Talk:Words per minute

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[edit] Contradiction in Speaking Speeds

The article reads: "Policy debaters often speak 350 to 400 words per minute, while Conversations are maintained at around 200 wpm, and although research by Ronald Carver has demonstrated that adults can listen with full comprehension at 300 wpm, even auctioneers can only speak at about 250 wpm." So policy debaters speak faster than auctioneers? This doesn't sound right. Justin Bacon 17:58, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you ever seen a national level debate round? - 75.17.149.251 (talk) 16:36, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alphanumeric entry

Is it just me, or does this sentence not make any sense?

“ In one study of average computer users, the average rate for transcription was 33 words per minute, and only 19 words per minute for transcription. ”

I would edit it, but I have no clue what it's trying to say ^^;;

-->|< Shablog 04:52, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

I was going to comment on the same thing. Can we just delete that sentence? --Antelan talk 02:37, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I read through the source cited and it looks like it's supposed to be "composition" so I've changed that. ...Not sure what the protocol for updating Wikipedia is though, I'm a newbie. 166.90.15.174 19:22, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I use 2 fingers and am per definition a hunter and pecker. Am I a superhuman, since I am able to achieve 95 WPM on your typical WPM test? 84.208.128.187 11:46, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Handwriting speed

I am trying to find out what speed of WPM is as fast or faster than handwriting. It's important for my application of word processing in my classroom. Does anyone know?

I think it depends on how fast the particular person's handwriting is. For example, someone doing a penmanship exercise painstakingly will be much slower than, say, a reporter interviewing a fast-talking person. 202.156.6.54 10:01, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
You can find some information if you search for average handwriting speed in any search engine. In particular, this paper seems very interesting. — LazyEditor (talk) 05:05, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
I believe the top speed for cursive writing is about 35 wpm. --Ross UK 21:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
I disagree; I timed myself just now and I write 37 wpm, quite legibly although far from neat. 218.186.9.3 10:16, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I am trying to find out what speed of WPM is as fast or faster than handwriting. It's important for my application of word processing in my classroom. Does anyone know?

Interesting question. I'd like to see a nice chart of the speed records (and perhaps "typical" writing speed) for
I've seem someone on the Internet claim "Cursive (longhand) is only about 10% faster than block-printing. Shorthand is a writing system that can be written from 2 times to 10 times faster than cursive." [1]
Rather than repeat this chart in all these articles, where the best article to put the complete chart? --DavidCary 05:22, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Some answers to the question "What are typical human interaction speeds for reading, listening, speaking, keying, and handwriting?" is discussed at http://www.keller.com/articles/readingspeed.html . --65.70.89.241 14:56, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Are there any standards for "acceptable" typing speeds?

Is there any standard that indicates what an acceptable typing speed is for different fields of work?

Most jobs that involve typing require 40-50 wpm, or just under one word per second. For a secretarial job this is higher. Most professional typist will go at 100 wpm or more. Zerbey 23:38, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
What's the average for primary students who regularly require typing to complete projects or homework? 202.156.6.54 10:05, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I am going to make some changes to the article based on material from studies. Your average user is only around 30wpm. An average workplace typist is 50wpm. The fact that I work in transcription and am told I am a quick typist at a max rate of 60 wpm made the numbers seem off to me (though my husband types at 70wpm as a computer programmer). --Waterspyder 20:42, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

The only studies I've found (like http://www.yorku.ca/mack/bit95.html) put the average typing speed in 30 wpm, but the article cites even 85 wpm! (record apart :) Can be this so high speed justified (with a reference) or maybe the article is wrong about typing speed and that part should be re-written? 84.88.61.48 18:05, 20 December 2006 (UTC) Fermín

I found a study here (http://www.readi.info/TypingSpeed.pdf) with 4000 samples of self proclaimed typists and the mean speed was 40 WPM. I'm don't know enough about wiki syntax to edit the main article or even tell if the statistics are any good. I hope someone takes a look at this though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.230.40.142 (talk) 22:37, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
I did wonder whether a table might be useful for this argument. Something with groupings would be nice. (herein is a very much made up list...some form of accepted/documented grouping would be nice):
  • 0-10 WPM: One finger, non-keyboard/typewriter user
  • 10-20 WPM: Ocassional user, unfamilar of the standard keyboard layout
  • 20-30 WPM: Average keyboard user
  • 30-40 WPM: Fast 2-finger typist, familiar with keyboard layout
  • 40-50 WPM: Average touch-typing speed
  • 50-70 WPM: Typing intensive user
  • 70-100 WPM: Fast touch-typing user
  • 100+ WPM: Speed-typist, exceptionally fast user

i don't mean to say the groups above are accurate, just more about the layout/grouping together to specific professions/things required for the role. I type anywhere between 85 and 100 WPM and I have no idea what group that would put me in, and to be honest I came to the article hoping to compare my speed against some form of standard (selfish I know!). ny156uk 23:40, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

That would put me in the last group...I type 125 wpm. I think your groupings are pretty accurate; I personally find them realistic. --WPholic(user)(talk) 11:18, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] world records

The article Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard#Resistance_to_change mentions "publication of the Barbara Blackburn's achievement of 212 wpm using a Dvorak keyboard in the Guinness Book of Records in 1985." The words per minute article mentions "As of 2005, Barbara Blackburn is the fastest typist in the world".

Has Barbara Blackburn continuously held the world record from 1985 to the present? Typewriter#Typing_speed_records_and_speed_contests seems to indicate there are periodical contests -- do Dvorak users generally win these contests, Sholes/QWERTY users, or something else (perhaps stenotype users )? --65.70.89.241 20:45, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] definition of wpm

The definition of a 'word' is still not clear to me. Do spaces and punctuation count as keystrokes? How many 'words' are in the sentence "One two three four five."? --Auximines 19:16, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Around 4.8. Divide the number of keystrokes by 5. That includes all punctuation, and excludes holding down the shift key.

[edit] definition of comprehension

From the article:

Comprehension speeds have been assessed at 400 wpm for full comprehension, and research has shown that speed reading at 600 wpm can achieve about 70% comprehension, and 50% comprehension at 1000 wpm.

I think it is silly to write this in an encyclopedia since comprehension is not clearly defined. Some people spend years of graduate study at some philosophy department just to comprehend a few sentences. Either delete the section entirely or replace it with a precise statement.

Personally, I would like to see more specificity as to the sample group. The average person in whichever population the researchers sampled may only be able to achieve 50% comprehension at 1000 wpm, but surely there are exceptions. I once took an online reading test and found that I read over 1000 wpm with above 90% comprehension, and while using myself as an example is obviously non-generalisable I do not believe that I am the only exception to this rule. Who exactly was sampled? More data would be nice. --WPholic(user)(talk) 05:18, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
I took a speed reading class, and by the end of the course i was generally getting about 90 % comprehension at speeds between 1500 and 2000 wpm. **Edit** also, the average for the entire class was around that speed... Guitarplayer001 (talk) 21:02, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sales pitch

From the article:

The average American adult reads prose text at 250 to 300 words per minute, and with use of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), the speeds can quickly exceed 400wpm and reach 800wpm after an hour of practice. [3]

Sound like sales pitch if you ask me. It's not sientific and worthy of mentioning in an encyclopedia just because you have a reference.

I agree that it sounds like a sales pitch, and unless it is can get another reference, it needs to be deleted. You may be surprised to learn that, unlike other encyclopedias, Wikipedia policy expressly rejects the "scientific point of view" ( Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/FAQ#Pseudoscience ). --76.209.28.72 22:51, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WPM and CPM

The unit CPM is described to be not used or at least to be exotic for type writing speeds. I'm a bit confused, since the usual unit for typing speeds in my country generally is "hits per minute", where "hit" means a pressed key, chorded key usage means one hit. This seems to correspond to CPM rather than to WPM. Reference is made to the german article for type writing ("Anschlag" means "hit"). I think CPM or something similar is the common unit for typing speeds at least in german speaking countries, maybe even in Europe. In fact, I firstly encountered WPM as being a kind of international standard in this article. Could anyone confirm this or point out my mistake? --213.183.10.41 (talk) 17:57, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Handwriting speed

It would be nice to see more specificity offered for the statement that "people" write at 31 wpm for memorised text and 22 wpm while copying. (Did I remember correctly?) Which people? How long is the text? That sort of text.

Personally my top writing speed is 40 wpm while making up text as I go. I write in a messy, semi-readable scrawl of part-cursive and part-script (mostly cursive). --WPholic(user)(talk) 11:04, 10 April 2008 (UTC)