| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Poll: Do you touch-type (not looking at the keys)? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| Speed + Accuracy = money | Oct 17, 2007 |
I moonlighted as a paid-per-word medical transcriptionist (VA Hospital reports) for years. We were given premiums for production (speed + accuracy), so I eventually improved on my high school touch-typing and was timed at 120 w.p.m. (no errors) on a Selectric III (does anybody remember them?!!!). I will admit my accuracy has slid now that I just have to backspace to correct, instead of using that horrible eraser-brush/correction sheets/typex...and thank goodness people don't use carbon paper an... See more I moonlighted as a paid-per-word medical transcriptionist (VA Hospital reports) for years. We were given premiums for production (speed + accuracy), so I eventually improved on my high school touch-typing and was timed at 120 w.p.m. (no errors) on a Selectric III (does anybody remember them?!!!). I will admit my accuracy has slid now that I just have to backspace to correct, instead of using that horrible eraser-brush/correction sheets/typex...and thank goodness people don't use carbon paper anymore...
Typing paid for my college education and my husband's, and it kept the wolf from the door on more than one occasion. Touch-typing is one of the most useful and practical skills I have ever learned, and I think it should be required of every student studying in this computer-terminal age.
My kids earn "free" time on the computer by first practicing their touch-typing with the Typer Shark game. I turn a deaf ear to their complaints and tell them that they'll thank me later...
Liz ▲ Collapse
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 13:12
Member (2005)
Spanish to English
| There is no reason to have to type everything these days | Oct 17, 2007 |
I enjoy typing. I play the piano, and that seems to have transferred to my typing skills. I also took a typing course in high school and got reasonably fast. Ever since the Internet, I have looked for ways to work faster and more efficiently.
I found the software is the way to do this. On occasion, I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. However, I am wary of the misheard mistakes that can creep into my translations if I am not checking to see what the Dragon is typing.
I advoc... See more I enjoy typing. I play the piano, and that seems to have transferred to my typing skills. I also took a typing course in high school and got reasonably fast. Ever since the Internet, I have looked for ways to work faster and more efficiently.
I found the software is the way to do this. On occasion, I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. However, I am wary of the misheard mistakes that can creep into my translations if I am not checking to see what the Dragon is typing.
I advocate using software that will allow the translator to type a few letters that produce long words or whole phrases of text. Who wants to incessantly type "pursuant to article..."? Why not type something like: "pta" and then a key to expand the phrase such as the tab key or space bar.
Using a shorthand system like this means that the translator saves finger movements and also having to think about each individual letter and word. I find that with the shorthand system, I tend to view each shortcut as one unit instead of separate words.
The software I'm currently using to do this is Direct Access ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Yes, at my university... | Oct 17, 2007 |
Heike Behl, Ph.D. wrote:
What I'm also interested in is whether touch-typing or any other more "menial" skills that are very important for a translator are part of the curriculum for a degree in translation.
... there used to be compulsory typewriting courses for all first-year translation students. Those of us with languages that require a different keyboard layout had to type away on German ADLER typewriters first (one semester), take an exam and then, during the 2nd semester, start learning the ropes on old (mechanical) - in my case - Russian/Cyrillic typewriters. At the end of the 2nd semester there was another exam to be taken - Russian touch-typing. I barely passed the Russian exam (too many mistakes in too short a text...) but I have been grateful ever since - when I first started typing Russian texts on a PC back in 1994, I was really grateful that I knew the layout of the Russian keybord more or less by heart and all it took was a couple of weeks of practice and I was touch-typing away in Russian without looking at the keybord and barely a mistake.
As far as German/English is concerned, the course at university was to freshen up skills that I had already acquired during highschool. A bunch of friends and I took evening classes during the school year just for the heck of it. They were free of charge and we thought it might come in handy sometime...
Well, how right that turned out to be in my case!
Today I can type 300 characters/min in German and English and about 200 in Russian and most of the times, at least with German and English words, I notice my mistakes while typing without even looking at the screen - so I hit the backspace button without looking and type the correct characters and it happens only on rare occasions that I miss typing mistakes.
Well, happy typing!
Best,
Barbara
| | | | | I seem to be alone with my theory about CATs then! | Oct 17, 2007 |
I have got so used to Trados that I use it whenever I can, but the enormous increase in typing errors was yet another reason for hating it when I started using it. Now it is obviously not a serious problem, but I still find that moving over every sentence to close the segment tends to disturb my typing rhythm, plus using Multiterm shortcuts when available.
I'm left handed and do not play the piano - and can type roughly as fast as I can think, with 'Autocorrect' set to tidy up the w... See more I have got so used to Trados that I use it whenever I can, but the enormous increase in typing errors was yet another reason for hating it when I started using it. Now it is obviously not a serious problem, but I still find that moving over every sentence to close the segment tends to disturb my typing rhythm, plus using Multiterm shortcuts when available.
I'm left handed and do not play the piano - and can type roughly as fast as I can think, with 'Autocorrect' set to tidy up the worst typos as I go (ocmpletley, ocnstantly, comapny, teh, Demnark and amny ohters...) - I never was terribly good with my hands, so I just have to live with it.
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Let's just say that i studied it by myself and I am now capable, but when I am in a hurry, I opt to type "my way" because I type faster than when I touch-type. I guess it's a matter of habit. I hope to improve it soon.
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