BT Help > Typing > Why > How to > Trivia

Typing Trivia:

1)      "Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

2)       The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

3)      "Dreamt" and "undreamt" are the only English words that end in the letters "mt."

4)      "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

5)      "Go" is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

6)      The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

7)      The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

8)      TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

9)      The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."

10)  There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. (Not sure)

11)  No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. (Not sure)

12)  There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

13)  Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. The proper term for upper case letters is "majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule".

14)  The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded.

Believe it or not, you can read what’s typed below:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmornatt.

Well, spelling is important for an editor. As has been shown in the above example mind perceives spelling while reading differently and many a times while editing editor tends to overlook mistakes like “form/from” which affects the quality of the transcript. Make sure you keep an eye towards spelling as well…

BT Help > Typing > Why > How to

How to Train?

The big question. Well, any transcription company worth its salt has a good typing tutor software for training purposes. The best that I have come across and used is Typing Tutor 6. I am not a techie and don’t know what’s out there, but this I have used and trained upon.

You can also download and use free software programs available on the net, but do so at your own risk.

Please note: The links provided below are not for solicitation purposes.

Typing Tutor Downloads

One good site where you can participate in online typing competition is Typeracer. This is a multiplayer typing game where you can race others by typing quotes from popular books, movies, and songs. You can also invite your friends and race with them. What more, it’s free!

Click here for some English and Typing Trivia for you!

Happy Typing!

 BT Help > Typing > Why

Typing can be basically done in two ways:

1)      Hunt & Peck Typing (Unconventional)

2)      Touch Typing (Conventional)

Hunt & Peck Typing: This typing is the typing that you do when you don’t know typing as a skill, i.e., using two or three fingers to type out. You search for each key and press it. This is very time consuming and harmful for the fingers as it could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive strain injury to your fingers. But some people like it nevertheless, as it does not require training.

Touch Typing: This typing is the typing that you do when you undergo proper training and can type without even looking at the keys. The most effective and widely used version of typing, but requires a hell lot of training. The chances of making errors is also reduced in touch typing as you look at the monitor all the time and hence can see when you make a mistake, and press the classic backspace key and correct your error.

Why Touch Typing is better?

Hunt & Peck Typing	Touch Typing
You have to look at the keyboard continuously.	You have to look at the monitor.
More instances of error.	Error identification is easy.
Very Time consuming.	Less Time consuming.
No Training Required.	Training Required.
Ergonomically Incorrect and harmful for fingers.	Ergonomically correct and less harmful for fingers.

Suppose you have a field that needs to be harvested and you have 10 people to work, what would be better using 10 people or two people for the work? What would be easy for each person, ten people working at the same time or only two of the ten working? What would be less time consuming?

10 People, right. It’s common sense. Use it, when you have it.

Now obviously the big question is how to train for that click here.

BT Help > Typing 

TRANSCRIPTION & TYPING:

Transcription can be basically divided into three steps:

1) Listening    :           Listening the audio.

2) Typing        :           Typing out what you have listened to.

3) Research    :           Researching what you have typed is right.

The most basic of which is Typing.

* Why?

The ideal TAT (Turnaround Time) for a transcriber to churn out a reasonable quality script for a one minute audio is about six minutes, and that for an editor to check it is four minutes. These minutes are divided then for doing the three basic things, (LISTENING, TYPING, and RESEARCH) and each has its own importance. But if you type faster, then you could devote more time to listen and do research as simple as that. Secondly, typing is easy to learn.

Keyboard: A Keyboard is an input device, which uses an arrangement of keys, which act as electrical switches and each press of a key typically corresponds to a single written symbol. This is the basic tool used for typing. In normal usage, the keyboard is used to type text and numbers into a word processor, text editor, or other programs. The interpretation of key presses is generally left to the software.

This is how a keyboard looks like:

Now it is curious why the keyboard has keys in such a peculiar set up, not the usual ABC... but QWERTY etc… Let’s learn why?

QWERTY keyboard: This is the most used modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computer and typewriter keyboards. It takes its name from the first six characters seen in the far left of the keyboard’s top row of letters. This design was patented by Christopher Sholes in 1874 and sold to Remington in the same year, when it first appeared in typewriters.

It’s layout arranges keys so that frequently used keys are easiest to press, which reduces muscle fatigue when typing common English. Simple, yet effective.

To learn about ways in which typing is done click here.