Any tips on improving letter order?

By hello90 - updated: 6 years, 10 months ago - 3 messages

I notice the majority of the mistakes are from typing the letter too early. I try to go slow and be accurate to prevent myself from making this mistake, but I do it anyway. Should I just not look ahead at the other word and letters? It's hard because you can read faster than you can type.
By user66960 - posted: 6 years, 10 months ago

When you get really good, you won't look ahead at letters, you'll only look ahead at words, for you will have mastered the basics of typing. I don't have a general picture of where you are with knowing the basics so I'll just throw some things out here that you may know or not: keep driving hard at learning the "home keys", top and bottom rows, punctuation and numbers until you have attained a score of 40 w.p.m with 100% accuracy, but when you practice those exercises, force yourself to type on a "beat", that is, type each letter, number or punctuation character with precisely the same speed as the one before it, the one after it; what you want to achieve is the sound of your fingers typing like the sound of a machine. If you type on an offbeat, you will be prone to make far more ordering mistakes. Also, force yourself to first 'see' the letter you are typing before you type it--I don't mean look down at the keyboard and look first at the letter you are to type, but (since we're touch typists) look at the letters on the screen and slow down to about 15 to 20 w.p.m to focus on seeing in your mind the key assignment to the letter you are wanting to type. If you need to type a "W", put your fingers to the home keys and very, very, very slowly start making the finger in your left hand start to go to the "W" position on the keyboard. Do that with all of your letters, punctuation, and numbers, for the more you start to 'see' where those letters are in your mind, the more those letter positions on the keyboard will be burned into your neural network in your brain. The reason why people are able to type 80 w.p.m or better with very high accuracy is because they have burned those letters positions in their neural memory's. I don't know if I've helped you; I hope I have. Best wishes with your typing endeavors, fellow typist.
Updated 6 years, 10 months ago
By joshlachapelle - posted: 6 years, 10 months ago

Try and read the sentence and focus on the bar UNDER the phrase where you are typing. Use your peripheral vision to make sure you are staying clear, if you see red (which you will) look back up and correct your error. I find there is a lag to typing to the prompter, I have better results when I look at my type board.
By vdaywondr - posted: 6 years, 10 months ago

I'm no expert. I only type around 50 words a minute. I practice everyday on a mechanical keyboard at home. At work I use a different keyboard. And in the beginning it was difficult to adjust between the two. I also struggle with letter ordering, but I feel that lately I've overcome it and would like to share my so-called breakthrough. Anytime I noticed that I was making a lot of ordering errors I would slow down and focus on typing individual words quickly. Don't look ahead! If i messed up on a word or noticed that I was constantly typing it incorrect I would write it down on a notepad. Then I'd open a new browser window and type that word repeatedly until I found a nice pattern that worked for me. I've noticed that I'm now looking ahead because my hands just know the words. It's a pretty awesome feeling!
Updated 6 years, 10 months ago