According to a study done by Teresia Ostrach, the national average for typing words per minute among the general populations is 30-45 WPM. In the business world, this number goes up to 65-75 WPM. Taking notes in class and even sitting here typing out this paper, I was curious enough to find out my average. Growing up, typing was a skill that was enforced by my teachers and parents through an online word program called Mavis Beacon. After several tries on an online WPM test, I discovered my average WPM was 94.60 with an accuracy of 95.45%.
With this article, I would like to define what expertise means to me, some qualities of a good expert, as well as examining the past three essays we have read this semester and comparing each one to what an expert really is.
I never realized how important positive reinforcement can be when learning a new skill. The program I used was based on games. The only way to get better and beat the games was by learning how to type faster. It forced me to push beyond my comfort zone and improve my typing. This relates directly to a speech done by Joshua Foer relating to the study of how one gets better at an everyday task. Ultimately Foer's speech focuses on what makes an expert better or more qualified than the average person. There is a phase within the human consciousness at what he refers to as the OK Plateau. This is a phase where a certain skill can become mundane to the mind and we tend to not focus our attention on it once that skill becomes comfortable to us. Foer used the example of typing. There comes a point where we become so familiar with typing that we just stop getting faster because we feel we are good enough at the task. "We've all been told that practice makes perfect, right? But obviously that's not the case. At a certain point when we are learning how to type it's really sloppy and eventually we get kind of fluent at it, and then we stop improving. We reach some sort of a plateau" (Foer, Comfort Zone). For me this was an especially interesting topic. After I examined this lecture, I noticed how many of my classmates really didn't know how to type well or just didn't care. This is one of the points Foer was trying to make. What, according to Joshua Foer, makes an expert? "...there are a set of principles that are sort of generalizable that tend to be used by experts in field after field that help to explain why their practice results in them achieving this level of expertise that no one else can achieve. One thing they found was that if you want to get better at something, you cannot do it or it is hard to do it when you are in that autonomous stage. You cannot develop expertise in this stage" (Joshua Foer, Comfort Zone). You cannot stay in a comfort zone if you ever want to be an expert in a field. "One thing that experts tend to do, something that unites people across fields is that experts tend to operate outside their comfort zone and study themselves failing" (Foer, Comfort Zone). You need to learn what you do wrong before you can become better at a subject.
Typing is only one of many different avenues you could take. Do you want to become an expert at your field? Push yourself past the comfort zone. You never know what success lies around the corner until you try.
You can view the full lecture by Joshua Foer here:
