#$@#@&! SOPHOMORE, not sophmore. Sheesh.
Oh, Lord! I remember counting to center titles. And doublestriking for bold. And how some letters could be overtyped to make the right letter. (Change “o” to “b”, or “c” to “e”.) Oh and that “l” and “1” are the same on a typewriter. And what a major pain in the ass footnotes were. :mad: I had to retype practically every page of my term paper because our teacher decided that footnotes were so much more better than end notes and I couldn’t figure out how much footer space to leave. Over and over and over.
BTW is anybody using a Dvorak or other non-qwerty keyboard? I’m on a qwerty, never learned any other kind. Last I checked I’m typing at about 55 wpm on copy but much faster out of my own head. That skill comes from running multiple IM windows on ye olde AOHell.
I took formal typing classes on typewriters in elementary, and again in sixth grade on an ancient PC. I think my parents’ old Smith-Corona is still hiding in my closet at their house somewhere, though…
Some of it stuck, but most of it didn’t. I learned most of my typing skills from playing story RPGs and writing (execrable) poetry on Prodigy and local BBSes. I kept looking at the keyboard to figure out where things were, and eventually developed a kind of muscle memory.
My CS teacher in eighth grade looked at the way I was typing, with both hands hovering over the keyboard and not touching at all except to strike the keys, and kind of shook her head. But she didn’t try to make me change, since I was doing OK by myself without looking at the keyboard.
Working as a tech writer these days means a comfortable speed of 70-80wpm, although I generally tend to need to look to find the numbers and/or use the number keypad. And I type with … let’s see, the very nailtips of about nine fingers (right pinky doesn’t seem to get used).
AWESOME.
–Cliffy
I took a typing class as an elective in eighth grade. At the time, it was mainly to satisfy my mother, who felt that if a girl knew how to type, she could at least support herself as a secretary. (Literally. That’s the reason she gave me when she wanted me to take typing.) The classroom had manual typewriters, but my parents gave me an electric typewriter for Christmas that year so I could practice at home. I think I managed to hit 30-40 wpm on the electric typewriter, with very few errors.
When I was a sophomore in college, the school set up a computer system that would allow students to type out papers using EMACS on the mainframe, then have the papers printed on a daisywheel printer in the computer room. This was really COOL, even with having to enter formatting tags to get italics and underlined text, etc. My typing skills got REALLY good though when a friend taught me how to get into Jewels of Darkness, a text-based game loaded on the mainframe.
When I was in graduate school, I learned to use PC’s–Macs at first, then IBMs with DOS, then IBMs with OS/Warp, then finally Windows 95. I still typed a lot of papers on my typewriter, though, since the computer labs were not open at 3am, and it was often faster just to type the things out on the typewriter a couple of hours before the paper was due, than it was to try to schedule time in the computer labs then pick up the printout in the central office later. We finally got a computer of our own in 1989 (8088 with DOS and WordPerfect), so I could do more writing at home, and the typewriters disappeared into storage.
I now have a 14yo daughter, who learned to use a computer sitting on our laps. I wrote a bunch of batch files for her, so that all she had to do was type a letter to open her games on the DOS machine. By the time we got Windows 3.1, she could type her name, and read lots of words like Cancel, Exit, Save, etc. Now she types 100 wpm, completely touch typing. In fact, she painted over all the letters on her keyboard with nail polish, and got letter stickers so she could stick the letters in the wrong places. I can still use her computer since I can touch type, but she has effectively made her computer impossible to use by her father and brother.
Self taught, on my Macs.
I’m now up to over 130 wpm, apparently.
Just think: At some time in the not so distant future, some Nice Young Man[sup]TM[/sup] will be charmed by her alluring smile and come calling on her, never dreaming that such an evil, complex mind lurks behind that beautiful face. :eek:
Sounds like something my sister would have done, had I been inclined to use her typewriter.
Keyboarding class, 6th grade.
Typewriting class: 9th grade.
All passed with flying colors. Both were required classes.
I can’t remember how I learned to type. Probably somewhere on the old Amiga dad had. I remember getting a typing book at some stage, and playing around with that and the Amiga from time to time.
Then at some point in high school I discovered internet chatting, and roleplaying online. That requires fast typing, and my clumsy efforts weren’t good enough. So I found a copy of Typing Tutor online and hooked into that. Then in grade nine or ten I took Information Processing at school, and typing was a mandatory component of that class. I blitzed it with a typing speed of over 80wpm and 99% accuracy.
I’ve been tested a few times since I started working call centre jobs (that really require quick typing and accuracy [especially if you’re insanely anal-retentive when it comes to spelling, as I am]), and my average speed when copying runs up to approximately 90 wpm, 98-99% accuracy. I don’t know how fast I am typing from my own head.
I learned on typewriters in junior high. Since that was ages ago, I don’t recall any typewriter habits.
It was a very valuable class, though; I’m glad I took it.
In summer school during junior high on a manual typewriter. I’ve learned a lot of stuff over the years, but I have to rank learning to type on the top of my list. But, damn, I wish I didn’t miss that one class when they taught the numbers on the top row. To this day, I have to peek and peck to type numbers.
I learned in junior high on the manual typewriter with blank keys. I still remember counting out letters to try and center titles (and, yes, footnotes were the tool of the devil).
I used a manual typewriter all through high school. In college I finally got an electric–with corrector tape! I thought I was living in the Jetson’s era for a while!
I did learn to type really fast–but damn, 20 years later and I still bang furiously on a key board! I haven’t been able to adjust to the fact that these keys don’t require any force!
My handwriting was/is atrocious, but my favorite tv show was gonna be cancelled so I pecked out a letter on an old manual typewriter to the network. In fact I wrote several letters and eventually I could type fairly quickly. Well, my tv show was cancelled anyway but my letters to the fanzine continued. Later in school, I learned to type with both hands. It was hard but it taught me to type faster… :dubious: with one hand, that is, :rolleyes: :rolleyes: and to type singlehandedly on the other hand. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Oh, the tv show…you might not have heard of it. Back then they said hardly anyone watched it. It was called Star Trek. :eek: :eek: :eek:
I taught myself how to type on message boards, IMs, and chat rooms over the past five years.
Before first getting online in late 1999, I probably managed 15 WPM on my best days and had to stare at my hands the entire time but after enough time online, I can touch-type around 70 WPM on a good day and average about 55 to 60 on a typical day if I don’t have to use too many numerals or symbols.
Just checked a test site: 60 WPM Net, 62 Gross.
Made a stupid mistake near the end that cost me about five words.
Learned to type by writing a novel when I was 10.
Took a class (sophomore year?)–found out I was doing it all wrong. Many fingers on wrong keys. Did not know there were certain keys assigned to certain fingers, but once I learned this I did well in class on a manual typewriter.
Fast forward to 2002, working as a temp secretary. Got a desk that had one of those divided keyboards. Learned I am hitting a good many keys with the wrong hand!
(notably the 7 and the N although there were other goofs that caused me to have to not just look at the keyboard, but really search hard. Where . . . is . . .the . . . ALT . . . key? The single quote?)
In other words, still doing it all wrong.
Other than that–typing speed is 100+. Accuracy good when it has to be, otherwise not so good.
I learned on an antique manual Remington. I use both ‘Shift’ keys but I’ve long stopped trying to hit the carriage return.
I don’t make typerwriter-type mistakes as such but I still expect the ‘Caps Lock’ button to give me: ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) etc when I hit the numerals.
Taught myself using a program on a computer on summer break. The next year, we had a mandatory typing class, and I learned to type on a manual computer. Two years later, I took it again as an elective and learned to type on an electric typewriter. At the time, I hated the class, but man am I glad for it now. Learning to type was probably the biggest time saver I’ve ever learned.
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- There was a recent story about a company now that makes blank keyboards, for the tech/admin set. They claim that it’s the best way to learn how to touch-type, because there is literally no point in looking at the keys.
Site link: http://www.daskeyboard.com/
Slashdottage: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/25/123240&tid=227
- There was a recent story about a company now that makes blank keyboards, for the tech/admin set. They claim that it’s the best way to learn how to touch-type, because there is literally no point in looking at the keys.
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- I took a typing class in high school but at home we had no computer then, and type writers were no fun at all so I never got above a few words per minute, I tried a Mavis Beacon program and after a couple weeks of doing the little drills in that I think the absolute best I ever did error-free was like 18 WPM. I never really cared because I never wanted to do data entry for a living anyway. …-And especially since then I have found that I type extremely poorly on flat, straight keyboards, compared to ergo-types. I do much better (with occasional passages of touch-typing) on a MS Natural keyboard, and ponder someday of plunking down the credit card for a Kinesis keyboard, just to see how it goes.
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/essential.htm
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Me too!
I took all the business machine classes, starting in junior high in the late 50’s, with manual typewriters and dictating machines that used those film/plastic loop things.
I never got very good with the banking machines – those huge metal adding machine things on stands. They must have been around since the 1920’s, maybe earlier.
The hardest part about switching to PCs was holding my breath when my words disappeared from the screen. Where’d they go? Are they still there? What’s this “word wrap” bullpucky? I still have to hit Return, don’t I? 