General Audience (Elementary School students)
In this paper I will be explaining learning to use a keyboard. The most common keyboard is the “QWERTY” keyboard. First make sure that your computer is actually on because if not then the keyboard is perfectly useless. Before actually using a keyboard you must first familiarize yourself with it. By this I mean learning where all the keys, numbers, and symbols are located. After familiarizing yourself with the keyboard you may then begin practicing to use it. The first step in using a keyboard effectively is hand and finger position. Your fingers should be placed on the A S D F and the J K L ; keys. Those keys are known as the resting position on a keyboard. Getting used to this will greatly increase your typing skills, saving you a lot of time. This could be really important if you have a paper to type in a limited amount of time. Next, let’s evaluate your appropriate hand position. When typing on a keyboard your wrist or palms should not be resting against the edge of the keyboard. They should instead be hovered over the edge. This position also allows for more efficient typing as your hands are more freely allowed to move around the keyboard.
Every keyboard has special keys that everybody should be aware of. The keys include but are not limited to Delete, Backspace, Tab, Caps lock, Shift, Space, and Enter. Each one of these special keys performs a different function. The Delete key allows you to delete any key that is in front of the cursor. However you cannot delete any keys behind the cursor which is the primary function of the backspace key. These keys are critical because instead of deleting the whole word you can just erase the part you messed up on and give it a simple fix. The next special key is the Tab key. The tab key allows you to add a special indent at the beginning of a paragraph. As shown at the beginning of this paragraph. Holding the shift key down while typing capitalizes each letter that you type while holding it down simultaneously. It is important to use the shift key when you need to capitalize the first letter in a word that it is needed. The Caps lock key kind of works as the permanent shift key. Unlike the shift key you do not need to hold the caps lock key down. Just one click of this key will give you indefinite capitalization. A major key, if not the most important key on the keyboard is the space key. The space key is more than likely the most used key. The space key allows you to create sentences while typing. Words would be all conjoined together if there was no space key. The enter key on a keyboard is used for a variety of purpose. In applications such as Microsoft word it is used to jump to the next line, but on applications like google it is used to confirm a search. Learning these essentials about the keyboard will not only save you a lot of time, but it will also teach you how to use a keyboard most effectively.