Pitman
Training touch typing tutor Liz Davis
interviewed
recently by the Evening Standard to discuss why typing is such an
important skill
"Practice makes perfect "
...even for Hollywood stars!
Liz teaches our 2-day
Fast Track typing course and is also our ‘Trainer to the Stars’!
She has worked closely with
Hollywood actors on and off-set to give them authentic typing skills for
their roles. Including:
-
Ben Whishaw as Q
in the Bond films Skyfall and Spectre;
-
Lily James as
Winston Churchill’s PA in Darkest Hour;
-
Ruth Wilson in
Mrs Wilson.
Here are some of Liz’s
top tips for you on how to become a perfect touch typist.
1. Have a good posture
Sit up straight and don’t
slouch, that slows you down! Make sure you hold your wrists off the
desk, as that allows fluid movement of your hands and fingers across the
keyboard to help you build great speeds.
2. Ditch the wrist rest
Wrist rest or not? I advise
not. You want to build strength in your wrists and keep your elbow and
shoulder movements flexible to develop rhythm.
3. Use a regular keyboard
Start on a regular
straight-ended keyboard, not a laptop. The keyboard has pronounced keys
and a raised edge on the ‘F’ and ‘J’ keys which helps to anchor your
index fingers so that you can return easily to the Home keys. You can
buy a cheap keyboard to plug into your laptop while learning.
4. Spell out words in your head
Spell out letters,
punctuation and spaces in your head as you practise. This helps to embed
habits through your senses – visual, verbal, audio and touch. This
allows you to use muscle memory to associate a letter with the correct
finger and key; it encourages rhythm, so you can increase your tempo and
increase speed; and it develops your accuracy through focusing on
individual characters.
5. Turn your screen off
Try turning your PC monitor
off when you practise using hard copy text. This concentrates your mind
purely on typing. When you turn the monitor on again, you’ll quickly see
which characters or combinations are giving you trouble and can focus on
those.
6. Keep practising
Practice makes perfect –
little and often is best. Half an hour’s practice each day is definitely
better than two hours, twice a week.
Spell
out letters, punctuation and spaces in your head as you practise
.
