What Should My Typing Goals Be?

If you’re new to touch typing or if you just have a general sense of “I need to get better” then you might not have any specific goal in mind for your touch typing practice. If you’re still having trouble defining your touch typing goals, this post might help, because it relates typing to professions, and you can use this information to tailor your goals to your career plans. We’ll go over some general information regarding what different roles or professions may require in terms of touch typing speed and accuracy.

If you are interested in becoming an office worker, the ability to touch type is an absolute must. You probably won’t even be considered for this type of job without touch typing skills. In this role, typing speed and typing accuracy are both important since you will be responsible for typing correspondence, proposals, reports, presentations, business letters, marketing materials, and more. You will probably do a good amount of emailing, too.

A minimum typing speed of 45 words per minute, or “wpm,” is what most candidates will need to qualify for a job as a typist, secretary, or administrative assistant. Of course, the faster you can type without losing accuracy, the more valuable you are to an employer.

Another in-demand position that relies heavily on touch typing is a medical transcriptionist. For this job, your typing speed should be a minimum of 65 wpm. In addition, because the vocabulary is highly specialized and not in common use, touch typing prevents you from being slowed down by looking for all the letters in a word such as ophthalmoscopy.

You might think you need a really fast typing speed to become a writer. Well, this isn’t necessarily true. Writers spend a lot of time thinking about what to write. Then they think about the best way to write it. Then they write it, and usually spend a lot of time editing to make their sentences perfect.

Although the final editing process is slow, a writer can definitely benefit from the ability to touch type as fast as their minds can think during the initial creative process. If this sounds vague, well, it is. So here’s some advice for aspiring writers: Aim for a typing speed of 70 wpm. That way, you’ll be able to capture those wonderful thoughts in writing the moment they form in your mind.

Of course, there are countless other roles that require the ability to touch type. If you’d like to learn more about the touch typing speed and accuracy requirements for the type of job you’re interested in, simply research the job. That will provide you with the information you need to clearly define your touch typing goal.