The Art of Typing by Logan
Logan's entry into Varsity Tutor's February 2023 scholarship contest
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The Art of Typing by Logan - February 2023 Scholarship Essay
In this modern age, It is without a doubt impossible for a student to succeed without the ability to quickly and effectively type on a computer. As the American education system switches to a digital curriculum, students are expected to become better acquainted with computers than ever. Many students, even those who have been using computers for years, still clumsily stumble over the keyboard and struggle to find the proper typing form and strategy. Learning to type allows a student to focus on what they are trying to say rather than how they are typing the information down. To effectively use a computer, take notes, and follow the curriculum, it is imperative students learn to properly type.
When I entered high school in the 9th grade, I was quickly swamped with what seemed to be an endless supply of work. I found myself spending hours every day slowly typing out notes and essays on my computer. I felt overworked and stressed. After weeks of researching how to effectively study, I found that my problem was not that I wasn’t understanding the schoolwork, but that I was getting discouraged because of my inability to effectively and quickly convey what was on my mind to the keyboard.
Learning to properly type allows students to reduce the time it takes to complete assignments and often opens a window to more free time. In the second semester of my freshmen year, I had an extra credit and decided to take a typing class called Touch System Data Entry (TSDE). I was not expecting to learn a lot from TSDE and honestly just took the class in hopes of it offsetting harder subjects to lessen my overall workload.
Much to my dismay, TSDE initially had rather large amounts of homework and I found myself struggling to learn which keys coordinated with which finger and was frustrated with typing the required three pages worth of notes every day. Most of the sentences on the notes were nothing more than random words jumbled together. It seemed pointless.
After slightly under a month of practice, I found that I was completing my schoolwork significantly faster. Learning to properly type taught me to effectively and quickly transfer words from my mind to the computer. Though it was difficult, learning to properly type provided me with over an hour of free time every day after school.
As we switch to a completely digital curriculum, it is important students learn the fundamentals of using computers. Typing is often overlooked as a necessary skill for success. Students must learn to type as doing so allows for work to be finished in a faster, more efficient manner and allows what is being typed to be the focus rather than how words are being typed.