"Touch typing" means to use a typewriter keyboard (or today, computer keyboard) without looking at the keys. The typist has a "touch" or "feel" for where all the keys are and can type more quickly by not needing visual confirmation of the keys they are striking as they type. I'm touch typing as I write this answer by the way -- I had a very good (and very fussy) keyboard instructor back in high school who drilled us over and over again in learning our keystrokes.

The practice of touch typing is sometimes credited to Frank Edward McGurrin, who was a court stenographer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and also taught typing classes. He won a typing contest held in Cincinnati in 1888 using his method. He developed his method while serving as a law office clerk in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He said of those early days of his career: "Before the end of the year 1878 I could write upwards of 90 words a minute in new matter without looking at the keyboard."

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3 years ago