My Journey to Improve my Typing: A Reflection

After reviewing these few typing websites and doing some reflecting, there is a lot that I’ve learned. 

I’m proud that I was able to create an opportunity to not only enhance my typing skill, but to also enhance my writing ability. This chance proved to be useful and successful to me. Throughout an incredibly busy school year, I got to do something I love that is a personal hobby that I strive to get better at. I went in with a vague goal in mind and came out with something I am proud of.

I am satisfied with it being my first ever blog but moving forward, there are a lot more things I want to keep in mind. The two biggest things being better preparation and consistency.

Regarding preparation, I should have planned ahead more efficiently before reviewing the websites and writing my reviews. 

The first mistake I made was not double checking. My first blog post was basically just dissing typingclub.com with old and wrong information. I only realized this after I completed all of my reviews. 

This was also an issue with some other websites I reviewed. I would make false statements based on the website that I missed because I didn’t explore the website enough. Fortunately, before editing I would check the website again, see that I was wrong,  and change what I wrote. 

To prevent this issue next time, I will make sure to double check all of my preconceptions and statements. This will prove to be useful in all of my endeavors, not just website reviews and blogs. Curiosity and exploration are key in finding and covering everything.

Something else that could have been fun to add if I had prepared more is doing more research aside from the websites I’d been reviewing. For example, how website making is done, specifically typing ones, or the effects that learning to type has on the brain and muscles. 

I could have also gotten interviews from others that had used the websites I had tried out or gotten people to try them out along with me. This would have made the series more interactive and created a sense of community with my audience.

Regarding consistency, my articles tended to be very messy and had a different layout and discussed different things every time. Even the titles, which should have been the same every time, had small changes in them every single post. 

This one actually ties in with preparation.

When I was outlining my first review, I should have come up with a set layout that I would follow every time to make sure I covered the same things for every website. For example, layout/aesthetic; ads; and speed of the website; etc. Of course there would always be things I missed out on, since every website has its quirks, but the goal isn’t perfection.

If I had spent more time brainstorming this form, the different posts would have had a familiarity that the reader could identify and expect when reading each article. Something else that would have added to the familiarity would have been just keeping the same picture for the whole series. I ended up having a hard time coming up with new ideas that I just gave up and went back to the original picture.

My final thought has to do with growth. I didn’t grow in my typing abilities as much as I wanted to  because I wasn’t very consistent with my practicing. However, I have always been slow in my progress so I am happy that I just got to practice as much as I did this school year, and experiment with different typing websites to see which fit my style best.  

After all these website reviews, here are my recommendations. 

If you are just starting out with typing and need to learn the basics with lessons, typingclub.com, typing.com, and typingtest.com would be the best for that. 

If you just want to practice or test your typing skills, monkeytype.com, keybr.com, and typingtest.com would be the best for that.

 Typingtest.com is versatile because it has both a section for lessons and tests. 

I encourage anyone who is reading to try out these websites for themselves and see which fits their typing needs best.