Why fixing a mistake mid sentence is bad, and makes you a slower typer.
By samuro - updated: 11 years, 4 months ago - 7 messages
We all know that on this site when we make a mistake, we should fix it. Well, no. We should not fix it. Basically in every other realm or instruments and using your fingers, your teachers will tell you, when you make a mistake, keep going. Why? Because if you go back and fix the mistake, you don't actually fix the problem of making the mistake. You just keep on making mistakes, and come to the habit of fixing the mistakes. They tell you to keep on going because there are other and better way to become a better typer, or a better pianist. The goal is to not make mistakes and type faster, right? Then why do you think it's harder to type faster when you continue to go back and fix your mistakes? have you noticed that you continue to make the same mistakes, and you continue to go back and fix them? I think that this is an issue a few people understand. I, for one, know that going back and fixing your mistakes is something that is very amateur and naive. It works for me not the fix them, only because i've been taught by so many other teachers in my life to never go back and fix your mistake. Why? Because you're still typing. It's not like math where you go back and fix the mistakes you've made on your problems. This is like running, continuing to type or continuing to play piano or guitar or singing. You don't stop and fix the mistake because it doesn't keep you from making them. Getting better and knowing what not to do to not make any mistakes is key. I think this website needs to change their ways of, "You have to fix the mistake underlined in red before continuing," and believe me, a lot more people would be getting better and the stats would go higher. By why do you have to fix the mistake? It's already out there, you've already made it. Going back and fixing is it like baking a cake and having to take it apart to take an ingredient that wasn't supposed to be in it out. No, when you make a mistake in the process of baking a cake, you finish the cake. Then you bake a new cake, learn from your mistakes, and you probably won't make the same mistake twice.
Discuss.
By trollfacejpeg - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
You can't compare typing to playing an instrument. Instrument is a different story because if you play live for people you cannot stop when you make a mistake hence keep going even if you make a mistake in order to train you for live performance. Usually even when performers make mistake on their instrument it is barely noticeable for the normal audience. I myself play the piano and go back to my mistakes until I perfect it or improve. When I am practicing i will always stop if i make a mistake, but of course not during a live performance. Plus I rather be a slow typer who doesn't confuse his readers with mistakes and typos than a fast typer who leaves his reader puzzled.
By afbwelter - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
I second everything that trollfacejpeg has said. But I want to add something.
In your first forum post you were saying something about people not being able to improve because of this, and this is the exact opposite of the truth. I'm improving. If you look at the profiles of people that have been here for a long while you will see that they are also improving. All of those who have averages now that are less than the averages when they started are due to the fact that the "old average" that gets put in is the average of your first races, which are always always better than the averages of the races from after you've been typing for 10-20 minutes because even though you are still focused you will notice that after a given amount of time your mind just is not as focused as it used to be. If nobody on this website was improving your point may have been proved valid but I, who only practices sparingly will, am living proof that you are wrong. I have gotten significantly better in the 3 or so weeks I have been here.
You have a point, it's just that this point is invalid in this siatuation. Should we be allowed to continue typing after we have made a mistake? When we are typing in the real world we are not going to continue typing if we notice that we have made a mistake or otherwise we will have typos littering our every word document, and this is not good at all. I think that making you go back to fix your errors is good because when you are going to be typing in the real world you will be doing this. Nobody likes reading a word doc filled with typos. Nobody.
Again, I will ask you to leave, because the reason nobody else agrees with you is because you are wrong. Go to some other website that is already like you want it to be. You, one singular person, will not be able to compel the maker of the website to say, "Wow you know what, this website I made really is shit, I should change the mechanics of it so I can appease samuro because his singular opinion is more important than everyone else's!"
10fastfingers.comGo there and leave us alone plz.
Updated 11 years, 4 months ago
By ab17068556 - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
If you are writing an essay or a program you can't just keep on typing when you make mistakes, you need to correct them.
By kuraihikari - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
Everybody here already put up the argument of real life typing. And that is a really good argument, since you come here not to just play, but to improve a skill that will get you faster trough your real work, and not spoil it for you.
Let me share an experience with you, an experience with a site that didn't make the user correct the mistake. I started playing there after starting on this site. Having a bit over 50 wpm at that moment, after 1 month of learning a new layout here, I started playing on Nitro Type. You are allowed to repair your mistakes there but you don't have to. That is because the site stops when you make a mistake and let's you go further. After playing a few days there and going up to 60 wpm I decided to come back here. Guess what? My average for the first 10 quotes was lower than before playing on Nitro. This means that my average in real life also went down. While the kind of typing tutors that tolerate mistakes will help you get better, it will not necessarily do it in a right way. It just encourages you to be less attentive while typing, which is certainly not what you want in real life.
If you still dislike this site, I suggest going to Nitro Type. It will most likely suit your taste better.
By afbwelter - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
Do you know why your WPM was slower? Because you weren't allowed to leave your typos and errors lying around all over the place, that's why. It's obvious that this is the reason why on "Nitro Type" you had a faster WPM. The thing is that you are obssessed with going faster when you should be focusing on accuracy instead of speed. Because constantly trying to type as fast as you can and really believing that 10 WPM is really worth a screen full of errors is stupid. You are losing a few seconds of time that you would lose anyway in a real life situation because you will not be allowed to just leave errors and typos on an essay and an email full of typos is annoying as well. In a real life situation you would have to eventually go back and fix all of these errors, so at some point in time you will have to go back and fix your errors, and the time that you saved skipping over your errors (which is probably a few seconds at most) for that faster WPM that is so important to you will be lost again going back and fixing them. You might as well learn to not screw up, because then you won't have to go back at any point in time. This is why ACCURACY is something that you should strive for instead of WPM, because if you are accurate and type at the same speed as someone who isn't you will have effectively typed faster than he did because he will have to go back and review his paper to fix any and all mistakes that he made while typing, while you on the other hand won't have to correct any typos or errors.
If you still think you are right I am perfectly willing to have a logical argument with you. Please, really. If you really think you are right rebuttle because I know without a doubt that you are wrong.
By user39578 - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
I agree to some extent. For instance, when at work, or typing in the real world, there's no alarm that goes off telling you that you made a boo-boo and what's more, in the real world, you're not even looking at what you're typing either -- you're looking at the source text. I think it's better just to type through till the end and go back and proofread when you're done.l
By kuraihikari - posted: 11 years, 4 months ago
What I was talking in my post was accuracy. While on Nitro Type I tended to miss and recover, resulting into higher speeds, but lower accuracy. The reason why I got slower after coming back her is exactly as you say: I wasn't allowed to leave my typos alone. I agree with everything what you have written above: anybody who will type at close to 100% accuracy will be a lot faster than a typist that makes 5 mistakes per 20 characters, even if faster than the former.
As per the statement that I am obsessed with faster WPM. Nitro Type is a racing style game. And I acted as if playing a game, without thinking about the consequences. I am not concentrating on WPM, although I have stated that I have become slower. I have become slower because my accuracy went down. But if you do not go back to your own errors, you will not be able to recover later.
The sole idea of making you go back is to make you aware of your mistakes and try to avoid them as much as possible. Some people like it, some not. It worked pretty well for me. Although there might be some truth to your words. Some people do tend to make the type-mistake-delete-retype into an automation, having themselves "wired" to make the mistake when some word comes. That is definitely wrong.
