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TOUCH TYPING — AN INTRODUCTION
Touch typing was a technique invented by a court stenographer named Frank Edward McGurrin, from Salt Lake City,
Utah in 1888.
In this technique, the typing is done by feeling the keys using the memory of the finger’s muscle movement, without
looking at the keys. The fingers hit the right keys by force of habit. Touch typing can be done with two hands or by using
a single hand also. Only after vigorous training of proper typing technique this skill can be learnt. The typing speed can
also be increased gradually with more practice as this will help you learn the position of the keys and then the speed
of 60 WPM (words per minute) or higher can be easily achieved.
Touch Typing has become an essential skill for the data entry operators because of the following reasons:
• It speeds up the typing process, as the touch typist doesn’t have to look at the keyboard to type the letters.
• There are less chances of making errors, so it increases the productivity.
• It improves the body’s sitting posture and also reduces neck pain as the focus is on the screen and not on the
keyboard.
Stages of Touch Typing
Following are the four important stages of mastering the skill of Touch Typing:
Stage 1
It begins by learning to keep the fingers of both the hands on the Home Row keys. This is followed by learning the
keys of the lower rows, upper rows, number rows and special characters keys. Do remember that this skill is learnt by
feeling the keys with less movement of the eyes and each finger has to operate, only the key allotted to it.
Stage 2
After you are thorough with Stage 1, you move to Stage 2 where you learn to memorise the frequently used syllables
and practice them for a few days by typing the words containing these syllables.
Stage 3
After successful completion of the above two stages, you learn to type short stories from books or articles from the
newspaper or any other piece of data, to get used to the above learnt technique.
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