We’ve all experienced that frustrating moment while working at our computer – you’re typing away confidently, your thoughts are flowing smoothly, and you don’t want to interrupt your creative process. But then, with just one quick glance at your screen, you find quite a few typing errors scattered throughout your text! When we focus more on our ideas than our typing, it’s very common to make spelling or typing mistakes.
The word you meant to type somehow came out completely different, and those typing mistakes keep reoccurring no matter how careful you try to be. Understanding the reasons behind these errors is the first step, and learning simple tactics to fix these issues will dramatically improve your writing experience and save you countless hours of editing time.
Why Do Typing Errors Happen? Understanding the Brain Behind Your Mistakes
Making typing errors is something that happens to all of us, and there are clear reasons why our brain makes these mistakes. When I first started learning proper typing skills in college, I experienced many scenarios where mistakes were bound to happen no matter how much I practiced.
Research studies suggest that as we develop our typing skills over time, our brain automatically learns where each of the keys are located on the keyboard. This process becomes part of our unconscious mind – like when you know exactly where to find each key to produce the word you’re looking to type. I probably catch myself making these mistakes often, especially when working fast, because my brain works like an autopilot function.
The way we learn this skill actually starts when we’re growing up with spelling tests and improving our vocabulary. Spelling and typing become main focuses as we practice more. Sometimes we make errors because, as Jessica Salter explained in The Telegraph article, people can “know too much” – meaning our brain moves faster than our fingers can type.
When your skills start to develop, this autopilot function kicks in, and you might be able to spot your own mistakes while typing. I dedicated time to understanding why this happens, and it’s common for everyone who uses a keyboard.
Spotting typing errors involves a complex task that our brain handles through two different systems. I came across an interesting experiment by Gordon Logan and Matthew Crump that shows how humans detect mistakes. When we’re spotting errors, we apply two groups of skills that work independently from each other. The outer loop is responsible for language and focuses on the word we want to type – it detects typing errors that appear on the screen.
The inner loop handles the correct finger and hand movements and types the information received for each specific word. According to their experiment, the inner loop operates at an unconscious level and knows when a mistake has been made, no matter what shows up on your screen. Summarized, these two loops depend on different types of feedback and handle some parts of typing independently from each other.
Essential Guide to Fixing Common Typing Errors
10 Proven Methods to Eliminate Typing Mistakes
Learn the Right Finger Placement Techniques
Your fingers need proper training to avoid mistakes. Each finger has a specific job – it should cover only a certain area of your keyboard. Think of it this way: when you teach your fingers and muscles to remember where every key sits, they’ll find the exact location without thinking.
I learned this from my first tutor – people who use correct typing methods are much less likely to mess up. Therefore, good techniques will improve your accuracy fast.
Balance Speed vs. Accuracy
Typing is all about communication. We want to type as fast as we speak to communicate everything we wish to say quickly. However, rushing makes us make more mistakes when doing our work.
Here’s my advice: choose less speed but higher accuracy. This will improve the quality of your communication much better than fast typing full of errors.
Erase the Whole Word
Here’s one powerful tip I use to avoid typos from frequently happening: erase the whole word when you mistype it. Don’t just backspace to the point where the error starts – delete everything.
This method will force you to retype the word correctly again. Hopefully, this correction gets stored in your memory for the next time you type that same word.
Smart Use of Spell Checker
Another smart tip: Utilize your spell checker but don’t solely rely on it. These checkers are great tools but don’t always find every mistyped problem. You can mistype something and it might still spell out another real word.
Turn Off Spelling Aids Sometimes
To help become less reliant on automatic spell checking, you can turn this feature off during practice. Turning off these aids will encourage you to look up any words you might be unsure about spelling.
Try spelling each word on your own first, then turn the checker back on at the end. This practice will allow you to work on your skills while you still double-check your final work.
Practice for Better Accuracy
Many tutors that help develop strong typing skills have special activities built in their lessons. These improve accuracy but also increase speed over time. These exercises create a good skill base and focus your mind to avoid the most common errors or misspellings.
Never Skip Proofreading Your Work
This seems obvious, but it is probably one of the most neglected steps before posting or sending an email, forum post, or blog article. Well, it’s often urgent to send that message right away.
However, if you have a chance to re-read or proofread your work, then allow yourself anything from one hour to a whole day. You will not only spot that random typo but also find opportunities to improve your writing style and language even further.
Read It to Yourself Out Loud
Here’s another effective way to spot typing errors: read aloud what you have written. You will literally say any existing misspellings or wrong auto-correct fixes that your eyes missed.
Alternatively, you may use a Text-to-Speech program to do this job for you so you can hear your mistakes.
Adjust Your Format Settings
This trick is more of an aid than a complete fix. However, changing the font size, font family, color, or line height can help you spot and prevent common errors. This works particularly well for catching auto-correct ones that slip through.
Challenge Yourself to Do Better
If you have a relaxed approach to typography and accuracy, you won’t mind the one or other mistake. Maybe your recipient won’t mind it too. But not always – and the chance to get your job application rejected is more than likely if it’s full of errors.
Set high standards for yourself and challenge yourself to always proofread and correct any typing errors before hitting send.
Most Commonly Misspelled and Mistyped Words
Many words in English are often misspelled. From the Oxford Dictionary’s list of the 100 most commonly misspelled words, here are common 30 examples.
| Common Mistake | Correct Spelling |
|---|---|
| recieve | receive |
| adress | address |
| beleive | believe |
| definate | definite |
| seperate | separate |
| occassion | occasion |
| accomodate | accommodate |
| recomend | recommend |
| wierd | weird |
| arguement | argument |
| calender | calendar |
| enviroment | environment |
| goverment | government |
| priviledge | privilege |
| harrass | harass |
| independant | independent |
| publically | publicly |
| tommorow | tomorrow |
| untill | until |
| vaccum | vacuum |
| writting | writing |
| acheive | achieve |
| embarass | embarrass |
| neccessary | necessary |
| occurance | occurrence |
| pronounciation | pronunciation |
| responsibile | responsible |
| succesful | successful |
| thier | their |
| accomodation | accommodation |
Table: Some Common Misspelled and Mistyped Words
Spelling Tips To Avoid Typing Errors
The rule “I before E except after C” is one of the most familiar spelling guidelines people encounter when looking for helpful tips. The Oxford Dictionary also offers an extensive collection of key spelling rules for those who want to deepen their knowledge.
Similarly, Daily Writing Tips highlights the ten most frequent typing mistakes found in business correspondence, along with their correct forms and advice on how to avoid repeating them in the future (Maddox, 2014). These include:
| Common Mistake | Correct Spelling | Memory Trick (Mnemonic) |
|---|---|---|
| recieve | receive | “i before e, except after c” → receive |
| adress | address | Think: “You need a double S to find the address.” |
| beleive | believe | “i before e, except after c” → believe |
| definate | definite | It’s finite, so spell it definite. |
| seperate | separate | A rat is in the middle → separate. |
| occassion | occasion | Only one s, but two c’s. |
| accomodate | accommodate | Think: “This hotel can accommodate with two c’s and two m’s.” |
| recomend | recommend | You recommend with two m’s. |
| wierd | weird | It breaks the rule: “weird is weird” → ei not ie. |
| arguement | argument | No e after u → just argument. |
| calender | calendar | Think of a calendar with an A at the end. |
| enviroment | environment | It has iron in it → environment. |
| goverment | government | Think: “Govern + ment” (don’t drop the n). |
| priviledge | privilege | It’s a leg to have privilege → privilege. |
| harrass | harass | Only one r, but two s’s. |
| independant | independent | Ends with -ent, not -ant. |
| publically | publicly | Drop the -al, just public + ly. |
| tommorow | tomorrow | Only one m, two r’s. |
| untill | until | Only one l at the end. |
| vaccum | vacuum | Think: “Double U” → vacuum. |
| writting | writing | Drop one t → writing. |
| acheive | achieve | “i before e, except after c” → achieve. |
| embarass | embarrass | Think: “I feel so embarrassed I need two r’s and two s’s.” |
| neccessary | necessary | One c, two s’s → necessary. |
| occurance | occurrence | Double c, double r. |
| pronounciation | pronunciation | Comes from pronounce → no extra “i”. |
| responsibile | responsible | Ends with -ible, not -ile. |
| succesful | successful | Success has two c’s and two s’s → successful. |
| thier | their | “i before e, except after th” → their. |
| accomodation | accommodation | Think: “Two C’s, two M’s” → accommodation. |
Table: Some Spelling Tips to Avoid Typing Errors
Understanding Your Most Common Typing Mistakes
After reading through our guide and reviewing the most common typing errors, you may notice patterns in your own work. There are some clear signs that help us understand why these mistakes happen so often. Words with tricky endings or double letter combinations tend to be the biggest challenge for most people.
Commonly misspelled words like “foreign” and “leisure” show up in a lot of lists because their spelling patterns don’t follow general rules. Whether we use suffixes correctly can make or break our typing accuracy, and that’s where many of us struggle the most.
By now, you have probably heard the saying “i before e, except after c.” This rule works for some English words, but actually does not apply to all words. That’s how confusing spelling can become! Rules like this one are helpful to remember, but they’re not always reliable.
Different words have different patterns, and even people with strong vocabulary will make mistakes. Eliminating these errors takes practice and patience. You need to know when to follow a general rule and when not to.
My advice is simple: overall, don’t worry if typing feels difficult at first. Even experienced writers easily get words mistyped. The English language and its spelling patterns are challenging, including for native speakers.
Continuing to practice retyping words that challenge you will help solidify them into your memory over time. In addition to regular practice, remembering key spelling rules is helpful in avoiding common typing errors. Both strategies work together to make you a better typist.
Conclusion
Fixing typing errors takes time and practice, but anyone can do it! Start with these simple tips, use our typing tools, and practice a little bit each day. Soon you’ll be typing faster and making fewer mistakes.
Remember, the goal isn’t just to type fast – it’s to type correctly. When you can type without errors, speed will come naturally.
Start practicing today with our a to z typing test game, and watch your typing skills improve!
