Typeracer: A Fun Way to Improve Your Typing Skills for Free

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

30 May 2008 11:27 AM

In my household, pretty much any chore gets turned into a game. Whether it is putting toys away or seeing how fast the dishes can be done, the competitive aspect of a game seems to give us all motivation for doing those things that aren't fun on their own. That is why when I cam across Typeracer, I knew I just had to try it.

Typeracer is a fun and free online program that helps you improve your typing skills. This is something that I desperately need. While many years of writing on a word processor has gotten me over the hunt and peck way of typing, I admit that my process needs a lot of improvement. I am mainly self-taught out of sheer desperation or perhaps just the years of crafting stories. I can type without looking at the key board, mostly, but I do this while making a lot of mistakes. My fingers fly all over the keyboard inefficiently, and my left hand probably does more of the work than it should. My pinkies or ring fingers hardly ever get involved. While this system works for me, I would love to type like a real person, or at least like an amateur typist.

The premise of Typeracer is a car that is fueled by the words that you type, including punctuation and capitalization. You can race against yourself or others that are online. At the end of the race, you will be given the number of words per minute you type, calculated by your speed and number of errors. You can move on to a new word until the old word is typed correctly. You can even save your history of races for bragging rights.

The fodder that you are given to type is quite interesting. It is mostly made up of quotes from books such as Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age by Paul Graham. There is no the "Quick brown fox..." stuff here.

Give it a try for free at: http://play.typeracer.com/

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

Related Articles:

Indiana Jones: The Legend of the Video Games

Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit

Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger