately, you need to burn into your "muscle memory" the location of the keys on the keyboard. The only way to do this effectively is to start with the basics and work up methodically from there.

Learning to type is very much like learning to play a musical instrument. When you want to play the guitar or the piano, the first thing you do is learn where to put your fingers to hit the basic notes. Then, you slowly learn how to move your fingers from this starting position to hit other notes and produce music.

After lots of practice, this movement becomes second nature and you can quickly and accurately move from one chord to another or follow a melody. In reading a complex piece of music, you cannot stop to think each time that you have to move your fingers - your fingers need to know instinctively where to go.

In typing, you start with that same starting position. Your hands sit on "asdf" and "jkl;". Once you can navigate this starting position, you jump up a row and down a row and type short words and sentences. It is only after you can instinctively move between these positions that you can type complex statements quickly and accurately.

There are multiple methods to achieve this end, but I learned through a typing program. My parents purchased Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing while I was a child, and for some reason I enjoyed playing it. It followed this progression - basic hand positions, short words, short sentences, and complex sentences. It was rough at first to learn to type without looking at the keyboard, but it was the only way to learn to type as well as I do now.

I would recommend finding a similar program. Mavis Beacon may not be in vogue these days, but there are plenty of programs that let you progress at a personal rate from the basics to the complex. Remember, though, that it's all about practice and use. Your muscles need to remember what you want them to do, and that only comes through continual and persistent effort.

Learn more about this author, B. Rock.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Tips for improving your typing skills?
We want to hear your view. Write now!