Ielts 7+ computer skills

The ability to type quickly and accurately is a skill that can help no matter your career. Producing quality work with few typos or missing words helps ensure that the focus remains on the message of your content. Improving your typing skills may also help strengthen your written communication skills and allow you to advance in your career.   In this article, we offer tips to help you improve your typing skills, including accuracy and speed, and suggest typing exercises for beginner and advanced typists.   Career Guide   Career developmentHow To Improve Your Typing Skills (Plus Exercises)How To Improve Your Typing Skills (Plus Exercises)   Indeed Editorial Team   Updated February 28, 2023   The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed's data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.   The ability to type quickly and accurately is a skill that can help no matter your career. Producing quality work with few typos or missing words helps ensure that the focus remains on the message of your content. Improving your typing skills may also help strengthen your written communication skills and allow you to advance in your career.   In this article, we offer tips to help you improve your typing skills, including accuracy and speed, and suggest typing exercises for beginner and advanced typists.   Related jobs on Indeed   Part-time jobsFull-time jobsRemote jobsUrgently hiring jobs   View more jobs on Indeed   Why are typing skills important?   Many careers require basic typing skills, so it’s useful to develop your ability to type regardless of your career path. Here are a few reasons why being able to type is important and beneficial to your career:   Aids in communication   It can be easier to email and draft other forms of communication when you can type well. Practicing your skill so that you can type with more speed and accuracy helps you become more productive and complete these communication tasks quickly. Some job roles may require long correspondence through letters, speeches, presentations or blogs, in which case your accuracy when typing is equally important to avoid miscommunication.   When you’re proficient in your typing skills, you can focus more on your message. This can help you become a more effective communicator.   Related: 10 Benefits of Effective Communication in the Workplace   Enhances your resume   You can add your typing skills to your resume as part of your technical skill set. If you’re seeking an administrative or creative role, adding typing skills may be especially helpful since typing may be a more significant part of those roles. Including typing skills also may show hiring managers your commitment to developing all your skills.   Increases productivity   Having the ability to type fast with accuracy can aid in a variety of tasks, such as:   Researching   Creating presentations   Developing resource guides   Inputting data   Sharing ideas   Improving your typing skills can help you become more efficient when performing any job duties that require the use of a keyboard, meaning you can complete tasks and move on to new ones.   Related: How Is Worker Productivity Measured? (With Example)   How to improve your typing speed and accuracy   Demonstrating efficient typing skills can help boost your communication skills and avoid misunderstandings. Here are four tips to improve your typing skills:   1. Familiarize yourself with the keyboard   Familiarize yourself with the proper hand position on the keyboard and start with typing some common words. Place your left and right pointer fingers on the “F” and the “J” keys. Many keyboards have a little raised tab on those letters so you can orient your fingers without looking. Let your others fingers fall on the remaining keys in the home row, which consists of “D,” “S,” and “A for the left hand and “K,” “L,” and the “;” symbol for the right hand. Both thumbs rest on the space bar.   With your fingers positioned on the home row, you can train your hands to reach all the other keys without looking. People consider this “touch typing.” Essentially, each finger is responsible for the keys just above and below the home row key on which it sits. The right pinky is responsible for the “Return,” “Shift” and “Delete” keys, and the left pinky is for the “Shift,” “Caps Lock” and “Tab” keys. It may feel awkward at first, but it can feel more natural with practice.   Related: 12 Online Typing Jobs You Can Do From Home   2. Learn proper typing position   You probably know roughly where the keys are on the keyboard, but the goal of improving your typing skills is to do it without looking at them. You can ensure success by putting your body in the proper position for comfort and avoiding injury. Follow these steps to improve your typing posture and positioning:   Sit up straight in a chair with the keyboard or laptop at a comfortable height on the table or desk.   Put your feet flat on the floor.   Place the screen so it’s 15 to 25 inches from your eyes and in a position where you look down slightly.   Keep your elbows bent at a 90-degree angle, and try to expose your shoulders, arms, wrists and elbows to as little strain as possible. You want to avoid developing any habits that would cause repetitive stress injury long-term.   Related: How To Sit Properly at a Desk (With Examples and Exercises)   3. Start by typing slowly to avoid mistakes   You can measure typing speed in words per minute (WPM). A speed of 60 to 80 wpm is good for the average person. The WPM calculation counts uncorrected mistakes to determine your accuracy and speed. Starting to practice slowly teaches you to type accurately first, increasing your speed as you learn. Typing the document correctly the first time eliminates the need for excessive copyediting and proofreading. It’s easier to avoid the mistake in the first place than to find and correct it later.   Many word processing programs offer auto-correct or a bright red underline for mistakes, but they can’t catch everything. Genuinely wanting to improve your typing skills means seeking improvement without the aid of correcting technology.   Related: How To Include Typing Skills on a Resume (With Template and Example)   4. Practice often   Practice leads to developing a mature brain, and the resulting structural changes to the brain encode that learning. For practice sessions, make sure you create a hospitable environment. Don’t lie on a bed or slump on the couch with a laptop on your legs. Find a chair with proper lumbar support for your back, and maintain good posture while you type. When you’re serious about any kind of practice, a comfortable set-up encourages consistency.   When you decide to pursue improving your typing skills, make a schedule to practice, as you would when learning a musical instrument or making art. It’s easy to keep a commitment to a friend, so try to apply the same principle and keep your commitment to yourself.   Related: 12 Transcription Skills and How You Can Develop Them   Beginner exercises to improve typing skills   You can use the exercises below once you’re sitting properly. Follow these directions:   Exercise 1   This exercise features typing random words to practice capitalization and finger positioning on the keyword. Consider typing the following words:   the be to of and a in that have I it for not on with he as you do at this but his by from they we say her she or an my one all would there their what so up out if about who   Exercise 2   This exercise features a well-known fable. Consider typing the following story to help improve your typing skills:   The Hare & the Tortoise by Aesop   A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.   “Do you ever get anywhere?” he asked with a mocking laugh.   “Yes,” replied the Tortoise, “and I get there sooner than you think. I’ll run you a race and prove it.”   The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.   The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.   The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully, and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.   The race does not always go to the swift.