Beth Worthy
7/24/2015
Can you maintain your typing speed to around 65+ wpm consistently with an accuracy rate of 95% to 98%? A person’s typing speed can be the difference between an average and a highly-efficient transcriptionist.
The ever-growing transcription industry needs highly-efficient transcriptionists who can produce texts instantly, almost in a mechanical fashion from varied sources to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of clients.
The list of clients can be endless –from academia, medical, legal, roadshow, and documentary to corporate, and meeting their deadline is the priority of a transcriptionist.
The career of a transcriptionist depends upon, among other skills, a high typing speed. If you want to reach higher on the rungs of the ladder of transcription, the first step for giving you a firm hold is a high, accurate, and consistent typing speed.
An average typist generally maintains 92% Accuracy. It means nearly 8 typos for every hundred words typed.
Your typing speed could determine whether you’ll succeed in the booming industry or will be left out of the competition. You can manage all transcription jobs that come on by learning useful tips from experts who have been there, and done that.
Learn the best typing tips to embark on your mission of improving your typing speed.
These 4 expert’ tips have helped many people type at almost at jet speed.
1. Maintain Accuracy by Avoiding Looking at the Keyboard
Avoid looking at the keyboard is a rule of thumb for faster typing. This is the first tip as soon as you start writing - whether you are a beginner or an advanced professional.
a) Develop Muscle Memory. Initially, it will take you longer to type, but it’s important that you stick to it every single time you type. Although it will result in frequent mistakes while you type, it will help imprint the position of keys in your ‘muscle memory’.
b) Avoid Wood-Pecking. Avoid typing with a single finger, which is also known as wood-pecking. Don't use the keyboards position as a crutch. If the urge to glance at the keys deters you, cover the keys with a paper while typing. Practice diligently, and before you know it, your typing speed will be faster than you imagined.
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Read Also: Top 5 Eye Care Tips for Computer Screen Use
2. Follow the Right Technique
Following a good technique is the key difference between a professional typist and an amateur typist. If you want to become an expert at typing, learn and follow the best techniques.
a) Use Touch Typing. Touch typing involves feeling the keys and their accurate position. You can feel the raised bar over F and J with your index fingers. This will help you position the rest of the fingers on the base or home keys.
b) Keep Your Fingers on the Home Keys. Position your fingers on the home keys: A, S, D, and F for the left-hand side and J, K, L, and ; for the right-hand side. Use all fingers to speed up typing and practice regularly for strengthening you muscle memory.
Try to memorize their positions and keep a mental map of the QWERTY keys. This technique will give results gradually – so don’t hurry – good speed will develop naturally over time with practice.
3. Always Keep the Correct Posture While Typing
Maintaining the correct posture while typing is crucial to avoid injuries and typing fast simultaneously. If you continue to type with bad posture, you might suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and develop Tendinitis. Tendonitis does not need to be capitalized, and it should be spelled the way I have it.
Don’t forget to stick to these correct postures every time you type:
a) Keep your neck and back straight and supported.
b) Keep your feet flat on the floor at 90 degrees.
c) Your wrists should be at the home keys and leveled with the keyboard.
This posture will keep you relaxed and keep your energy levels intact.
4. Practice for Perfection
Practice daily for improving your typing performance over time. Regular practice will help you retain the good technique and you won’t lose the muscle memory you have developed. You can get help from the online typing tests for regular practice and also track your progress.
Along with that, you should keep typing on chats and forums over multiple windows. Identify the words or letter pairings that give you the most trouble and practice to get a hold over them too.
While you follow the important tips to improve your typing, you can get typing lessons, tutorials, tests and even games on several online websites that offers useful reviews and track your progress continuously.Here are the top 5 online typing websites that will help you improve your typing speed:
TypingTest.com - “This is a great site that has typing tests, courses and games that you can take advantage of. They claim to be the number one resource and I believe they are.” -Virginia Nakitari, Founder at Transcription Hub Pros
TypeRacer.com - TypeRacer.com is another great online website that has interesting options to improve typing speed. You can chat with friends and compete against them in a private typing race.
GoodTyping.com - GoodTyping.com is one of the best online websites to improve typing. It gives you the option to switch between 23 keyboard styles. As you complete the provided 27 typing lessons, you will find yourself typing really fast.
10FastFingers.com - 10FastFingers.com offers specific lessons to improve finger positions and ingrain the keys’ position in your muscle memory. It offers several fun ways to teach typing lessons such as typing games, tying competitions, and interesting typing tests.
Typing.com - Typing.com is an online typing website that can help you earn a typing certificate— from a beginner to an advanced level. It offers typing lessons in the form of tutorials and fun games.
A transcriptionist needs to not only type faster but also for longer hours most days. If you do not follow proper posture while typing, you might develop repetitive strain injury (RSI). This develops when the wrist joint suffers excessive strain from the wrong typing style.
However, you can avoid wrist injuries by following these tips every time you type:
Read: 7 Great Tips to Prevent Wrist Injuries While Typing
Watch: How to Prevent Wrist Injuries While Typing: Exercises for Wrists
Finally, you can see yourself typing at the required typing rate of a professional transcriptionist and earn extras on the basis of your jet-speed typing speed. Keep up the practice and stay safe from injuries while typing too.
Do you have more useful suggestions for typing fast while working as a transcriptionist? Share your tips below!
