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The Joy of Typing

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Re: The Joy of Typing

#41

Post by ripter »

skywhopper wrote: post #23
nbouscal wrote: post #2

> one 2007 study measured a small group of 21 college students and found their average typing speed was an abysmal 12.2 words per minute That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??

I don't know how fast my middle-school daughter can type, but she doesn't touch-type. Her school does insist that they spend a lot of time using computers for research and writing, and they even take some standardized tests on computers, but they do not teach the kids how to type. Seems to me if you are going to have the kids using computers, then typing should be an early skill to teach them as well. On the flip sid…

That's crazy. My elementary and middle school required that we took typing classes. Mavis Beacon on Apple IIs FTW.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#42

Post by izzydata »

skywhopper wrote: post #23
nbouscal wrote: post #2

> one 2007 study measured a small group of 21 college students and found their average typing speed was an abysmal 12.2 words per minute That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??

I don't know how fast my middle-school daughter can type, but she doesn't touch-type. Her school does insist that they spend a lot of time using computers for research and writing, and they even take some standardized tests on computers, but they do not teach the kids how to type. Seems to me if you are going to have the kids using computers, then typing should be an early skill to teach them as well. On the flip sid…

That seems ridiculous. They were having us do things like reader rabbit 15 years ago in elementary school. By middle school I was already typing at 80 wpm which unfortunately was faster than the fastest speeds for most of the typing games they were having us do at the times.

Granted I'd imagine this could be a problem with funding for computers in certain areas, but I'd at least expect them to have typing classes early on if they are also expecting you to work with computers in other classes. This is one of those skills that is very beneficial to start on early.

My father types nearly every day and can barely do 20 wpm.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#43

Post by mikestew »

larrys wrote: post #32
mikestew wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can type that fast on a phone. I'll assume for the sake of discussion that this number is accurate across a general population. If you sit at a keyboard long enough, how can you not get faster than 12.2 wpm? So much for "kids growing up with computers". All that time in front of a keyboard since kindergarten, and you're output is still restricted by your abysmal typing speed? OTOH, do typing classes even exist anym…

"which I attribute to that typing class. Had I just been left to my own devices to hunt-and-peck my way around" I learned on a manual as well. But by using a book. It took about 3 weeks. I actually stopped at the part where you practice numbers (and regret it to this day). "that we could only use in a blinding snow storm while walking uphill" I was lucky to be able to convince a college instructor to allow me to brin…

> I actually stopped at the part where you practice numbers (and regret it to this day).

We learned that in typing class, but I never did "get" the number row. Bane of my existence to this day. I mean, mostly hit what I want but it's not thoughtless tapping like the rest of the keyboard. Don't know if it's my dainty little fingers or what the deal is.

> Same blinding snow storm that day!

Nah, probably not the same storm. Blinding snow storms were so common back then, it just seemed like it we shared the same weather pattern. Not like the constantly pleasant weather these kids today grow up with.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#44

Post by infogulch »

taternuts wrote: post #14
taeric wrote: post #5

60 words a minute is still very slow, when it comes to thinking speed. Unless I'm just off my rocker, of course. This is also why folks that take really good notes by hand often have some sort of shorthand system. My question, then, is it worthwhile to investigate some of the more advanced typing techniques out there? I'm curious, but highly skeptical.

I have to agree, 60 WPM is pretty slow. Even at 130 WPM I still struggle to keep up with my thoughts sometimes. I don't use any special technique/layout because I find 130 to be pretty proficient, but I'm sure using dvorak or some other odd layout would improve speed after the initial learning curve.

I have the opposite problem. I hover around 60 WPM when transcribing or copying, but I often pause mid-sentence or mid-paragraph to gather my thoughts for what to say next (probably more like how to word it correctly) when writing original content.

Maybe it's a lack of discipline or practice and I'd be able to form thoughts more quickly if I were required to, or maybe I can form thoughts quickly but my typing doesn't keep up and I lose track. That said, I do the stop-to-gather-thoughts thing when I speak as well so maybe I'm hopeless.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#45

Post by hackuser »

z2 wrote: post #25

Back in college, I dictated the bulk of my (humanities) papers using Windows Vista’s built-in speech recognition. It unlocked a new paradigm of revising where I could speak an entire paragraph, delete it without hesitation, and re-write, all in a minute’s time. Including pauses and corrections, I probably got less than 100 WPM. That alone isn't impressive, but it came with minimal fatigue and friction. It was very li…

Could you explain what you mean? Maybe speech recognition has features I don't understand.

Decent text editors can delete and move sentences and paragraphs almost instantly. How is speech recognition different?

Re: The Joy of Typing

#46

Post by e12e »

Avshalom wrote: post #37
e12e wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not "most people", these are college students. If you can't write an essay at a reasonable pace (and don't have an excuse like studying pure math -- by your own admission computer science is out) -- it would appear basic education has failed. Not that that's much of a surprise -- the only reason I'm not hobbled by poor, self-taught, typing is that I was offered touch typing (on a typewriter, mind) in junior…

What's a reasonable pace? 12 wpm is 2-3 pages an hour.

Obviously the most important is how well one writes, not the speed.

But 12 wpm is basically a real handicap -- it is below reasonable speed. Consider that a short essay is maybe 10 pages, and needs a minimum of three drafts... that's 25 pages or so. 8-12 hours of just typing for 10 pages?

I'd say 30 wpm is a reasonable low-bar average.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#47

Post by saraid216 »

streakerbee wrote: post #24
nbouscal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I average 140wpm without any "advanced typing techniques", so I don't think they're really necessary. I can't speak to whether or not they would be helpful, though. I do think it's very worthwhile to be able to type this fast - people speak somewhere around 150wpm on average, and being able to type as fast as you speak is useful for instant messaging, etc.

How did you get so fast? I seem stuck at around 55 wpm.

I developed speed from text MUDs. I'm the type of person who dislikes customizing my setup and prefer to play straight; as a result, I had to consume, digest, and react to pretty large quantities of barely-differentiated text in tenths of a second.

It was good immersion practice.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#48

Post by z2 »

hackuser wrote: post #45
z2 wrote: post #25

Back in college, I dictated the bulk of my (humanities) papers using Windows Vista’s built-in speech recognition. It unlocked a new paradigm of revising where I could speak an entire paragraph, delete it without hesitation, and re-write, all in a minute’s time. Including pauses and corrections, I probably got less than 100 WPM. That alone isn't impressive, but it came with minimal fatigue and friction. It was very li…

Could you explain what you mean? Maybe speech recognition has features I don't understand. Decent text editors can delete and move sentences and paragraphs almost instantly. How is speech recognition different?

Sure, deleting is fast, but I meant that typing something back isn't. Speaking makes it faster and easier to start over with multiple sentences until one works. Maybe it's just laziness -- when typing, I am more hesitant to redo entire paragraphs. When typing, I also feel more caught up in the details and words inside my sentences. (Though that may not be a bad thing!)

Re: The Joy of Typing

#49

Post by ANTSANTS »

mikestew wrote: post #20

"because you’re no longer struggling with the tool at hand." I saw this coming somewhere around the first paragraph. Those students who are trying to transcribe lectures and not actually learning anything? My guess is it's because they're burning cycles mentally saying "'the', I need to find 't' and an 'h', aaaaaand 'e'. 'quick', where the hell is 'q'?" As a parallel, take Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) as a guitar player…

>Those students who are trying to transcribe lectures and not actually learning anything? My guess is it's because they're burning cycles mentally saying "'the', I need to find 't' and an 'h', aaaaaand 'e'. 'quick', where the hell is 'q'?"

I wouldn't be so sure. I can write and type just fine, but I always learned better in class by listening to the teacher instead of trying to produce a pile of notes. All of the kids I remember that wasted their time writing down everything the teacher said without really listening to them, did just the same with computers or old-fashioned pen and paper.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#50

Post by taeric »

nbouscal wrote: post #18
taeric wrote: post #5

60 words a minute is still very slow, when it comes to thinking speed. Unless I'm just off my rocker, of course. This is also why folks that take really good notes by hand often have some sort of shorthand system. My question, then, is it worthwhile to investigate some of the more advanced typing techniques out there? I'm curious, but highly skeptical.

I average 140wpm without any "advanced typing techniques", so I don't think they're really necessary. I can't speak to whether or not they would be helpful, though. I do think it's very worthwhile to be able to type this fast - people speak somewhere around 150wpm on average, and being able to type as fast as you speak is useful for instant messaging, etc.

I thought with the advanced techiques you can get upwards of 600 wpm. I mean, the minimum to get the job is 225ish.[1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_reporter#Skills_and_train...

edit: Forgot to add. Just because I thought you could get to 600 doesn't mean I was right. :) Looks like 300 is still quite high.

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