Tips to Improve Typing Using Keyboard

Computer education is vital for the students as digitization of education has taken shape over the past decade. Additionally, with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, traditional schools have switched to the online mode of teaching for safety purposes. As online submission of assignment and exam papers have become a new trend for traditional education as well, students are facing the challenge of typing in their desktop or laptop systems to turn in the assessment on time. In fact, as time passed, the struggle to type fast also exists among office employees. It is important to shape the foundation of good computing skills and it begins with a decent typing speed. The following are some of the tips that can help in overcoming this challenge:

1. Exercise for Fingers: The muscles of our fingers should be strengthened so that even if we are typing for hours, the fingers are not in agony. When the muscles are weak, it is most likely to be in pain or swelling. Hence, a few finger-specific exercises that can be performed even during free time can help in muscle strengthening around the fingers.
   
   
2. Practice: One can practice writing an essay of about a page in writing software and check for the speed. The same essay could be then re-typed at a faster pace than the first attempt. In case there are any errors found while proofreading, the second attempt at the same pace could be repeated until typo errors are reduced. The time should also be recorded. This way several attempts could be made eventually until the desired speed is achieved. This may not happen in a day or two but requires dedicated practice.
   
   
3. Features: Irrespective of the software a student will use, it is important to know the basic features that can aid in providing comprehensive help while typing. A simple example could be the red highlighting of spelling errors in a word document or a green highlight for grammatical errors in the document. Such features can provide support for almost immediate correction.

These are some of the basic tips to start with to master the habit of typing using a keyboard. It is important to develop some kind of muscle memory for the keys depicting the alphabets. It will also improve the ability to complete online exams before the time ends or you can hire an online test taker. Initially, when new to typing, it is obvious to take extra time looking for the keys but as practice goes on for days, one would start retaining the same information in the mind that they may not even have to look at the keyboard while they type. In the end, typing requires lots of practice and the key to error-free write-up is proofreading. Just like preparing drafts and proofreading or even for final ones, it’s a good practice to do the same for typed documents as well. It is always advisable to keep a dictionary of the language one is typing in or even take the help of online tools for proofreading the document.