If you thought that learning to touch type only involved learning where the letter keys are and which fingers you used to type those letters, it’s time to turn your attention to the punctuation keys so that you can use those letters to form words, and use punctuation to form those words into proper English phrases. All of the punctuation keys you need to construct grammatically-correct sentences are available on a QWERTY keyboard. If you have questions about the proper usage of the various punctuation marks, you’ll find plenty of explanation in grammar books and on the Internet – it’s much too big a topic for a single typing-related post.

Punctuation marks are an important part of sentence construction. Their use tells the reader when to stop, pause, and feel excitement. They join separate but related thoughts. They help the reader understand when someone else is speaking or is being quoted. They do all of this and so much more. So always be sure to include them!

Before you start typing, take some time to learn where the different punctuation keys are located and which fingers you should use to access them. Here’s a hint: Almost all of them will be accessed with the fingers on your right hand.

The comma is located on the bottom row, to the right of the letter M. The period is to the right of the comma and the question mark is to the right of the period.

The colon is on the same key as the semicolon. And that means you’ll need to press the [Shift] key to type a colon.

Both the single quote and the double quotation marks are on the key to the right of the semicolon/colon key.