Do You Touch Type or Hunt and Peck?

[Midnight_Magic 72]

*peck peck peck peck!* 

 

yeah I peck at the keyboard, but I have become super fast at it! 

 

now I just need to work on my spelling...

[Flutter's lover <3 8,204]

I can type pretty dang fast, though I tend to look a the keyboard when I type. But I don't "Scootaloo" my keyboard. I think about what I'm going to type, and then I move which ever finger to the required key and I go from there.My main fingers are my index and middle fingers.But I use ring or pinkie finger for using shift and such.

 

I think the last typing test I took...I had something like 90 words per minute. But that was also way back in middle or High School. Also my keyboard has back lighting so it makes it super easy to type in the dark.

[Gone Airbourne 21,971]

I do this weird sort of rapidfire peck typing. I know where all the keys are by memory and everything, but never really learned the proper typing form. I'd like to someday though. I imagine it'd let me hammer out papers way quicker and make less dumb errors to boot.

This is exactly how I type in a sense just with a little less speed. Being on this forums has actually helped me a lot with typing which I am very glad for.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Gone Airbourne

[Zhortac 1,473]

I used to 'peck' a couple years back, but now I'm actually rather fluent with the keyboard. There are some situations though, where I feel like I need to look down at the keyboard to see what I'm typing, especially with numbers.

 

I sometimes have to look down, only to see I'm in a good position, then I don't have to, but it's not that often. I never had to look when using the NUM pad though.

 

I took a keyboard class back in college (because my degree made me), and the professor asked me why I was even there. I told him I had to, because of my degree. Of course, I ended up cheating my way through the last half of the course (HTML grading sheets..pays to know HTML code ).

[Moonbacon 384]

i know how to properly type hell i can even type in the dark with little typos

 

my chickenloo days are behind me now

[Gravelord Neat-O 305]

i know how to type, i just feel more comfortable looking at the keyboard.

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

I'm a chicken pecker alright, but I can type very fast in spite of that because I know where all of the keys are from much practice and memory, so even though I type while looking at the keyboard I can punch out many words per minute. I've tried taking typing classes before but to little avail since I found that I made too many mistakes that way. I would rather just type with my index fingers than try and learn through the way of the home row keys. It's a matter of comfort really.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Sugar Cube

[DubWolf 16,713]

Yup. Last I checked, I had a speed of...well this isn't the place to show off, so no need for that!

 

It's easy to tell who uses "chicken peck" by going to the "type your username without looking at the keyboard" forum game .

[Revy ~ Two Hands 862]

I can touch type. The trick is to type a lot

I can touch type. The trick is to type a lot

[websterhamster 203]

I taught myself to type by hammering away at disconnected keyboards until I memorized the key positions. Just like how I can play the piano without looking at the keyboard.

 

I've managed to clock typing speeds of above 45 WPM, but I could only do that on a clacky desktop keyboard. My laptop keyboard couldn't take the abuse, lol.

[Mutemutt 772]

Yep, though I type pretty slow, not much faster than I can right (which is also pretty dang slow). I learned in a high school class; I think it was my 3rd or 4th year. Oddly enough, I start to mess up much more when I look down at the keys while typing these days ( or maybe that's totally normal).

[Creamy Arty 6,251]

I learned how to type "properly" in middle school using the home row. Never did it that way though, and to this day I can touch-type by simply letting my fingers go all over the keyboard as they wish. I can still type just as fast as your average person without using the home row. Angered my teachers that I could do something well with a method other than the one they demanded. A friend of mine types the same way, but he's better than I am. He once had a contest with our typing instructor and smoked her, fewer errors too. Felt good to watch that.

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

Many years ago when I was a youngster, proper typing was taught in school. Under strict tutelage, we students were drilled in the art of using a keyboard. Because of this, I can proudly claim to chicken peck with 3 or even 4 fingers!

 

Yeah, I can't type to save my life...

[♞RedLotus♞ 359]

I don't even have to look at the keyboard, I can type as free as I want! In fact, I'm not even looking as I type this message!

[Mlpfan185 1,763]

Something was here. Something was here. Something was here. 

Edited October 10, 2018 by NONAME

[caramba2654 602]

Well, I know how to type. I look at my keyboard while I'm typing, but that's no problem for me. I type mainly with my index, middle and ring fingers, with some help of my pinkies for shifts and other stuff. Since I've got a new keyboard, I'm still getting used to it (the apostrophe is in a different place), but I'm getting the hang of it.

 

I need to learn how to type the spaces with my thumb.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Artemis
Looks like the content got posted twice due to some glitch, so I removed the second portion.

[Thrashy 2,800]

The way I type is kind of a combination of proper typing and chicken pecking. I type mostly my index and middle fingers, space with my left thumb, and occasionally use my pinky for shift/enter/ctrl/etc. Maybe not the most efficient method of typing, but I don't need to look at the keyboard and I've got a decent typing speed of around 80 WPM with minimal errors, so it works for me.

[RoguesWolfe 192]

I used to chicken peck, but ever since computer class in middle school I stopped that fast. 

[silvadel 1,393]

I type a little off spec in that I do not use my pinkie finger as much as you should -- but I do type without looking at the keyboard and fairly quickly.

[Crystallize 279]

I chicken peck hard. I can type normally with all fingers but I find it much, much faster with chicken pecking. Like at lightning speeds.

[nonexistant 23]

I type. They drilled that into every child at my elementary school, hard core. Type to Learn 3, anyone? I remember they used to put a cardboard box over the keyboard, so we would memorize where the keys were...

[Clover Heart 978]

Define "know how to type." I can type without looking, using all my fingers. However, this isn't the way that we were taught in school in the 90's where your fingers always return to the asdf jkl; position, and you have to hit the right key with the right finger and if you're not you're doing it wrong and it's a huge big deal because you're not doing it "right." I think that in this day and age, typing doesn't really need to be taught. Most people have computers, and if you wanna have any web proficiency, eventually, you'll teach yourself how to type.

 

When I was 10-12 was when the internet started to be much more widely used. I started really using the internet between elementary school and junior high. Posting on forums and chats really gave me experience on typing fast. If you want to respond to someone in a timely manner, you have to learn how to type. Eventually, you start to see patterns in words that you very commonly use, and from there, you start to memorize the positions of the keys. You don't even have to think about it. Words just come out. When I was first doing this, it was all hunt-and-peck, but after a short time, I figured out how to type. My mom was envious that I could type faster than her. And most things that involved writing, I started doing on my computer because I could type faster than I could write by hand.

 

I think that if you give people the opportunity to type, they will and they'll learn how on their own. I realize that in the past before people used computers for everything or even before there were computers, typing courses were necessary. Writing on a typewriter is direct ink to paper. So if you typed something incorrectly, you couldn't delete it. It was just there. Your only option was to use a correction fluid and reset the paper. So you really had to perfect typing when it came to typewriters. Computers were a bit more forgiving, allowing for a delete function. However, because typing on computers was mainly only used for writing documents and papers, which depends on your job or level in school how much you actually did that, there wasn't a lot of opportunity to practice unless you either actively attempted to write on a computer as much as you could or you took a typing course. The latter was far more popular.

 

However, in this day and age where technology surrounds us and you pretty much have to figure out how to type, I think that having courses in typing are useless. Even more useless is the method of typing used in those courses. I understand that if you're teaching a course, you kinda have to do so to some standard, but in the real world, it's really not very practical. The thing is, our brains work differently and will make different sorts of connections within the brain when allowed. So when left to your own devices, you're allowed to come up with a typing style that's most efficient for you. However, when you're trying to conform to this standard of typing, often, you're actively working against what your brain is telling you to do in order to learn it in this specific way. It's inefficient and in the end, you won't be as good a typist as if you'd learned how to in your own way. It's sorta like handwriting. The only way my handwriting became anything that looked to be even slightly legible was when I stopped doing those stupid serifs and methods of making a letter that felt bass-ackwards to me and just started writing in my own style. 

 

Anyway, if you're speaking in terms of the "proper" way to type, I can't actually do that. If you're merely speaking in terms of proficiency and ability to do so without looking down and using more than 1-2 fingers, I know how to type.

[Leatherbehlt 465]

I opted out of taking computer applications this year at school (freshman in high school) and was skeptical about whether or not it was smart, given that I don't have all the special typing position whatnots memorized, but given that I'm not looking at the keyboard at all (first time in quite a while that I'm typing this way) I guess I don't need to worry about it much. Of course, there's still the matter of mastering Microsoft Office...

On the topic of the importance of people knowing how to properly type, I think it's still a good idea to teach younger students about proper typing, even if they're gonna get the hang of it through Facebooking on a tablet, or something close to that. I think knowing how to do it properly (at least being taught a couple years in school for a foundation) helps a lot in being efficient.

[Envy 6,013]

I used to type one letter at a time (well... you know what I mean lol), but after a little while on internet forums (back when I was really active) I became super fast at typing. People who see me type in public can not believe their eyes.

 

I don't mean to brag about that... but it's actually happened. lol

[yeet 2,026]

I can type without looking at the keyboard. when it comes to things using alt and tab, all those things I have to look at the keyboard sometimes, and when I play FPS games I may press the wrong button sometimes and look at the keyboard.